Ballard," he said, quite heartily, for him; "you
mustn't leave me out that way. At the worst, you may be sure that I
stand for law and order. I have heard something of this fight between
your company and the colonel, and while I can't pretend to pass upon the
merits of it, I don't propose to go to bed and let you stand guard over
me."

"All right, and thank you," laughed Ballard; and together they went out
to help Fitzpatrick with his preliminaries for the camp defence.

This was between eight and nine o'clock; and by ten the stock was
corralled within the line of shacks and tents, a cordon of watchers had
been stretched around the camp, and the greater number of Fitzpatrick's
men were asleep in the bunk tents and shanties.

The first change of sentries was made at midnight, and Ballard and
Bigelow both walked the rounds with Fitzpatrick. Peace and quietness
reigned supreme. The stillness of the beautiful summer night was
undisturbed, and the roundsmen found a good half of the sentinels asleep
at their posts. Ballard was disposed to make light of Fitzpatrick's
fears, and the contractor took it rather hard.

"I know 'tis all hearsay with you, yet, Mr. Ballard; you haven't been up
against it," he protested, when the three of them were back at the
camp-fire which was burning in front of the commissary. "But if you had
been scrapping with these devils for the better part of two years, as we
have----"

The interruption was a sudden quaking tremor of earth and atmosphere
followed by a succession of shocks like the quick firing of a battleship
squadron. A sucking draught of wind swept through the camp, and the fire
leaped up as from the blast of an underground bellows. Instantly the
open spaces of the headquarters were alive with men tumbling from their
bunks; and into the thick of the confusion rushed the lately posted
sentries.

For a few minutes the turmoil threatened to become a panic, but
Fitzpatrick and a handful of the cooler-headed gang bosses got it under,
the more easily since there was no attack to follow the explosions. Then
came a cautious reconnaissance in force down the line of the canal in
the direction of the earthquake, and a short quarter of a mile below the
camp the scouting detachment reached the scene of destruction.

The raiders had chosen their ground carefully. At a point where the
canal cutting passed through the shoulder of a hill they had planted
charges of dynamite deep in the clay of the u