the despatcher; for he made no doubt that the outlaws, on
their wagon trip west, would damage in any way they might be able
railroad supplies and property along their way.

Before Bucks had climbed down very far and after he had made one or
two startling missteps, he began to consider that it was one thing to
get up a rough arete in daylight and quite another to get down one in
the darkness. The heavy clouds moving down from the north had massed
above Point of Rocks, and he heard once in a while an ominous roll of
thunder, as he slipped and slid along and bruised his hands and feet
upon the rocks.

He had with great care got about half-way down, when the pitch
darkness below him was pierced by a small flame which he took at first
for the blaze of a camp fire. In another moment he was undeceived. The
station was on fire. It was evidently the last effort of the outlaws
to wreak vengeance as they left. Bucks clambered over the rocks in
great alarm. He thought he might reach the building in time to save
it, and, forgetting the danger of being shot should his enemies remain
lying in wait, he made his way rapidly down the Point. The flames now
burst from the east window of the station, and he despaired of saving
it, but he hurried on until he heard the crack of a rifle, felt his
cap snatched from his head and fell backward against the face of the
rock. As he lost consciousness he slipped and rolled headlong down the
steep ledge.

CHAPTER XVII

How long Bucks lay in the darkness he did not know, but he woke to
consciousness with thunder crashing in his ears and a flood of rain
beating on his upturned face. When he opened his eyes he was blinded
by sheets of lightning trembling across the sky, and he turned his
face from the pelting rain until he could collect himself.

While he lay insensible from the shock of the bullet, which
providentially had only grazed his scalp, the storm had burst over the
mountains drowning everything before it. Water fell in torrents, and
the desert below him was one wide river. Water danced and swam down
the rocks and ran in broad, shallow waves over the sand, and the scene
was light as day. Thunder peals crashed one upon another like salvoes
of artillery, deafening and alarming the confused boy, and the rain
poured without ceasing. Continuing waves of lightning revealed the
railroad and station building before him and he realized that he had
fallen the rest of the way down from where