ward. Perched on "benches"
and shelves and dumps of blasted rock and fresh-heaped earth, similar
though smaller clusters of buildings dotted the lower slopes, marring
the grand outlines and sweeping curves of the great upheavals, cutting
ugly gashes in the green and swelling billows, yet eagerly sought in
the race for wealth and the greed for gold, because of the treasures
they wrested from the bowels of the everlasting hills. Afar down the
winding valley a turbid stream went frothing away to the foot-hills,
telling of labor, turmoil, and strife. Beside it twisted and turned the
railway that burrowed through the range barely five miles back of the
town, and reappeared on the westward face of the Silver Bow, clinging
dizzily to heights that looked down on rolling miles of pine, cedar,
stunted oak, and almost primeval loneliness. The mineral wealth, said
the experts, lay on the eastward side, and by thousands the miners were
there, swarming like ants all over the surface seeking their golden
gain.

[Illustration: SILVER SHIELD]

And something was surely amiss at the mines when the chimneys of as
many as six of the "plants" gave forth no smoke, when the fires were
out and the men adrift. Something had happened that called the
craftsmen from a dozen other burrows to the aid of those at the new and
lately thronging works, on that shoulder at the mouth of the gorge--the
mine of the Silver Shield. Murder most foul, said the story, had been
done in the name of the law. Armed guards of the property had shot
down, it was said, a half-score of workmen, clamoring only for their
pay and their rights. A son of the principal owner, so it was known,
had ordered his men to fire. A son of an old soldier and settler,
living in peace barely forty miles away, was one of the victims, for he
had taken sides with Long Nolan, who without rhyme or reason had been
discharged, and violently flung from the premises. There had been a
wild rush on the guard, a volley, a recoil, a rally in force, and an
outcry for vengeance. Then the guard had to shoot in earnest and
self-defence, for their lives were at stake. Some of the men had gone
to Argenta to plead with the owners, but most had remained to stir all
hands within ten miles to the support of their fellows. The miscreant
who had ordered "fire" had escaped across to Miners' Joy, only to be
dealt with by sympathizers on the Narrow Gauge; but the men who fired
and who shot to kill were trapped l