272

XXII CHURCH-GOING CLOTHES 283

HIDDEN GOLD

CHAPTER I

THE COMING OF THE SHEEP

From his seat on the top of a high ridge, Gordon Wade looked into the
bowl-shaped valley beneath him, with an expression of amazement on his
sun-burned face. Pouring through a narrow opening in the environing
hills, and immediately spreading fan-like over the grass of the valley,
were sheep; hundreds, thousands of them. Even where he sat, a good
quarter mile above them, the air was rank with the peculiar smell of the
animals he detested, and their ceaseless "Ba-a-a, ba-a-a, ba-a-a,"
sounded like the roar of surf on a distant coast. Driven frantic by the
appetizing smell of the sweet bunch-grass, the like of which they had
not seen in months, the sheep poured through the gap like a torrent of
dirty, yellow water; urged on from the rear and sides by barking dogs
and shouting herders.

Straightening his six feet of bone and muscle, the cattleman stood up
and stepped to the extreme edge of the rim-rock, with hardened
countenance and gleaming eyes. A herder saw him standing there, in open
silhouette against the sky line, and with many wild gesticulations
pointed him out to his companions. With a quick motion, Wade half
raised his rifle from the crook of his arm toward his shoulder, and then
snorted grimly as the herders scrambled for shelter. "Coyotes!" he
muttered, reflecting that constant association with the beasts that such
men tended, seemed to make cowards of them all.

With an ominous shake of his head, he went back on the ridge to his
waiting horse, eager to bear word of the invasion to Santry, his ranch
foreman and closest friend. Thrusting the short-barreled rifle into its
scabbard beneath the stirrup leather, he mounted and rode rapidly away.

Dusk was gathering as he pushed his way through the willows which
fringed Piah Creek and came out into the clearing which held his ranch
buildings. Nestling against the foot of a high bluff with the clear
waters of the creek sparkling a scant fifty yards from the door, the log
ranch house remained hidden until one was almost upon it. To the left,
at the foot of a long slope, the corrals and out-buildings were
situated, while beyond them a range of snow-capped mountains rose in
majestic grandeur. Back of the house, at the top of the bluff, a broad
tableland extended for miles; this, with Crawling Water Valley,
comprising