d taught him how to read sign and
how to throw a rope. They had ridden out a blizzard together, and the
old-timer had cared for him like a father. The boy had repaid him with
a warm, ingenuous affection, an engaging sweetness of outward respect.
A certain fineness in the eager face had lingered as an inheritance from
his clean youth. No playful pup could have been more friendly. Now Buck
shook hands with a grim-faced man, one a thousand years old in bitter
experience. The eyes let no warmth escape. In the younger man's
consciousness rose the memory of a hundred kindnesses flowing from Buck
to him. Yet he could not let himself go. It was as though the prison
chill had encased his heart in ice which held his impulses fast.

After dusk had fallen they made their preparations. The three men slipped
away from the bunkhouse into the chaparral. Bob carried a bulging
gunnysack, Dave a lantern, a pick, a drill, and a hammer. None of them
talked till they had reached the entrance to the canon.

"We'd better get busy before it's too dark," Bob said. "We picked this
spot, Buck. Suit you?"

Byington had been a hard-rock Colorado miner in his youth. He examined
the dam and came back to the place chosen. After taking off his coat he
picked up the hammer. "Le's start. The sooner the quicker."

Dave soaked the gunnysack in water and folded it over the top of the
drill to deaden the sound. Buck wielded the hammer and Bob held the
drill.

After it grew dark they worked by the light of the lantern. Dave and Bob
relieved Buck at the hammer. They drilled two holes, put in the dynamite
charges, tamped them down, and filled in again the holes. The
nitroglycerine, too, was prepared and set for explosion.

Hart straightened stiffly and looked at his watch. "Time to move back to
camp, Dave. Business may get brisk soon now. Maybe Dug may get in a hurry
and start things earlier than he intended."

"Don't miss my signal, Buck. Two shots, one right after another," said
Dave.

"I'll promise you to send back two shots a heap louder. You sure won't
miss 'em," answered Buck with a grin.

The younger men left him at the dam and went back down the trail to their
camp.

"No report yet from the lads watchin' the arroyo. I expect Dug's waitin'
till he thinks we're all asleep except the night tower," whispered the
man who had been left in charge by Hart.

"Dave, you better relieve the boys at the arroyo," suggested Bob.
"Fireworks soon now, I exp