ect."

Sanders crept through the heavy chaparral to the liveoaks above the
arroyo, snaking his way among cactus and mesquite over the sand. A
watcher jumped up at his approach. Dave raised his hand and moved it
above his head from right to left. The guard disappeared in the darkness
toward the Jackpot. Presently his companion followed him. Dave was left
alone.

It seemed to him that the multitudinous small voices of the night had
never been more active. A faint trickle of water came up from the bed of
the stream. He knew this was caused by leakage from the reservoir in the
gulch. A tiny rustle stirred the dry grass close to his hand. His peering
into the thick brush did not avail to tell him what form of animal life
was palpitating there. Far away a mocking-bird throbbed out a note or
two, grew quiet, and again became tunefully clamorous. A night owl
hooted. The sound of a soft footfall rolling a pebble brought him to taut
alertness. Eyes and ears became automatic detectives keyed to finest
service.

A twig snapped in the arroyo. Indistinctly movements of blurred masses
were visible. The figure of a man detached itself from the gloom and
crept along the sandy wash. A second and a third took shape. The dry
bed became filled with vague motion. Sanders waited no longer. He crawled
back from the lip of the ravine a dozen yards, drew his revolver, and
fired twice.

His guess had been that the attacking party, startled at the shots, would
hesitate and draw together for a whispered conference. This was exactly
what occurred.

An explosion tore to shreds the stillness of the night. Before the first
had died away a second one boomed out. Dave heard a shower of falling
rock and concrete. He heard, too, a roar growing every moment in volume.
It swept down the walled gorge like a railroad train making up lost time.

Sanders stepped forward. The gully, lately a wash of dry sand and baked
adobe, was full of a fury of rushing water. Above the noise of it he
caught the echo of a despairing scream. Swiftly he ran, dodging among the
catclaw and the prickly pear like a half-back carrying the ball through
a broken field. His objective was the place where the arroyo opened to
a draw. At this precise spot Steelman had located his derrick.

The tower no longer tapered gauntly to the sky. The rush of waters
released from the dam had swept it from its foundation, torn apart the
timbers, and scattered them far and wide. With it had gone