to
Knowles.

"That shore was a mighty close shave," commented the puncher. "But you
haven't said what the fellow looked like."

"He wore ordinary range clothes," replied Blake. "I couldn't see him
behind the rocks, and caught only a glimpse of him as he went around
the ridge. His horse was much the same build and color as Rocket."

The puncher stared at Ashton with his cold unblinking eyes. "You shore
picked out a Jim Dandy guide, Mr. Tenderfoot. According to this, it
looks mighty like he's gone and turned hawss thief. Mr. Knowles says
your Rocket hawss has vamoosed. If he's moving to Utah under your
ex-guide, it'll take some lively posse to head him. What d'you say,
Mr. Blake?"

"I think the man is apt soon to come to the end of his rope--after
dropping through a trap door," said the engineer.

Gowan looked at him between narrowed eyelids, and paused with upraised
coffee cup to reply: "A man that has shown the nerve this one has
won't let anyone get close enough to rope him."

"It will be either that or a bullet, before long," predicted Blake.
"The badman is getting to be rather out of date."

"Maybe a bullet," admitted Gowan. "Never any rope, though, for his
kind.--Guess I'll turn in. It's something of a drive over to
Stockchute and back with the wagon, and I got up early. You and Ashton
might go on watch until midnight, and turn me out for the rest of the
night."

"Very well," agreed Blake.

The puncher stretched out on his blankets under a tree, a few yards
from the tent. Ashton took the dishes down to sand-scour them at the
pool, while Blake saw that everything damageable was disposed safe
from the knife-like fangs of the coyotes.

"How about keeping watch?" asked Ashton, when he returned with the
cleansed dishes. "Shall I take first or second?"

"Neither," answered Blake. "You will need all the sleep and rest you
can get. Tomorrow may be a hard day. Turn in at once."

"If you insist," acquiesced Ashton. "I still am rather weak and
dizzy." He went to the tent and disappeared.

Blake took the lantern and strolled across to the wagon, to look at
the numerous articles brought by Gowan. He set the lantern over in the
wagon bed on top of what seemed to be a heap of empty oat sacks, while
he overhauled the load. It included three coils of rope of a hundred
feet each, a keg of railroad spikes, two dozen picket-pins, two heavy
hammers, a pick and shovel, and a crowbar.

The last three articles had not b