re you sure of that?" Bud had him in a grip that widened the boy's
eyes with something approaching fear.

"Yes sir, Mr. Birnie, I'm sure. What didn't go to Crater stayed in
camp--or was gone on some other trip. No, I'm sure!" He jerked away with
sudden indignation at Bud's disbelief. "Say! Do you think I'm bad enough
to let my sister get into trouble with the Catrockers? I know they never
got her. More'n likely it's Dave."

"Dave went up Burroback Valley," Jerry stated flatly. "Him and the boys
wasn't on this side the ridge. They had it sized up that Bud might go
from Crater straight across into Black Rim, and they rode up to catch
him as he comes back across." Jerry grinned a little. "They wanted that
money you peeled off the crowd Sunday, Bud. They was willing you should
get to Crater and cash them checks before they overhauled yuh and strung
yuh up."

"You don't suppose they'd hurt Marian if they found her with the horse?
She might have followed along to Crater--"

"She never," Eddie contradicted. And Jerry declared in the same breath,
"She'd be too much afraid of Lew. No, if they found her with the horse
they'd take him away from her and send her back on another one to do
the kitchen work," he conjectured with some contempt. "If they found YOU
without the horse--well--men have been hung on suspicion, Bud. Money's
something everybody wants, and there ain't a man in the valley but what
has figured your winnings down to the last two-bit piece. It's just a
runnin' match now to see what bunch gets to yuh first."

"Oh, the money! I'd give the whole of it to anyone that would tell me
Marian 's safe," Bud cried unguardedly in his misery. Whereat Jerry and
Ed looked at each other queerly.

CHAPTER TWENTY: "PICK YOUR FOOTING!"

The three sat irresolutely on their horses at the tunnel's end of the
Gap, staring out over the valley of the Redwater and at the mountains
beyond. Bud's face was haggard and the lines of his mouth were hard. It
was so vast a country in which to look for one little woman who had not
gone back to see Jerry's signal!

"I'll bet yuh Sis cleared out," Eddie blurted, looking at Bud eagerly,
as if he had been searching for some comforting word. "Sis has got lots
of sand. She used to call me a 'fraid cat all the time when I didn't
want to go where she did. I'll bet she just took Boise and run off with
him. She would, if she made up her mind--and I guess she'd had about as
much as she could stand,