id Rogers, assuming leadership. "Who ever
goes will find my gun hanging up at the head of my bunk in a holster.
Bring that and the belt. There's cartridges in it."

One after another told where a weapon might be found, and two men
volunteered to return for them. It was agreed that the others were to
keep on and that after leaving the stream men were to be posted at
intervals to guide the messengers as they came up. Rogers proved
something of a general in the disposition of his little army, and
then, with Sinclair on one bank of the stream and Chloride on the
other, he plunged into the water and began an up-stream course.

"It stands to reason," he argued, "that our man didn't go down stream
unless it was for a blind. He wouldn't double back because it would
bring him out almost where he started. He will keep on up this way
until she gets too small to travel in and then will hit off somewhere
else. You other fellers keep behind."

They began a slow, painstaking course up the stream and began to fear
they had been mistaken in their surmise, when Sinclair gave a shout.
He had found the trail again, a telltale footprint with the patched
sole. It broke upward on the other side of the canyon, and now men were
posted within shouting distance of one another and left behind to
notify the two men bringing weapons which way to go. Across spots
where the trail was difficult or entirely lost, and still higher until
the timber line was passed and bare gray rocks were everywhere, the
man-hunters made their way, and another watchman was left on the
highest point. Down the other side and into the timber line again,
directed only by a broken twig, a freshly turned bowlder, or now and
then a faint suggestion of a footprint, they plunged as rapidly as
they could and then through tangled brush until suddenly they came out
to an old disused path. Unerringly they picked up the footprints
again, and now these indicated that the quarry had felt himself secure
against pursuit and made no further attempt at concealment.

"He is heading out to the east, just as you said he would," the smith
declared, as he sat down with the others to await the coming of the
messengers. They were certain now that henceforth they would travel
rapidly. They talked in low, angry voices among themselves, while
Rogers, silent and grim, sat quietly on a bowlder and smoked. A shout
from the hilltop attracted their attention and they looked up to see a
group beginning