n and over, but he'd gone. Found
where his horse had been standin' on top of the hill."

"You couldn't tell who it was?"

"No. I don't think he seen me. But whoever it was, was sizin' up the
flume. I'm goin' to take my blankets and camp alongside it for some
nights."

"So will I," Angus said. "If I can find out who is doing this, Dave, I
will handle them myself. I will not bother about the law."

A little spark lit in Dave Rennie's mild, blue eyes.

"Sure; best way," he agreed. "Things was a darn sight better and safer
and less skunks and sharks when every gent packed his own law below his
belt. Law don't give you no action when you want it. Well, let's get
organized."

Angus had told Jean nothing of his suspicions as to the destruction of
the flume. But now it was necessary. She listened, wide-eyed.

"But who would do it, Angus?"

"If I knew," he replied, "I would be hunting him now."

Jean looked at her big, swarthy brother, noting the grim line of his
mouth, the smouldering anger in his eyes.

"Don't get into any trouble, Angus."

"It will be somebody else that will get into trouble if I find him."

"But if you can avoid--"

"I will avoid nothing," he told her sharply. "Let others do that. I have
never injured a man in my life, of my own will, and nobody shall injure
me and get away with it."

Going into Rennie's room he saw his blankets on the floor ready for
rolling. On them reposed a worn gun-belt with two holsters, from each of
which protruded an ivory butt. Angus stared at this artillery, which he
had never seen before.

"Sure, take a look at 'em," Dave said, interpreting his gaze. "I ain't
wore 'em for so long they feel funny now. Time was, though, when they
felt natural as front teeth."

Angus drew the guns. They were ivory-handled, forty-one calibre, heavy,
long-barreled, single-action weapons of an old frontier model. Though
they had evidently seen much service, they were spotless. The pull, when
Angus tried it, was astonishingly quick and smooth, and in his hands
they fitted and balanced perfectly.

"Them guns," said Dave, "pretty near shoot themselves if a feller
savvies a gun at all. A feller give 'em to me a long time ago."

"Some present," Angus commented.

"Well, he hadn't no more use for 'em," Dave explained. "Tell you about
it some time. What gun you takin'?"

"I don't know."

"Take a shotgun with buck. That's the best thing at night."

Angus stared at him. In all the yea