nd the trail. They had evidently
sought shelter from the storm a few seconds after the girl had
gained her position. In the wild uproar she had not heard them,
and, as they crouched under the cliff, they were hidden by a
projection of the rock, though now and then, when the lightning
flashed, she could see a part of one of the horses. They might be
neighbors and friends. They might be strangers, outlaws even. The
young woman was too wise to move until she was sure.

The first voice spoke again. "Jack got off in good time, did he?"

"Got a good start," replied the other. "He ought to be back with
the posse by ten at the latest. I told him we would meet them at
nine where this trail comes into the big road."

"And how far do you say it is to Jim Lane's place, by the road and
the Old Trail?" asked the first voice.

At the man's words a terrible fear gripped Sammy's heart. "POSSE,"
that could mean only one thing,--officers of the law. But her
father's name and her home--in an instant Jim's strange
companionship with Wash Gibbs, their long mysterious rides
together, her father's agitation that morning, when he said good-
by, with a thousand other things rushed through her mind. What
terrible thing was this that she had happened upon in the night?
What horrible trap had they set for her Daddy, her Daddy Jim? For
trap it was. It could be nothing else. At any risk she must hear
more. She had already lost the other man's reply. Calming herself,
the girl listened eagerly for the next word.

A match cracked. The light flared out, and a whiff of tobacco
smoke came curling around the rock, as one of the men said: "Are
you sure there is no mistake about their meeting at Lane's to-
night?"

"Can't possibly be," came the answer. "I was lying in the brush,
right by the gate when the messenger got there, and I heard Jim
give the order myself. Take it all the way through, unless we make
a slip to-night, it will be one of the prettiest cases I ever
saw."

"Yes," said the other; "but you mustn't forget that it all hinges
on whether or not that bank watchman was right in thinking he
recognized Wash Gibbs."

"The man couldn't be mistaken there," returned the other. "There
is not another man in the country the size of Gibbs, except the
two Matthews's, and of course they're out of the question. Then,
look! Jim Lane was ready to move out because of the drought, when
all at once, after being away several days the very time of the
rob