me in driving outlaws to the river
he had employed that same ruse--showing himself casually in the
distance and working closer as they edged away until he had gained his
end.

The sun was setting when Creede and his cowboys came clattering down
the mountain from the east and spurred across the _redondo_, whooping
and yelling as they rounded up their stock. For half an hour they rode
and hollered and swore, apparently oblivious of the filigree of sheep
tracks with which the ground was stamped; then as the _remuda_ quieted
down they circled slowly around their captives, swinging their
wide-looped ropes and waiting for the grand stampede.

The dusk was beginning to gather in the low valley and the weird
evensong of the coyotes was at its height when suddenly from the north
there came a rumble, as if a storm gathered above the mountain; then
with a roar and the thunder of distant hoofs, the crashing of brush
and the nearer click of feet against the rocks a torrent of wild
horses poured over the summit of the pass and swept down into the
upper valley like an avalanche. Instantly Creede and his cowboys
scattered, spurring out on either wing to turn them fair for the box
canyon, and the tame horses, left suddenly to their own devices, stood
huddled together in the middle of the _redondo_, fascinated by the
swift approach of the outlaws. Down the middle of the broad valley
they came, flying like the wind before their pursuers; at sight of
Creede and his cowboys and the familiar hold-up herd they swerved and
slackened their pace; then as the half-circle of yelling cowmen closed
in from behind they turned and rushed straight for the box canyon,
their flint-like feet striking like whetted knives as they poured into
the rocky pass. Catching the contagion of the flight the tame horses
joined in of their own accord, and a howl of exultation went up from
the Four Peaks cowmen as they rushed in to complete the overthrow. In
one mad whirl they mingled--wild horses and tame, and wilder riders
behind; and before that irresistible onslaught Juan Alvarez and his
herders could only leap up and cling to the rocky cliffs like bats.
And the sheep! A minute after, there were no sheep. Those that were
not down were gone--scattered to the winds, lost, annihilated!

Seized by the mad contagion, the cowboys themselves joined in the
awful rout, spurring through the dark canyon like devils let loose from
hell. There was only one who kept his head a