opening hour."

Napoleon started to speak again, but glanced at Gettysburg instead. A
bluff was useless, especially with Gettysburg looking so utterly
defeated. From his tall, old partner, Napoleon looked at Dave.

"Can't we tack somewhere?" he said. "Couldn't we hold the wheel and
wait fer Van?"

Gettysburg repeated: "I wish Van was to home."

"Come on, come on," McCoppet urged, beginning to lose his patience.
"If you think you've got any rights, go to Lawrence and see. You're
trespassing here. I don't want to tell you harsh to pack your duds and
hunt another game, but you can't stay here no longer."

Gettysburg hesitated, then slowly came out of the water. He looked at
the sluices hazily.

"Just gittin' her to pay," he said. "The only easy minin' I ever done."

Napoleon, suddenly dispirited--utterly dispirited--had nothing more to
say. Slowly and in broken order the three old cronies wended towards
the cabin. Less than an hour later, with all their meager treasure in
worldly goods roped to the last of Dave's horses, they quitted the
claim, taking Algy, the Chinese cook, along. They were homeless
wanderers with no place in all the world to turn. Without Van they
were utterly lost. They expected him to come that day to the cove.
Therefore, on a desert spot, not far from the new reservation line,
taking possession of a bit of hill so poor that no one had staked it,
they made their camp in the sand and rocks, to await Van's pleasure in
returning.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN

Matt Barger, riding in the night, intent upon nothing save the chance
to deal out his vengeance to Van Buren, had camped beside the river, at
the turn where Van and Beth had skirted the bank to the regular fording
below. The convict's horse, which Beth had lost, was tethered where
the water-way had encouraged a meager growth of grass. Barger himself
had eaten a snake and returned to a narrow defile in the range, where
his ambush could be made.

To insure himself against all misadventure he rolled a mass of boulders
down the hill, to block the trail. His barrier was crude but
efficient. Neither man nor horse could have scaled it readily, and the
slopes on either side were not only well-nigh perpendicular, they were
also built of crumbling stone that broke beneath the smallest weight.
He labored doggedly, persistently, despite his half-starved condition,
and when he had finished he looked to his gun