scared, because I'll be right there,
not far from the gate."

He stepped out, rifle in hand. The two women sat alone, shivering in
nervous terror, starting at every little sound.

They sat they knew not how long, before the clear air of the moonlight
night was rent by sharp sounds. A single piercing shot echoed close at
hand; scattering shots sounded farther up the lane; then many shots;
and then came the sound of a car passing rapidly on the distant highway.

CHAPTER XXVIII

A CHANGE OF BASE

The roan horse which Sim Gage rode was in no downcast frame of mind,
but he himself, engrossed with his errand, did not at first notice that
it was the same half wild animal with which he had had combat at an
earlier time. He fought it for half an hour or more down a half dozen
miles of the road, but at length the brute made matters worse by
picking up a stone, and going dead lame, so that any great speed was
out of the question.

Night was falling now across the winding trail which passed along the
valley lands and over the shoulders of the mountains. It was wild
country even yet, but beautiful as it lay in the light of the fading
day. Sim Gage had no time to note the play of light or shadow on the
hills. He rode. It was past midnight when he swung off his now meek
and wet-sided horse, cast down the bridle rein, and went in search of
Doctor Barnes.

The latter met his caller with the point of an electric torch at the
door.

"Oh, it's you, Gage?" said he. "Come in."

Sim Gage entered and seated himself, his hurt leg stiffly before him on
the floor. Briefly as he could, he told the reason of his errand and
the reason for his delay.

"Leave your horse here," said Doctor Barnes, already preparing for his
journey. "We'll take my car."

A half hour later the two were again en route. The head light of the
car, swinging from side to side around the steep and unprotected curves
of the mountain slopes, showed the rude passageway, in places risky
enough at that hour and that speed. At that latitude the summer nights
are short, and their journey was unfinished when the gray dawn began to
turn to pink upon the mountain tops. In the clearer light Doctor
Barnes saw something which caused him to pull up.

"There's the wire break," he exclaimed. "Look here."

They both left the car and approached the nearest pole. It bore the
fresh marks of a linesman's climbing irons. "Professional work. And
that's a cut