paper in his hand:

"'Replying to your inquiry about the doings at Seven Palms.
Some Indians did that job. No help needed. I can handle
this. Posse organized and we are leaving right now.--Signed,
Jack Downer, Sheriff, Cocos County.'"

"That sounds authentic," said Smithy drily. "I've met the sheriff."

"Now, if it _was_ Indians that got tanked up and came down off the
reservation, burned Seven Palms and cleaned up your camp--" began
Governor Drake.

"It wasn't!" Smithy interrupted hotly. "I told you--" He felt his
father's hand gripping firmly at his shoulder.

"Steady," said Smith, senior. "Let him talk, son."

"There's an election three months from now, J. G.," said the
Governor, "and you know they're riding me hard. Let me make one false
move--just one--anything that the opposition can use for a campaign of
ridicule, and my goose is cooked to a turn."

* * * * *

Gordon Smith shook off his father's restraining hand and took one
quick forward step. His face, even through the tan of the desert sun,
was unnaturally pale.

"Election be dammed!" he exploded. "Dean Rawson has been captured by
those red devils--he's down there, the whitest white man I ever met!
I've been to the sheriff; now I've come to you! Do you mean to tell me
there isn't any power in this state to back me up when--"

He stopped. There was a tremble in his voice he could not control.

"Good boy," said Governor Drake softly. "Now I know it's the truth.
Yes, you'll be backed up, plenty, but for the present it will be
strictly unofficial. Now pull in your horns and listen.

"You know the lay of the land. I want your help. Go out to Field
Three; there'll be a man there waiting for you. Don't call him
'Colonel'--he's also strictly unofficial to-day. The sheriff and his
posse will be there at Seven Palms inside an hour; I want you to be
there, too, about five thousand feet up.

"Tell Colonel Culver--I mean Mr. Culver--your story; tell him
everything you know. He'll be in charge of operations if we have to
send in troops; he'll give you that private and unofficial backing I
spoke of if we don't.

"Now get down there; keep your eye on the sheriff's crowd and see
everything that happens!"

But Smithy's parting remark was to his father; it was a continuation
of the subject they had been discussing before.

"You can buy at your own price," he said. "They've got rights to the
whole basin. But