taken every
possible precaution. Of course, ditches might be cut at any time; short
of a constant patrol there was no way of preventing that. But this
coulee was a thing which any man with eyes in his head and a brain back
of them might have seen and thought of. And he had allowed this costly
bit of fluming to lie open to destruction when it was the very key to
the situation, so far as the ranchers were concerned!

His instructions had been to take the water to bring them to a properly
humble frame of mind. It was part of his job to protect his employers'
property; that was what he was there for. He had taken ordinary
precautions, too, so far as the dam was concerned. But he had entirely
overlooked the fact, as obvious as that water runs downhill, that if
his canal were cut at the coulee its contents must flow back into the
river. Everything was now set back. With this second outrage land sales
would stop altogether. It was a sickening jolt. He thought of the
questions he would have to answer. He would be asked why he hadn't done
this. It would be no answer to point out that he had done that. People
were always so cursed wise after the event!

And then he remembered Casey Dunne's words. Dunne had said that he was
not getting enough water, had asked for more, had practically given him
warning. Now every rancher's ditches were running full, and all he had
to show for his work was a horrible mass of wreckage.

Farwell had disliked Dunne at first sight; now he hated him. He would
have liked to come to actual grips with him, to break that lean, wiry
body with his own tremendous strength, to bruise and batter that
quietly mocking face with his great fists.

But the worst of it all was that he had nothing to go on. There was not
a shred of evidence to connect Dunne with the destruction of the dam
and flume. The detective sent down by the company had looked wise but
had found out nothing. The only thing in the nature of a clew was a
moccasin track, and that led to young McCrae, whom, for Sheila's sake,
he did not wish to involve. He felt that through no fault of his own he
had made a mess of everything. The ranchers had won every round. As
Africa had been the grave of countless military reputations, so Farwell
saw his own repute interred along the Coldstream.

Something had to be done. He was tired of taking unavailing
precautions, of sitting passively waiting for attacks. In the nature of
things it was impossible to guard