ered boards and broken, displaced timbers. They scarcely
paused to view the ruin, but rode for the dam. There was no dam. Where
it had been, remained only a few forlorn and twisted posts between
which the muddied water whispered softly. The work had been very
complete. McHale swore into the night.

"Our own medicine! Well, watch us take it. We ain't like boys that
can't build a little thing like a dam. Which way do you reckon them
fellers went?"

"Try the old ford," said Casey. "It's all chance, anyway."

A mile downstream they came to the ford, where the river for a brief
distance had broadened and shallowed. Fresh tracks of one horse led
down to the water's edge. On the other side, where they emerged, they
were still filled with muddy water.

"That's the cuss that blowed the flume," said McHale. "He's met up with
another one or two here. They've gone on downstream, but we sure can't
trail them in this light. What do we do?"

"Ride ahead and trust to luck," said Casey. "It's all we can do."

"I guess that's so," McHale agreed. "But if we run up on 'em----"

He paused abruptly. Out of the distance came the unmistakable sound of
a blast, closely followed by a second.

"Another dam!" Casey exclaimed. "That's Oscar's, or Wyndham's. Our own
medicine, sure enough!"

"If I can put a gunsight on to one of them fellers I'll fix him so's he
won't hold medicine nohow," said McHale savagely. "No use followin' the
river. They'll quit it now, and strike for somewheres. Let's take a
chance and hike out sorter southeast. It's as good as any other way."

They struck southeast at a steady jog, angling away from the river. The
night was absolutely cloudless; the moon, near the full, bathed the
landscape in a flood of white light which threw objects into startling
relief, but intensified the shadows. Beneath it the land slumbered in a
silence broken only by the soft drumming of hoofs. But for an
occasional small band of cattle lying quietly on the slopes, it seemed
devoid of life.

They rode in silence, but with eyes and ears keenly alert. At the top
of each rise they paused to search the surrounding country. Now and
then they drew up to listen. But their watchfulness availed nothing.

"Looks like we're out o'luck," McHale observed finally.

"Looks that way," Casey admitted. "All the same, we'll keep going."

"If we happen across 'em," McHale continued, "I s'pose we round 'em
up?"

"Of course. But they may take some roun