When he got to the ranch you were gone, and
nobody could tell him where. He came over to Talapus to tell them he'd
seen Sandy. That's where I ran into him. And so, knowing that Sandy was
with McHale, I got the old man to come back with me. I wanted to be in
it if help was needed. We picked up your trail--or he did--and here we
are."

"Well, it's blamed decent of you, Farwell," said Casey. "I didn't know
that you and Sandy were such friends."

"We're not. The kid doesn't like me. I told you he pulled a gun on me
once. All the same, it was up to me this time. I'm going to marry
Sheila."

"The devil you are!" Casey exclaimed.

"You're blamed flattering," said Farwell. "You bet I'm going to marry
her."

"You're getting one of the finest girls on earth."

"I know that as well as you do," said Farwell. "Then you see how it was
up to me----"

He broke off suddenly. Rolling softly along the hills, flung back and
forth across the valley from rock wall to rock wall, repeated and
magnified a hundred times, came an echo. So distant was it that the
original sound itself was not heard; merely the reverberations of it
struck the ear. But unmistakably it was made by a far-off gun. Before
the echoes had died away others followed, until their resonance
resembled continuous thunder.

"_Hiyu_ shootum!" said Simon.

"You bet," the sheriff agreed. "I reckon the boys has got tired bein'
moved on. Or else they been jumped sudden. That shootin's all of six
miles off. Maybe more. It'll be plumb dark in no time. If there's no
more shootin' it's settled by now. If there is it's a stand-off. Either
way we have to wait till it gets light."

CHAPTER XXXI

"I been thinkin' we might as well move on a ways," said McHale. "Here's
old Simon drops in on us. Somebody else might. I don't feel right about
it. I want to git some place, like up in one o' them basins, where
strangers won't be passin' by every day."

"Well, I'll go you," Sandy agreed; "but there's an old bear that I want
first. He's got a foot as big as a fiddle; I'll bet he weighs as much
as a steer."

"What'll you do with a bear? We don't want to go packin' a green hide
about with us. The horses hate the smell of it."

"Let 'em get used to it, then," Sandy returned. "I'm starting after
that bear now. Better come along. If I don't get him I'll go
to-morrow."

But McHale refused to accompany him. He hated climbing. If he could go
on a horse that would be different. T