ot to be fooled--mebbe so. Lake? Lake
won't come. He'll be busy. There's Jimmy; but Jimmy's got a shocking bad
memory for faces sometimes, just now, my face. I think, maybe, I could
manage Jimmy. The sheriff? That would be real awkward, I reckon. I'll
just play the sheriff isn't in the bunch and build my little bluff
according to that pleasing fancy; for if he comes along it is all off
with little Jeff!

"Now lemme see! If Gwin's working that little old mine of his--why,
he'll lie himself black in the face just for the principle of it. Mighty
interestin' talker, Gwin is. And if no one's there, I'll be there. Not
Jeff Bransford; he got away. I'll be Long--Tobe Long--working for Gwin.
Tobe Long. I apprenticed my son to a miner, and the first thing he took
was a new name!"

Far away on the side of Double Mountain he could even now see the white
triangle of the tent at Gwin's mine--the Ophir--and the gray dump
spilling down the hillside. There was no smoke to be seen. Jeff made up
his mind there was no one at the mine--which was what he devoutly
hoped--and further developed his gleeful hypothesis.

"Let's see now, Tobe. Got to study this all out. They most always leave
all their kegs full of water when they go away, so they won't have to
pack 'em up the first thing when they come back. If they did, I'm all
right. If they didn't, I'm in a hell of a fix! They'll leave 'em full,
though. Of course they did--else the kegs would all dry up and fall
down." He glanced over his shoulder. "Them fellows are ten or twelve
miles back, I reckon. They'll slow up so soon as they see I'm headed
off. I'll have time to fix things up--if only there's water in the kegs
at the mine!" He patted Alibi's head: "Now, old man, do your damnedest!
It's pretty tough on you, but your part will soon be over."

Alibi had made a poor night of it, what with doubling and twisting in
the foothills, the bitter water of a gyp spring, and the scanty grass of
a cedar thicket; but he did his plucky best. On the legal other hand, as
Jeff had prophesied, the dustmakers behind had slackened their gait when
they perceived, by the dust of Escondido trail, that their allies must
cut the quarry off. So Alibi held his own with the pursuit.

He came to the rising ground leading to the sheer base of Double
Mountain; then to the narrow Gap where the mountain had fallen asunder
in some age-old cataclysm. To the left, the dump of Ophir Mine hung on
the hillside above the p