appy, him and this Jeff
Bransford is purty good friends. I reckon Pappy won't much like it to
furnish grub for you while you're puttin' the kibosh on Jeff. You better
get some of your own. You see how it is, don't you? 'Tain't like it was
my chuck."

Stone came while they saddled. He spoke apart with Griffith as to Mr.
Long, and a certain favor he bore to the escaped bank-robber; but
Griffith, admitting his own self-deception in that line, outlined the
history of the past unhappy night. Stone, who had suffered only a slight
misgiving, was fully satisfied.

As Steele started for the railroad Mr. Stone set out to complete the
circuit of Double Mountain, in the which he found no runaway tracks. And
Griffith and Long, sleeping alternately--especially Griffith--kept
faithful ward over the gloomy gate of Double Mountain.

CHAPTER XIV

FLIGHT

"Keep away from that wheelbarrow--what the hell do you know
about machinery?"--ELBERT HUBBARD.[B]

[Footnote B: It is not intimated that Mr. Hubbard wrote this--merely
that he printed it.--AUTHOR.]

Just after dark a horseman with a led horse came jogging round the
mountain on the trail from Escondido. On the led horse was a pack bound
rather slouchily, not to a packsaddle, but to an old riding saddle. The
horses were unwilling to enter the circle of firelight, so the rider
drew rein just beyond--a slender and boyish rider, with a flopping
wide-brimmed hat too large for him.

"Oh, look who's here!" said Tobe, as one who greets an unexpected
friend.

"Hello, Tobe! Here's your food, grub, chuck and provisions! Got your
outlaw yet? Them other fellows will be out along toward midnight." He
went on without waiting for an answer: "Put me on your payroll. Pappy
said I was to go to work--and if you was going to quit work to hunt down
his friend you'd better quit for good. Lead on to your little old mine.
I don't know where it is, even."

"I'll go up and unpack, Rex," said Tobe; "but, of course, I'm not going
to lose my part of that five thousand. Pappy's foolish. He's gettin'
old. I'll be back after a while and bring down the papers."

Chatting of the trapped outlaw, the Ophir men climbed the zigzag to the
mine. To Griffith, their voices dwindled to an indistinct murmur; a
light glowed through the tent on the dump.

The stranger pressed into Jeff's hand something small and hard--the
little eohippus. "Here's your little old token. Pappy caught on at once
and he