red slightly, broke, and then he
resumed. "Even when I got the hosses over to the landin' it wasn't too
late--if only some one had heerd me an' come down. I yelled an' shot.
Nobody heerd. The river was risin' fast. An' thet roar had begun to
make my hair raise. It seemed like years the time I waited there....
Then the flood came down--black an' windy an' awful. I had hell gittin'
the hosses back.

"Next mornin' two Piutes come down. They had lost mustangs up on the
rocks. All the feed on my place was gone. There wasn't nothin' to do
but try to git out. The Piutes said there wasn't no chance north--no
water--no grass--an' so I decided to go south, if we could climb over
thet last slide. Peg broke her leg there, an'--I--I had to shoot her.
But we climbed out with the rest of the bunch. I left it then to the
Piutes. We traveled five days west to head the canyons. No grass an'
only a little water, salt at thet. Blue Roan was game if ever I seen a
game hoss. Then the Piutes took to workin' in an' out an' around, not
to git out, but to find a little grazin'. I never knowed the earth was
so barren. One by one them hosses went down.... An' at last, I
couldn't--I couldn't see Blue Roan starvin'--dyin' right before my
eyes--an' I shot him, too.... An' what hurts me most now is thet I
didn't have the nerve to kill him fust off."

There was a long pause in Creech's narrative.

"Them Piutes will git paid if ever I can pay them. I'd parched myself
but for them.... We circled an' crossed them red cliffs an' then the
strip of red sand, an' worked down into the canyon. Under the wall was
a long stretch of beach--sandy--an' at the head of this we found
Bostil's boat."

"Wal,--!" burst out the profane Brackton. "Bostil's boat! ... Say,
'ain't Joel told you yet about thet boat?"

"No, Joel 'ain't said a word about the boat," replied Creech. "What
about it?"

"It was cut loose jest before the flood."

Manifestly Brackton expected this to be staggering to Creech. But he
did not even show surprise.

"There's a rider here named Slone--a wild-hoss wrangler," went on
Brackton, "an' Joel swears this Slone cut the boat loose so's he'd have
a better chance to win the race. Joel swears he tracked this feller
Slone."

For Slone the moment was fraught with many emotions, but not one of
them was fear. He did not need the sudden force of Holley's strong
hand, pushing him forward. Slone broke into the group and faced Creech.

"It's not true