ok a pair of heavy leather gloves. He cut these open in the palms
with his pocketknife and then tied them about the shoes on his horse's
hind feet. The dun was only shod behind.

Again he mounted, and this time he turned to the south and rode down a
long slope of lava rock. He grunted with satisfaction, as he looked
behind and saw that the leather prevented the shoes on his mount's
hind feet from leaving their mark. He was completely obliterating his
trail--leaving nothing for the posse to follow, if they should trace
him to the top of the range.

He walked his horse slowly, for the dun did not like the idea of the
leather tied to its hoofs. In less than two miles the leather was worn
through upon the hard rock, and he got down and removed the remnants.
He straightened up and looked out over the vista of the desert.

The western sky was a sea of gold. Far to southward a curl of smoke
rose upward, marking the course of a railroad and a town. Rathburn
looked long in this direction, with a dreamy, wistful light in his
eyes. Close at hand vegetation appeared upon the slopes of the hills.
His gaze darted here and there along the ridges below him, and his
parted lips and eager attitude showed unmistakably that he was
familiar with every rod of the locality in which he found himself.

Again he climbed into the saddle and turned off to the left, entering
a canyon. For better than half a mile he proceeded down this way, then
he rode eastward again, winding in and out in a network of canyons
until he came to the rock-ribbed crest of a ridge which overlooked an
oasis in the desert hills. There was green vegetation where the water
from a spring seeped into the floor of the canyon below him. The spring
was nothing more than a huge cup in the rock which had caught the
water from the spring rains and filled. Above the spring was a small
cabin, and Rathburn saw that the cabin door was open.

Hurriedly he rode down a trail to the right which circled around into
the canyon from its lower end. As he galloped toward the spring, a
figure appeared in the doorway of the cabin. Rathburn waved an arm and
dismounted at the spring. He led his horse to drink, as the man came
walking toward him from the cabin. He compelled the dun to drink
slowly; first a swallow, now two, then a few more; finally he drew the
horse away from the water.

"You can have some more a little later," he said cheerfully. "Hello,
Joe Price!"

The man walked up to hi