s
into the heart of the mountains. "A nice game, too," he went on
presently. "Ever seen this place before?"

"Once," Tresler replied. Then he told the officer of his runaway ride.

Fyles listened with interest. At the conclusion he said, "Pity you
didn't tell me of this before. However, you missed the chief interest.
Look away down there in the shelter of the cliff. See--about a mile
down. Corrals enough to shepherd ten thousand head. And they are
cunningly disposed."

Tresler now became aware of a scattered array of corrals, stretching
away out into the distance, but so arranged at the foot of the
towering walls of the valley that they needed looking for closely.

Then he looked up at the ledge which had been the scene of the
disaster, and the ladder of hewn steps above, and he pointed at them.

"I wonder what's on the other side?"

"That's an easy one," replied his companion promptly. "Half-breeds."

"A settlement?"

"That's about it. You remember the Breeds cleared away from their old
settlement lately. We've never found them. Once they take to the
hills, it's like a needle in a haystack. Maybe friend Anton is in
hiding there."

"I doubt it. 'Tough' McCulloch didn't belong to them, as I told you.
He comes from over the border. No; he's getting away as fast as his
horse can carry him. And Arizona isn't far off his trail, if I'm any
judge."

Fyles's great round face was turned contemplatively on his companion.

"Well, that's for the future, anyhow," he observed, and moved to a
bush some yards away. "Let's take it easy. Money, one of my deputies,
has gone in for a wagon. I don't expect him for a couple of hours or
so. We must keep it company," he added, nodding his head in the
direction of the dead man.

They sat down and silently lit their pipes. Fyles was the first to
speak.

"Guess I've got to thank you," he said, as though that sort of thing
was quite out of his province.

Tresler shook his head. "Not me," he said. "Thank my poor mare." Then
he added, with a bitter laugh, "Why, but for the accident of his fall,
I'm not sure he wouldn't have escaped. I'm pretty weak-kneed when it
comes to dropping a man in cold blood."

The other shook his head.

"No; he wouldn't have escaped. You underestimate yourself. But even if
you had missed I had him covered with my carbine. I was watching the
whole thing down here. You see, Money and I came on behind. I don't
suppose we were more than a few minutes after