me on," said another. "We'll get him."

"Someone get a rope." The men spoke in low, ordinary tones--they
appeared unexcited. Determination was the most apparent characteristic
of the group. One of them ran back toward the bunkhouse for his rope.
The others walked slowly in the direction of the rear of the office
building. Grayson was not there. The search proceeded. The Americans
were in advance. The Mexicans kept in a group by themselves a little in
rear of the others--it was not their trouble. If the gringos wanted to
lynch another gringo, well and good--that was the gringos' business.
They would keep out of it, and they did.

Down past the bunkhouse and the cookhouse to the stables the searchers
made their way. Grayson could not be found. In the stables one of the
men made a discovery--the foreman's saddle had vanished. Out in the
corrals they went. One of the men laughed--the bars were down and the
saddle horses gone. Eddie Shorter presently pointed out across the
pasture and the river to the skyline of the low bluffs beyond. The
others looked. A horseman was just visible urging his mount upward to
the crest, the two stood in silhouette against the morning sky pink with
the new sun.

"That's him," said Eddie.

"Let him go," said Billy Byrne. "He won't never come back and he ain't
worth chasin'. Not while we got Miss Barbara to look after. My horse
is down there with yours. I'm goin' down to get him. Will you come,
Shorter? I may need help--I ain't much with a rope yet."

He started off without waiting for a reply, and all the Americans
followed. Together they circled the horses and drove them back to the
corral. When Billy had saddled and mounted he saw that the others had
done likewise.

"We're goin' with you," said one of the men. "Miss Barbara b'longs to
us."

Billy nodded and moved off in the direction of the ranchhouse. Here he
dismounted and with Eddie Shorter and Mr. Harding commenced circling
the house in search of some manner of clue to the direction taken by
the abductors. It was not long before they came upon the spot where the
Indians' horses had stood the night before. From there the trail led
plainly down toward the river. In a moment ten Americans were following
it, after Mr. Harding had supplied Billy Byrne with a carbine, another
six-shooter, and ammunition.

Through the river and the cut in the barbed-wire fence, then up the face
of the bluff and out across the low mesa beyond the trail l