unbroken by the gulches, which extended to the
next canyon. They made their way thither and walked slowly along,
stopping now and then to scan the mountain side or to sweep with their
eyes the visible portions of the canyons below and behind them. They
had covered more than half the distance between the two canyons when
Tom, who had been studying one particular spot far down the mountain,
exclaimed:

"Nick, there's water down there! See where the top of that pine tree
comes up above the rocks, away down there, nearly to the divide?"

"You're sure right," said Nick, looking carefully over the ground
which Tom indicated. A moment later he went on: "That's the head of
the spring in the canyon where our camp is! You can follow the course
of the gulch right along. I reckon that's where we'll find what we're
looking for!"

They turned to retrace their steps, their faces eager and alert and
their feet quickening beneath them, when through the silence came the
dull, far-away thud of a pistol shot. It was behind them and seemed to
come from the canyon toward which they had been walking. With one
glance at each other they drew their pistols and ran toward its head.
They clambered over the boulders and, with reckless leaps and swings,
let themselves down to its floor. Pausing only a moment to
reconnoiter, they hurried down the gulch, casting quick glances all
about them for the first sign of a living being. After a little they
stopped and listened intently, each holding a cocked revolver, but not
the faintest sound broke the midday stillness.

"Do you reckon it was in this canyon?" said Tom in a hoarse whisper.

"Got to be," Nick replied, poking out his lower jaw. "We've been
sniffing the trail long enough. We'll give them a bait now."

He raised his revolver to shoot into the air, but even before his
finger touched the trigger, a pistol shot resounded from down the
canyon and its echoes rolled and rumbled between the walls. An instant
later they saw the smoke curling upward and dissolving in the still,
clear air, perhaps half way toward the canyon's mouth. But they could
see no sign of man, nor of any moving thing in its vicinity. They
hurried on, cautiously watching the walls and the canyon in front of
them, and now and then turning for a quick backward glance, to guard
against attack in the rear. As they neared the point from which the
smoke had risen, they saw that one of the narrow, deep chasms in the
mountain side ope