Garvin had mentioned.

Nor did the riders pass the herd in the night. Blackburn threw an extra
guard around the cattle, making the shifts shorter and more frequent;
and when daylight came a short conference among the Circle L men
disclosed the news that no riders had passed. If any riders had passed
the cowboys must have seen them, for there had been a moon, and the
basin afforded in the vicinity of the herd, was clear and unobstructed.

Enraged at the suspicious nature of the incident, Blackburn took half a
dozen cowboys and rode back, while the remainder of the trail crew sent
the herd eastward. It was late in the afternoon when Blackburn returned,
disappointed, grim, and wrathful.

"There's a bunch trailin' us, all right," he told Lawler; "about a
dozen. We seen where they'd stopped back in the canon a ways--where
Garvin said he'd seen 'em sneakin' back. We lost their tracks there, for
they merged with ours an' we couldn't make nothin' of 'em. But at the
foot of the slope we picked 'em up again. Looks like they separated.
Some of them went north an' some went south. I reckon that durin' the
night they sneaked around the edge of the basin. It's likely they're
hidin' in the timber somewhere, watchin' us. If you say the word I'll
take some of the boys an' rout 'em out. We'll find what they're up to,
damn 'em!"

"As long as they don't bother us we won't bother them," said Lawler.
"It's likely they won't bother us."

Again that night the men worked in extra shifts; and the following
morning the herd climbed out of the basin and straggled up a narrow
trail through some foothills. At noon they passed through a defile
between two mighty mountains; and when twilight came they had descended
some low hills on the other side and went to camp for the night on a big
grass level near the river they had followed for three days.

The level upon which they camped was much lower than the floor of the
big basin, for the water from the river came tumbling out of a narrow
gorge between the hills through which the herd had passed.

They were in a wild section, picturesque, rugged. There was plenty of
water; and Blackburn and Lawler both knew that there would be water
enough for the herd all the way to Red Rock. There was a section of
desert before them, which they would strike before many days; but they
would cross the desert in one day, barring delay; and there seemed to be
no reason why the long drive should not prove successful d