ted his shoulder-blades and denoted the
height to which his nether garment had been hoisted.

Out in the bad lands a troop of horsemen moved slowly forward, detached
bodies scouring the innumerable hogbacks for signs of their prey. There
were a few more than a hundred in this body, and it represented the pick
of ten ranches. At the head of it rode a stolid, heavy-faced man, who
appeared as though he were in constant need of a shave, and whose features
just now were drawn down into a scowl of thought and perplexity.

This man's body remained quite motionless as his horse plodded on with
hanging head, but his small black eyes darted from side to side
ceaselessly.

It was in one of these quick glances that he experienced a blinding flash
upon his retina. A second later it occurred again, and then a third time.
Suspiciously the man drew his horse to a stand, and those behind him did
likewise.

Stelton thought for a moment that there must have been an outbreak from
the near-by Wind River or Shoshone Reservation, and that the Indians were
heliographing to one another. Presently, in an open space between the
edges of two buttes he caught the flash close to the ground.

It probably was a tin can left by a herder--they often flashed that
way--but he would prove it before he went on. He took from their case the
pair of field-glasses that swung from his shoulder and raised them to his
eyes.

What he saw caused him to swear excitedly and order the company to back
out of sight.

At the same instant Jimmie Welsh, holding a straight flush, looked up
triumphantly at Billy Speaker who had just raised him. He looked over
Billy's shoulder and the smile froze on his face. He continued to look,
and the cards dropped one by one out of his hand. Then his face became
stern and he jumped to his feet.

"No more of this," he ordered. "We're discovered. You fellows get back out
of sight," he added to the cowmen. "Here, Harry, Bill, Chuck, search
these fellers again an' see they ain't got nothin' in their shoes."

"What ails yuh, Jimmie? Are yuh locoed?" asked a man who had not
understood the sudden change in Welsh.

"I plenty wish I was," came the reply, "but I ain't. We've been
discovered, an' we've got to fight. I don't know how many there was in the
other party, but I 'low we ain't in it noways. Red an' Plug, you take yore
horses round the butte to where the others are tethered, an' help Jimmie
and Newt bring in them casks o' water.