o dynamite the dam first, then fire
the buildings."

"Then they're on the road here now?"

"Yes." The speaker licked his lips. "I cut along the hillside until I
got ahead of them, but it was slow going in the dark and stumbling
through the sage. They must be close at hand by this time, though I
came faster than they did. The white man said to the Mexican that they
wanted to reach the dam just at moonrise, and that will be pretty
quick now."

"Go to the bunk-house and call the men waiting there, and get a gun
yourself," Weir ordered. "The storekeeper will give you one." When the
messenger had darted out, he looked at the others. "You must take
these girls away from here, doctor, at once."

"But I don't go," Johnson snapped forth, drawing his revolver and
giving the cylinder a spin.

"I never could hit anything, and haven't had a firearm in my hand for
years, but I can try," Pollock stated. "This promises to be
interesting, very interesting."

"Very," said Weir.

For a little he stood in thought, while the others gazed at him
without speaking. His straight body seemed to gather strength and
power before their eyes, his clean-cut features to become hard and
masterful.

"Up the canyon he said they were coming, didn't he?" he remarked at
last, more to himself than to them. "Very well, so much the better.
Johnson, you and Madden take charge of the men when they come and line
them along the hillside this side of the dam. Put out all lights."
With which he strode out of the building.

They looked after him in uncertainty.

"I'm not going; you may be hurt, and need me," Mary stated, with a
stubborn note in her voice.

"Then keep out of reach--and run for town if the ruffians get into
camp," was her father's answer.

"I stay too," Janet exclaimed, resolutely.

CHAPTER XXV

NO QUARTER

The peril threatening the unfinished dam now alone engaged Steele
Weir's mind. Personal considerations did not enter into his
calculations, least of all thought of personal danger; for when he
placed himself in an undertaking whatever rested under his hand, as in
this case the irrigation company's property, became for him a trust to
attend, to direct, to guard. Even more than if it had been his own
property did he feel the obligation, for the interests concerned were
not his. But the matter went deeper than a prospective money loss; it
struck down to principles and rights--the principles of order and
industry as agains