pon
his arm against the dripping wall. It was Beasley Melford. He stood
there cowering, a dreadful terror shaking his every nerve.

The others turned stupidly in his direction, but none had thought for
his suffering. Each was hard pressed to face the terror of it all
himself; each was wondering at what moment his own limits would be
reached. Buck alone showed no sign of the nervous tension. His deep
brown eyes watched the group about him, automatically blinking with
every flash of light, and with only the slightest possible start as
the thunder crashed into his ears.

He was thinking, too--thinking hard of many things. The Padre was out
in the hills with gun and traps. Would he have anticipated the swift
rising storm and regained the shelter of the stout old fort? With the
boom of falling trees going on about them, with the fiery crackle of
the blazing light as it hit the topmost branches of the adjacent
forest, he wondered and hoped, and feared for the old man in the same
thought.

Then there were those others. The women and children in the other
huts. How were they faring? But he remembered that the married
quarters were better built than this hut had been, and he drew comfort
from the thought. And what of the Kid, and of Caesar?

More than two hours passed before any change came. The deafening peals
of thunder seemed as though they would never lessen in tone. The
night-like heavens seemed as though no sun could ever hope to
penetrate them again. And the streaming rain--was there ever such a
deluge since the old Biblical days!

Buck understood now the nature of the storm. Probably twenty years
would elapse before another cloudburst would occur again, and the
thought set him speculating upon the effect this might have upon the
lake on Devil's Hill. What might not happen? And then the creek below!
He remembered that these huts of the gold-seekers were on the
low-lying banks of the creek. What if it flooded? He stirred uneasily,
and, turning to the doorway, opened a loose fold in the blanket and
peered out.

He saw the creek in a sudden blaze of light, and in that momentary
brilliance he saw that the rushing water was rising rapidly. A grave
feeling of uneasiness stirred him and he turned back to his
companions. For once in his life he felt utterly helpless.

Another hour passed. The atmospheric heat had passed, and the men
stood shivering in the water. The chill was biting into their very
bones, but still ther