anamint hills. The posse
trailed them at once to their first camp at the head of the valley. It
was an easy matter. It was only necessary to inquire of the cowboys and
range riders of the valley if they had seen and noted the passage of two
men, one of whom carried a bird cage.

Beyond this first camp the trail was lost, and a week was wasted in
a bootless search around the mine at Gold Gulch, whither it seemed
probable the partners had gone. Then a travelling peddler, who included
Gold Gulch in his route, brought in the news of a wonderful strike of
gold-bearing quartz some ten miles to the south on the western slope of
the range. Two men from Keeler had made a strike, the peddler had said,
and added the curious detail that one of the men had a canary bird in a
cage with him.

The posse made Cribbens's camp three days after the unaccountable
disappearance of his partner. Their man was gone, but the narrow hoof
prints of a mule, mixed with those of huge hob-nailed boots, could be
plainly followed in the sand. Here they picked up the trail and held
to it steadily till the point was reached where, instead of tending
southward it swerved abruptly to the east. The men could hardly believe
their eyes.

"It ain't reason," exclaimed the sheriff. "What in thunder is he up to?
This beats me. Cutting out into Death Valley at this time of year."

"He's heading for Gold Mountain over in the Armagosa, sure."

The men decided that this conjecture was true. It was the only inhabited
locality in that direction. A discussion began as to the further
movements of the posse.

"I don't figure on going into that alkali sink with no eight men and
horses," declared the sheriff. "One man can't carry enough water to take
him and his mount across, let alone EIGHT. No, sir. Four couldn't do
it. No, THREE couldn't. We've got to make a circuit round the valley and
come up on the other side and head him off at Gold Mountain. That's what
we got to do, and ride like hell to do it, too."

But Marcus protested with all the strength of his lungs against
abandoning the trail now that they had found it. He argued that they
were but a day and a half behind their man now. There was no possibility
of their missing the trail--as distinct in the white alkali as in snow.
They could make a dash into the valley, secure their man, and return
long before their water failed them. He, for one, would not give up the
pursuit, now that they were so close. In the h