t stop until all the stones above the line had run
down. If so, they might plane off a wide belt of hillside and carry
the soil and broken timber into the valley. Then Jim would be forced
to dig out another line.

He gasped as he labored on, but the uproar had begun to die away when
he reached an opening in the thin forest. At sunset, straggling trees
had dotted the slope, but they had gone and, so far as he could see,
nothing but a few stumps broke the smooth surface of the hill. The
wall had vanished with the line it was meant to protect. Now and then
a big stone rolled by, but Jim did not think about the risk. He must
try to find out if much of the surface was left and if there was rock
beneath.

When he left the end of the line, small stones slipped away from his
feet and plunged down into the dark. This was ominous, since gravel is
awkward stuff to work among when it does not lie at rest. However,
with plenty of stakes and some underpinning, he might be able to build
up a new bank. By and by his foot struck something sharp and he looked
up. He had kicked the edge of a large, ragged stone, and an
indistinct, broken mass ran up the hill. The blocks had obviously come
down from the bottom of the crags and, since they had gone no farther,
the pitch was easy enough for them to lie. This would enable him to
clear a line across the mass and build a fresh bank.

Jim sat down and took out his pipe. He had lost his labor and money he
could not spare, but it was possible to run the line across the
treacherous belt, although he was half afraid to count the cost. When
he struck a match Jake came up and indistinct figures moved in the
gloom behind.

"Have you any use for us, Boss?" one asked.

"Nothing doing now," said Jim. "We'll get busy in the morning."

The man looked about and then remarked:

"Something started the blamed wall off and I guess she didn't stop
until she hit the river. It's surely bad luck!"

"It is," said Jim. "Anyhow, we took this job and are going to make
good. I don't want you and you'll probably need some sleep."

"I reckon that's so, if you mean to speed us up," the other agreed,
with a laugh, and when he went back to the others Jim lighted his pipe.

"A nasty knock, but not a knock-out," Jake remarked. "At sun-up we'll
have a better notion----"

"Oh, yes," said Jim, rather impatiently, and added: "I've been
wondering why I wakened."

"I reckon that's plain enough. The