bone-field. They've made another plesio-something find, and Haworth
telephones that the professor couldn't be dragged away with a derrick
until those bones are safely out of the ground and boxed for shipment."

The professor's host smiled indulgently, saying: "It's just as well, I
reckon. The professor's about as blind as a bat when it comes to seeing
anything this side of a million years ago, but if he were here he might
wonder why we've set up a telegraph-office--wonder, and talk about it."

The young man in his shirt-sleeves was turning to go. "I'll hustle
Crowell on those notes," he promised: but as he was reaching for the
door-knob the senator stopped him.

"Hold on a minute, Fred; how is that contrivance of ours at the mouth of
Shonoho working?"

"It's working all right. Canby is on watch there now, and he says he can
see everything that passes on both roads."

"That's good. These little precautions are mighty necessary in a close
fight. Those folks over at Shonoho Inn ought to have thought of this
outer-guard business for themselves, but it seems they didn't. They'd be
right awkwardly embarrassed if some fellow they don't want to see should
slip in on 'em without notice. While I think of it, don't fail to keep
me posted on what Canby sees after I go back to town. He thinks he's
safe, does he?"

"Perfectly. Nobody can see his dugout from the road, and his oil-heater
doesn't make any smoke. That scheme of laying insulated wires on the
ground works like a charm. You could walk all over them without noticing
them." The young man was opening the door as he spoke, and he broke off
suddenly to say: "That's his call ringing now. Would you like to come
and talk to him?"

"No; you can tell me what he says, if it's worth telling."

The clerk disappeared into the room of the tapping noises, but he was
back again almost immediately.

"It was Canby," he said hurriedly. "He says two men on horseback have
just dragged a good-sized pine-tree down the Shonoho road and are
placing it across the county road. He can't see the men's faces very
well, but he thinks the bigger of the two is Jack Barto."

It was the senator's boast that he had never lost a tooth or had one
filled, and his smile showed the double row, strong and evenly matched,
under the drooping grayish mustaches.

"That boy Canby is a mighty good guesser, Fred. I shouldn't be surprised
if the fellow he has spotted _is_ Jack Barto, sure enough. If you didn't