eir guns and cut
loose at random, and these hold-up people returned the compliment with
deadly effect.

"That isn't all," he continued moodily. "I stayed there till daylight,
and then gathered up their stock. All the thieves wanted of the horses
was to set the outfit afoot for the time being--a trick which bears the
earmarks of the bunch that got in their work on us. They had turned the
horses loose a mile or so away, and I found them grazing together. When
I'd brought them in I got a bite to eat and came on about my own
business.

"Up on the ridge, close by the spring I had stopped at, I came slap on
their track; the four horses had pounded a trail in the wet sod that a
kid could follow. I tore back to the paymaster's camp and begged him to
get his men mounted and we would follow it up. But he wouldn't listen to
such a thing. I don't know why, unless he had some money they had
overlooked and was afraid they might come back for another try at him.
So I went back and hit the trail alone. It led south for a while, and
then east to Sage Creek. This was day before yesterday, you _sabe_. Near
noon I found a place where they'd _cached_ two extra horses in the brush
on Sage Creek. After that their track turned straight west again, and it
was hard to follow, for the ground was drying fast. Finally I had to
quit--couldn't make out hoof-marks any more. And it was so late I had to
lie out that night. I got to Pend d' Oreille yesterday morning two or
three hours after you fellows left for the crossing."

I haven't quite got a gambler's faith in a hunch, or presentiment, or
intuitive conclusion--whatever term one chooses to apply--but from the
moment he spoke of seeing four riders on a ridge during that frolic of
the elements, a crazy idea kept persistently turning over and over in my
mind; and when Mac got that far I blurted it out for what it was worth,
prefacing it with the happenings of the trip from Walsh to Pend
d' Oreille. He listened without manifesting the interest I looked for,
tapping idly on the saddle-horn, and staring straight ahead with an odd
pucker about his mouth.

"I was just going to ask you if you all came through together," he
observed, in a casual tone. "I neglected to say that I got a pretty fair
look at those fellows. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to swear to the face
of the gentleman who rode in the lead of the four."

"You did? Was it--was my hunch right?" I demanded eagerly.

"I could turn in my sad