elow him was
the north pasture he was seeking. But swiftly he realized that the
threadlike line a little to the south must be the fence dividing the
desert from the fertile portions of the Shoe-Bar, and he even thought he
recognized the corner where the infected steer had been driven through.
With an exclamation of satisfaction he was reaching for his field-glasses
when of a sudden a strange, slowly-moving shape out in the desert caught
his attention and riveted it instantly.

For a few seconds Buck thought his eyes were playing tricks. Amazed,
incredulous, forgetting for an instant the field-glasses in his hand, he
stared blankly from under squinting lids at the incredible object that
crawled lurchingly through the shimmering, glittering desert atmosphere.

"I'm dotty!" he muttered at length. "It can't be!"

Then, remembering the glasses, he raised them hastily to his eyes and
focused them with a twist or two of practised fingers.

He was neither crazy nor mistaken. Drawn suddenly out of its blurred
obscurity by the powerful lenses, there sprang up before Buck's eyes,
sharp and clear in every detail, a big gray motor-car that moved slowly
but steadily, with many a bump and sidewise lurch, diagonally across the
cactus-sprinkled desert below him.

CHAPTER XX

CATASTROPHE

The discovery galvanized Stratton into instant, alert attention.
Motor-cars were rare in this remote range country and confined almost
solely to the sort of "flivver" which is not entirely dependent on roads.
The presence in the north pasture of this powerful gray machine, which
certainly did not belong in the neighborhood, was more than significant,
and Buck tried at once to get a view of the occupants.

In this he was not successful. There were three of them, one in the
driver's seat and two others in the tonneau. But the top prevented more
than a glimpse of the latter, while the cap and goggles of the chauffeur
left visible only a wedge of brick-red, dust-coated skin, a thin,
prominent nose and a wisp of wiry black mustache.

One thing was certain--the fellow knew his job. Under his masterly
guidance the big car plowed steadily through the clogging sand, avoiding
obstructions or surmounting them with the least possible expenditure of
power, never once stalled, and, except for a necessary slight divergence
now and then, held closely to its northwesterly course across the desert.

Buck, who had driven under the worst possible battle-