cott shook his head doubtfully, his eyes still on those distant
specks. The prospect looked practically hopeless.

"You don't think it can be done? Well now listen. Here's my scheme,
an' I reckon it'll work. Naturally Lacy will think we'll try to get
away--make a break for it in the dark. He'll have both them banks
guarded, an' ther fellers will have orders ter shoot. He'd rather have
us dead than alive. But, to my notion, he won't expect us ter try any
getaway before midnight. Anyhow, that's how I'd figure if I was in his
place. But my idea is to pull one off on him, an' start the minute it
gets dark enough, so them lads can't see what's goin' on out yere."

"We'll fight our way through?"

"Not a fight, my son; we'll make it so softly that not a son-of-a-gun
will ever know how it happened. When they wake up we'll be twenty
miles out in the desert, an' still a goin'. Thar's a big log clinging
ter the upper end o' the rock. I saw it when I fust come over; an'
'bout an hour ago I crept back through that gully an' took a good look.
A shove will send it floatin'. An' with a good pair o' legs to steer
with, thar ain't nuthin' to stop it this side the curve, an' I don't
calculate any o' the rifle brigade will be down as fur as that--do you?"

"Not likely," and Westcott measured the distance with eyes that had
lost their despondency. "Your idea is that we drift past under cover
of the log?"

"Sure. We'll tie our guns an' cartridges on top, where they'll be out
o' water, an' keep down below ourselves. Them fellers may glimpse the
log an' blaze away, but 'tain't likely they'll have luck enough to hit
either one o' us, an' the flare will show 'em it's only a log, an'
they'll likely quit an' pass the word along. It sounds blame good ter
me, Jim; what d'ye say?"

Westcott's hand went out, and the fingers of the two men clasped
silently. There was no need for more speech; they understood each
other.

The night closed down swiftly, as it does in the West, the purple of
the hills becoming black as though by some magic. There was a heavy
cloud hanging in the Western sky, constantly sweeping higher in pledge
of a dark night. The banks of the stream became obscured, and finally
vanished altogether; while the water ceased to glimmer and turned to an
inky blackness. Lights twinkled in the distant shacks, and the front
of the Red Dog burst into illumination. The saloon was too far away
for the watchers to pick