rs he had known Rennie the little man
had been meek and mild, apparently the last being on earth to exhibit
bloodthirsty tendencies.

"I don't want to blow anybody to pieces," he said.

"Well, you won't--unless you get to shootin' at mighty close range,"
Rennie pointed out; "and then you won't care. Take a double bar'l and a
box of goose loads, anyway."

An hour later they picked a level spot near the new flume, wrapped up in
their blankets and lit pipes. But soon Angus dozed.

"Go to sleep," said Rennie. "I'll wake you after a while."

Angus went to sleep instantly and gratefully. He woke some hours later
with Rennie's hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be light in two hours, and I'm pinchin' myself to keep awake.
You're awake for sure, are you? All right."

He settled himself in his blankets, sighed and slept like a tired dog.
Angus sat up. The night which had been bright with stars was now
overcast and a wind was blowing. He could hear it straining through the
tree tops and booming back in the hills. The creek roared and brawled
noisily. A couple of horned owls hooted at their hunting in the timber.
There were noises close at hand; the faint, intermittent gurgle of
water, little rustlings of grasses and leaves, the occasional scurry of
tiny feet, the buzz and click of insects. He had a hard job to fight off
sleep. But suddenly a sound which did not blend with the natural voices
of the night drove every bit of drowsiness out of him.

It was faint, like the clink of metal on stone. While Angus listened it
was repeated. He touched Rennie. Instantly the latter's breathing
stopped and changed.

"Somethin' doing'?"

"Listen!"

Clink, clink, clang! Down the wind came the sound.

"It's on the next sidehill," said Rennie. "Rippin' the ditch out, or
makin' a hole for a shot. She's a worse hill than this, too." He rose,
shook himself, and buckled on his belt. "We'll hold 'em up. Sneak up as
close as we can, and tell 'em to h'ist their paws."

"Suppose they don't," said Angus, slipping a couple of shells into the
breech of his gun.

"When you tell a feller to put 'em up and he don't, there's only one
thing to do; 'cause there's only one thing he's goin' to do, and you got
to beat him to it."

The ditch, leaving the sidehill with the new flume, crossed the end of a
flat and struck another sidehill. This was brushy halfway to the top,
marking the track of an old slide of many years before. But above it,
where the an