he Sergeant looked through the
window. From just beneath the sleepers that held the rails a jabbing
flight of flashes pierced the darkness, pointing along the edge of the
bank above the path leading up from Conrad's shack. A pause of only a
moment--the Indian was filling his magazine--then another burst of the
most rapid firing Mahon had ever heard from one rifle. Not a shot
replied from the trees along the bank.

Mahon was puzzled. Was a big attack forming? Did the Indian see some
threat of which those in the shack were unaware? Mahon issued sharp
orders for increased vigilance. But why shoot in that direction to
ward off concentrated attack?

The Indian's bullets continued to pour along the edge of the forest.

Mahon saw the idea. For some reason the bohunks were being driven
temporarily to cover. Something--

The moon had moved a little over the top of the dark mass of trees.
The grade was lit up. Mahon's eyes ran back and forward along the twin
bands of dimly reflecting steel.

A man leaped to the top of the grade from the other side, swayed a
little, and plunged forward toward the shack. With the moon full on
him in that first moment he loomed unnaturally huge. In a bound Mahon
reached the door and threw it open.

"Conrad!" he shouted. "Quick!"

Adrian Conrad stumbled over the doorstep, laughed, and fell to the
floor.

"'S all right," he cheered with a mad laugh. "Haven't got Adrian
Conrad yet. Easy--there, Mahon! They've chewed me up--a bit--that
rifle at the trestle--saved me." Then he fainted.

A voice that jerked Mahon erect came grimly from the grade.

"Shut that door, durn yuh! I can't keep 'em down all night."

Mahon was obeying mechanically when the Indian dashed through.

"Gor-swizzle, if he ain't the spunkiest chap I ever set eyes on. Jes'
swaggered up that path like he was out fer a walk. . . . But plumb
loco'ed! An' whistlin'! Oh, gor!"

The Sergeant leaned heavily against the table, staring into the
darkness toward the familiar voice. He knew he was dreaming again,
that haunting grief for his dead half breed friend had mastered him at
last in a moment of excitement.

A cry of alarm from Torrance's room, and a succession of rifle shots,
brought him to his senses. He hastened to investigate. Torrance had
seen several men running across the grade. One dark lump on the ground
gave proof. When he returned to the front room the Indian was still
there.

"Any spar