nders down in Mexico. Exchange."

"Money Gap? That don't tell us a thing," said Jordan. "But I'll bet my
star they've gone through it all right. We ought to be not much more'n
an hour behind them."

"They're on about us getting the papers," said Plimsoll. He had not said
much on the trip so far. "Too much talk nowadays. You can't whisper in a
dugout but what the news is all over the county inside of twenty
minutes. Bourke sabes that getting the girl out of the county won't do
any good; he aims to get her out of the state and any Arizona court or
sheriff jurisdiction. He's the brains of the outfit. We've got to get
her, Jordan."

"You ain't tellin' me a thing I don't know, Jim. But there's one thing
you _can_ tell me. Is that tip you got about Dynamite a sure one?"

Plimsoll, sitting beside Jordan, flashed him a look of contempt.

"Do you think I'm chasing this girl because I'm stuck on her? One of the
party with this eastern crowd dropped into my place and talked. Showed
some samples and I had a good look at them. He happened to leave a bit
or two behind and I had them assayed. Here is where I get back the money
I put up to grubstake Casey."

Jordan gave him a grin of derision.

"You an' yore grubstake," he jeered.

Plimsoll said nothing more.

As they neared the gap, translated by Phil in the unconsciousness that
Bolsa had two meanings in Spanish, Jordan slowed up.

"No shootin' in this deal," he warned. "Come to a show-down, Bourke
won't buck the law soon's we show papers. So long's he ain't been
notified the court is makin' a ward of the girl they ain't done nothin'
wrong. But--if he resists, that's different."

"I ain't goin' to be awful anxious to start shootin'," said Phil. "They
done some pretty shootin' at the bridge that time. Sandy Bourke's a
two-handed lead flinger an' Soda-Water Sam's no slouch. Neither's
Mormon. Me, I'll be peaceable 'less it's forced on me otherwise."

They entered the split in the mesa. The cliffs shimmered in the heat,
their outlines fuzzy. Branched and pillared cactus showed in gray-green
reptilian growths. The soft earth, through which here and there the
volcanic cores of the range were thrust, seemed as if it could supply
the paint shops of a nation with almost any hue desired, ready for
mixing with oil or water. Waves of heat beat between the walls of the
cleft. The floor was fairly smooth, swept clean by occasional
cloud-bursts, save for the skeleton of a tree and anot