the cliff had
been nearly filled by a titanic boulder. To one side appeared a narrow
opening, unseen from below by the curve of the great rock, just wide
enough to admit horse and rider. A few feet in, they halted, and
Plimsoll turned in his saddle while the other three men dismounted and
carefully adjusted several rock fragments in the opening, piling them
with a swift care that showed familiarity with their task, so placing
them that they appeared as if a part of the wall. Butch clambered to the
top of the great boulder and viewed the job from the outside.

"First-class," he announced. "That's sure a great scheme, Plim."

"Go on up to the tree and take a look," said Plimsoll. "Hahn, hand him
my glasses."

Parson took them and climbed up to where a dead tree stood like a
skeleton in a crotch of the rocks. It screened him from observation
perfectly by outer approach.

"I can see Keith's kid," he said with a chuckle when he came down. "He's
through the creek and he don't know which way to start. Looks as if he
meant to follow down the creek."

"He'll not go far that way," commented Plimsoll. "Mount up. Cookie's
getting grub and I'm getting hungry. He'll have to cook for the boys
after we're through. They'll be showing up after a bit."

Below them, Molly saw the hidden park that lay so snugly back of the
barrier walls. It was an irregular oval that appeared to curve at the
far end. Gulches reached back, occasionally thick with timber that grew
in clumps among the rocks and on the ledges, dotting the green grass of
the floor. She caught the sparkle of a little cascade, the gleam of a
streamlet. The cliffs were terraced and battlemented in red and white
and gray. Their facades showed fantasies of weather sculpture that
looked like ruined castles and cathedrals with cave mouths for
entrances. Here and there a monolith of stone stood up out from the main
cliff, spiring for a hundred feet or more. The grass was starred with
flowers. Some horses were grazing a little distance away and stood at
gaze, to break and wheel and gallop away with flying manes and tails.
There was a good deal of underbush covering the talus.

The trail down was plainly marked. It forked after they reached the
general level and the branch they took led into a side gulch where a log
cabin stood, smoke coming from its chimney. Plimsoll took the rein of
Blaze again and they broke into a canter. At the cabin Plimsoll took
Molly from the saddle and c