great
chain of stores all co-ordinated under my directing hand--I the master!"

He rubbed the palms of his hands together as he had over the
scintillation of the jewelry counters. Though Jack had not looked around,
his ear recognized that crisp sound of exultant power.

"Yes," Jack murmured thoughtfully, as if inviting Prather to go on with
anything further he might have to say.

"All mine--mine!" Prather concluded, in a sort of hypnosis with his
own picture.

Jack still stared at the earth, his profile limned in gold and the side
of his face toward Prather in shadow. They were nearing the clump of
cotton-woods around the water-hole at the base of a tongue of the range
which ran out into the desert, and Firio rode up to whisper in Spanish:

"Senor Jack, see there! Horsemen!"

Jack raised his head with a returning sense of his surroundings to see
some mounted men, eight in all he counted, riding along the range trail a
half mile nearer the water-hole than themselves. Their horses had the
gait of exhaustion after a long, hard ride.

"You know who it is?" Firio whispered.

"Yes," Jack answered. "They had the better trail and have outridden us.
All right, Firio!"

"Leddy--Pete Leddy and some of his men!" exclaimed Prather, shading his
eyes to watch the file of figures now passing under the cotton-woods. It
seemed to relieve him. "I suppose he came on my account," he added,
nodding to Nogales.

"Yes," said Nogales, with a grin. He always either grinned or his face
had a half savage impassiveness.

"I wonder if Leddy thought I was in danger," and Prather gave Jack a
knowing glance of satisfaction. "We shall all camp together," he
added, smiling.

Jack did not answer for a moment. He was intent on the cotton-woods.
Leddy and his companions appeared on the other side, the figures of
riders and horses bathed in the sunset glow. Then they disappeared as if
the earth had swallowed them up.

"They are going on! They are not going to stop!" said Prather
apprehensively.

"There is a basin beyond the water-hole and the seepage makes a little
pasture," Jack explained. "You will see them back in a moment."

"Oh, yes!" said Prather, with a thrill in his voice; and again the
palms of his hands were making that refrain of delight. "But I have
told my story," he resumed. "Now may I ask you a question? Why have you
come back?"

Jack looked around frankly and dispassionately.

"To save Little Rivers from you! I understa