d the girl.

"Yes, an' we ain't goin' to cross it many more times. In the canyon
she'll be belly-deep to a giraffe, an' we got to figure a way out of
the coulee 'fore we get to it."

Alice was straining her ears to catch his words, when suddenly, above
the sound of his voice, above the roar of the rain and the crash and
roll of thunder, came another sound--a low, sullen growl--indefinable,
ominous, terrible. The Texan, too, heard the sound and, jerking his
horse to a standstill, sat listening. The sullen growl deepened into a
loud rumble, indescribably horrible. Alice saw that the Texan's face
was drawn into a tense, puzzled frown. A sudden fear gripped her
heart. She leaned forward and the words fairly shrieked from her lips.

"It's the reservoir!"

The Texan whirled to face the others whose horses had crowded close and
stood with drooping heads.

"The reservoir's let go!" he shouted, and pointed into the grey wall of
water at right angles to their course. "Ride! Ride like hell an' save
yourselves! I'll look after her!" The next instant he whirled his
horse against the girl's.

"Ride straight ahead!" he roared. "Give him his head an' hang on!
I'll stay at his flank, an' if you go down we'll take a chance
together!"

Slipping the quirt from the horn of his saddle the cowboy brought it
down across her horse's flank and the animal shot away straight into
the opaque grey wall. Alice gave the horse a loose rein, set her lips,
and gripped the horn of her saddle as the brute plunged on.

The valley was not wide. They had reached a point where its sides
narrowed to form the mouth of the canyon. The pound of the horse's
feet was lost in the titanic bombilation of the elements--the incessant
crash and rumble of thunder and the ever increasing roar of rushing
waters. At every jump the girl expected her frantic horse to go down,
yet she was conscious of no feeling of fear. She glanced over her
shoulder, but the terrific downpour acted as a curtain through which
her eyes could not penetrate with the aid even of the most vivid
flashes of lightning. Yet she knew that the Texan rode at her flank
and that the others followed--Endicott and Bat, with his pack-horse
close-snubbed to his saddle-horn. Suddenly the girl felt her horse
labouring. His speed slackened perceptibly. As abruptly as it started
the rain stopped; and she saw that water was swirling about his knees.
Saw also by the aid of a lightning flas