if he did exactly as he was told they would use him
well; but if he disobeyed or tried to signal the other men, they would
kill him instantly. Knowing something of the frontier, he was ready to
believe that he would be given short shrift, and was thoroughly
submissive.

Finnegan and the third man, a half-breed named Bernstead, had, it
seems, gone hunting, believing themselves safe. Sewall guarded the
German, while Roosevelt and Dow, crouching under the lee of a cutbank,
prepared to greet the others.

The ground before them was as level as a floor, with no growth on it
of any sort beside the short dead grass which would not have given
cover to a rabbit. Beyond, to the east lay a wide stretch of level
bottom covered with sagebrush as high as a man's waist, and beyond
that was a fringe of bushes bordering a stretch of broken butte
country. The wind had fallen. Save for the rush of the river, there
was no sound.

Will and I [Sewall wrote his brother] kept watch and
listened--our eyes are better than Roosevelt's, Will on the
right and I on the left. R. was to rise up and tell them to
hands up, Will and I both with double barrel guns loaded
with Buck shot, and we were all going to shoot if they
offered to raise a gun. It is rather savage work but it
don't do to fool with such fellows. If there was any killing
to be done we meant to do it ourselves.

About an hour before sunset they heard Finnegan and his companion
crawling through the stunted bushes at the foot of the clay hill. The
men started to go upstream.

"We are going to lose them," Roosevelt whispered; "they are not coming
to camp."

"I think," answered Sewall, "they are looking for the camp smoke."

He was evidently right, for suddenly they saw it and came straight
through the sagebrush toward the watchers. Roosevelt and his men
watched them for some minutes as they came nonchalantly toward them,
the barrels of their rifles glinting in the sunlight. Now they were
forty yards away, now thirty, now twenty.

"Hands up!"

The half-breed obeyed, but for an instant Finnegan hesitated, glaring
at his captors with wolfish eyes. Roosevelt walked toward him,
covering the center of the man's chest to avoid over-shooting him.

"You thief, put up your hands!"

Finnegan dropped his rifle with an oath and put up his hands.

They searched the thieves and took away their weapons. "If you'll keep
quiet," said Roosevelt, "and not