at. We have got everything we want out here
in the rocks to last us to the fort; and if you'll say you won't shoot
at us, we'll give you your guns."

"I won't shoot at you," said Elam. "You have given me a point to go on,
and I don't know but I had better turn around and go back. Here's a
tender-foot come out here to see the country----"

"All right. Go on, and let him dig away some of the landslides until he
gets sick of them. He won't get nothing, I bet you. Now, suppose you
take your creeters and go on your way. We can have a fair view of you
for a quarter of a mile, and that's all we want."

Elam at once picked up his gun, mounted his horse and rode away, leading
one of the mules, leaving Tom and I to follow at our leisure. I noticed
that the two men eyed me rather sharply. They didn't know how I felt at
being reduced to poverty, and they were ready to nip in the bud any move
that I took to be even with them. I didn't feel very good over it, you
may imagine, and when I got on my horse I couldn't resist an inclination
to say a word to them.

"I hear that two of the men who engaged with you in that cattle-thieving
business were hanged for horse-stealing," I said.

"Has that story got around down here?" said one of the men.

"Yes; and I am very sorry that they were dealt with in that way. I
wanted to get even with them myself. It seems as though those six
thousand dollars didn't go very far with you."

"Well, go on now, for we don't want to take this matter into our own
hands. We will wait until you get up to the turn in the canyon, and then
you had better look out."

I rode on up the gully after Tom and Elam, and when I got up to the turn
I looked back. The men were not in sight. Elam rode a little way further
and then dismounted, preparatory to going into camp.

"There were two things that happened to-day that I did not think
possible," said I, throwing myself out of my saddle in a disgusted
humor. "One was that Elam would give up when he saw himself cornered."

"I saw at the start that they did not want to hurt anything," said Elam.
"Suppose we had resisted them; where would we be now?"

"And another thing, I did not think it possible for me to stand near the
man who stole my cattle without putting a chunk of lead into him. He
didn't say who he was until after he had charge of my rifle, did he?"

"No, but I tell you you wouldn't have made anything by trying to shoot
him. If we had made the least attempt