git 'em!" "Where'd they go?" Eager questions were hurled in
volleys.

As the men dismounted the light from the windows glistened on wet
slickers. Ike Stork acted as spokesman, and with white face and
tight-pressed lips, Endicott hung on every word. "Got to the river," he
explained, as he shook the water from his hat, "an' piled onto Long
Bill's ferry, an' cut 'er loose. We didn't dast to shoot on account of
the woman. We couldn't see nothin' then till the storm broke, an' by the
lightnin' flashes we seen the boat in the middle of the river--an' boys,
she's some river! I've be'n a residenter in these parts fer it's goin'
on twenty year, an' I never seen the like--bank-full an' trees an' bresh
so thick you can't hardly see no water. Anyways, there they was an' all
to onct there come a big flash, an' we seen a pine with its roots an'
branches ra'red up high as a house right on top of 'em. Then, the cable
went slack--an' when the next flash come, they wasn't no boat--only
timber an' bresh a-tearin' down stream, it looked like a mile a
minute."

"And they were both on the boat?" Endicott's words came haltingly, and
in the lamplight his face looked grey and drawn.

Ike Stork nodded: "Yes, both of 'em--an' the two horses."

"Isn't there a chance? Isn't it possible that they're--that the boat is
still afloat?"

"We-ell," considered Ike, "I wouldn't say it's plumb onpossible. But it
would be like ketchin' a straight-flush in the middle in a pot that had
be'n boosted to the limit--with a full deck, an' nothin' wild."

Endicott turned away as the crowd broke into a babble of voices. Colston
took him gently by the arm, but the younger man shook his head: "No,
I--I want to think," he whispered, and with a nod of understanding the
ranchman proceeded slowly toward the hotel. As Endicott passed from the
glare of light thrown by the windows of the Red Front, Ike Stork managed
to pass close to him. "They're a-floatin'," he whispered, "I seen 'em a
flash or two afterwards. But the others didn't, an' they ain't no use
spittin' out all you know. If anyone kin make 'er, them two
will--they're game plumb through."

"You mean--" cried Endicott--but Ike Stork had mingled with the crowd.

At the door of the Red Front, Barras was importuning the marshal: "Gwan
over to the printin' office an' git out that reward. I'm a-goin' to git
paid fer these here damages."

"I hain't a-goin' to pay out no reward fer no drownded man!"

Endicott sh