hour or so and then found the
false trail just as the Indian decoys had intended that they should
do. And from a farther flat topped ridge a group of Indians with Dutch
hair-cuts and Stetson hats and moccasins (the two hall-marks of two
races) watched them take the false trail, and looked at one another and
grinned sourly.

The false trail forked, showing that the six had separated into two
parties of three riders, each aiming to pass--so the hoofprints would
lead one to believe--around the two ends of a lone hill that sat
squarely down on the mesa like a stone treasure chest dropped there by
the gods when the world was young.

The Happy Family drew rein and eyed the parting of the ways dubiously.

"Wonder what they did that for?" Andy Green grumbled, mopping his red
face irritatedly. "We've got trouble enough without having them split up
on us."

"From the looks, I should say we're overhauling the bunch," Luck
hazarded. "They maybe met on the other side of this butte somewhere.
And the tracks were made early this morning, I should say. How about it,
Applehead?"

"Well, they look fresher 'n what we bin follerin' before," Applehead
admitted. "But I don't like this here move uh theirn, and I'm tellin'
yuh so. The way--"

"I don't like anything about 'em," snapped Luck, standing in his
stirrups as though that extra three inches would let him see over the
hill. "And I don't like this tagging along behind, either. You take your
boys and follow those tracks to the right, Applehead. I and my bunch
will go this other way. And RIDE! We can't be so awfully much behind.
If they meet, we'll meet where they do. If they scatter, we'll have to
scatter too, I reckon. But get'em is the word, boys!"

"And where," asked Applehead with heavy irony, while he pulled at his
mustache, "do yuh calc'late we'll git t'gether agin if we go scatterin'
out?"

Luck looked at him and smiled his smile. "We aren't any of us
tenderfeet, exactly," he said calmly. "We'll meet at the jail when we
bring in our men, if we don't meet anywhere else this side. But if you
land your men, come back to that camp where we lost the horses. That's
one, place we KNOW has got grass and water both. If you come and don't
see any sign of us, wait a day before you start back to town. We'll do
the same. And leave a note anchored in the crack of that big bowlder by
the spring, telling the news. We'll do the same if we get there first
and don't wait for you." He hesi