and authority that Haydon had raised.

When the men came closer, though, swooping toward the ranchhouse like
feathers before a hurricane, he saw that Rogers was among them.

Then, as the men came toward him down along the corral fence, Harlan saw
that Rogers' eyes were wide with excitement. And he stood, his face
darkening, as Rogers told him what he had seen, and voiced his
suspicions.

"We're with you, Harlan," declared Rogers, sweeping a hand toward the
men; "an' them other boys which have trailed Deveny, are with you. We're
out to 'get' Deveny if you say the word; and that thief, Haydon, too."

Harlan did not answer. He grinned at the men, though, and at
Rogers--acknowledging his gratitude for their decision to be "with" him;
then he turned, leaped on Purgatory, and sent the big beast thundering
toward the timber that led to the main trail.

Their voices silent, their horses falling quickly into the pace set by
the big black, Rogers and the other men followed.

The other half of Rogers' men, headed by Colver, were several miles
behind Deveny's horsemen when they reached the South Trail. They gained
very little on the other men, though, for Deveny and his men were just
then racing Barbara to the point where the trails converged, having seen
her. But during Deveny's halt at the covert, where he had shot Stroud,
Colver's men gained, and they were not more than two or three miles from
the covert when Deveny's men left it.

From the shelving trail, ever sweeping toward the trail in the valley,
Colver had noted the halt at the covert, though he had not seen Barbara,
nor Stroud. He had seen, of course, that Deveny had not gone to the
Rancho Seco, that for some reason or other he had swerved, taking the
trail up the valley.

Colver was puzzled, but he remembered Rogers' orders, and when he and his
men reached the covert, they halted. They came upon Stroud, lying near
some bushes, and they saw his horse, grazing on the tall grass near by.
They had reached the covert too late to see Barbara's pony; and when they
remounted, after taking a look at Stroud, they caught a glimpse of a lone
horseman racing up the valley in the direction taken by Deveny and his
men.

The lone horseman was Red Linton, though Colver did not know it, for the
South Trail dipped into the basin miles before it emerged to the level at
the point of convergence with the other trail, and Colver had not seen
Linton when he had passed.

Colver and h