even his look tell what he was feeling.

"I reckon I'll cut right down from here, Melissy. Better not lose any time
getting to town. So-long!" And with that he had swung to the saddle and
was off.

Melissy ran swiftly down to the picnic party and cried out her news. It
fell upon them like a bolt out of a June sky. Some exclaimed and wondered
and deplored; but she was proud to see that her father took instant
command, without an unnecessary word.

"They've caught us in swimming, boys! We've got to burn the wind back to
town for our guns. Dick, you ride around by the Powder Horn and gather up
the boys on the ranch. Get Swain to swing around to the south and comb the
lower gulches of the Roaring Fork. Tell him to get in touch with me soon
as he can. I'll come through by Elkhorn."

Lee helped his daughter into the machine, and took his place beside her.

"Hit the high spots, Jim. I've got an engagement in the hills that won't
wait, prior to which I've got to get back to town immediate," he told the
chauffeur cheerfully; for he was beginning to enjoy himself as in the old
days, when he had been the hard-riding sheriff of a border county which
took the premium for bad men.

The motor car leaped forward, fell into its pace, and began to hum its
song of the road as it ate up swiftly the miles that lay between the dam
and Mesa.

CHAPTER II

A CAPTURE

Flatray swung around Old Baldy through the sparse timber that edged its
roots. He knew this country well; for he had run cattle here, and combed
the draws and ridges on the annual spring and fall round-ups.

There was no trail to follow. Often the lay of the land forced him to a
detour; for it was rough with washes, with matted cactus, and with a thick
growth of netted mesquite and underbrush. But true as the needle of a
compass, he turned back always to the direction he was following. He had
the instinct for direction, sharpened almost to infallibility by the
experience his work had given him.

So, hour after hour, he swung forward, pushing his horse over the ground
in a sort of running walk, common to the plains. Sunset found him climbing
from the foothills into the mountains beyond. Starlight came upon him in a
saddle between the peaks, still plodding up by winding paths to the higher
altitudes that make the ridge of the continent's backbone.

The moon was up long before he struck a gulch spur that led to Elkhorn
canyon. Whether he would be in time or not--