There was a hasty mustering of armed men under the windows of the Rosemary, and they heard Sheriff Deckert's low-voiced instructions to his posse. “Take it slow and easy, boys, and don't get rattled. Now, then; guns to the front! Steady!” The Reverend Billy rose. “What are you going to do?” said Virginia. “I'm going to give Winton a tip if it's the last thing I ever do.” She shook her head and pointed eastward to the mouth of the lateral gulch. Under cover of a clump of evergreen-scrub a man in a wideflapped hat and leather breeches was climbing swiftly to the level of the new line, cautiously waving a handkerchief as a peace token. “That is the man who arrested Mr. Winton yesterday. This time he is going to fight on the other side. He'll carry the warning.” “Think so?” said Calvert. “I am sure of it. Open the window, please. I want to see better.” As yet there was no sign of preparation on the embankment. For the moment the rifles of the track force were laid aside, and every man was plying pick or shovel. Winton was in the thick of the pick-and-shovel melee, urging it on, when Biggin ran up. “Hi!” he shouted. “Fixin' to take another play-day in Carbonate? Lookee down yonder!” Winton looked and became alive to the possibilities in the turning of a leaf. “Guns!” he yelled; and at the word of command the tools were flung aside, and the track force, over two hundred strong, became an army. “Mulcahey, take half the men and go up the grade till you can rake those fellows without hitting the car. Branagan, you take the other half and go down till you can cross-fire with Mulcahey. Aim low, both of you; and the man who fires before he gets the word from me will break his neck at a rope's end. Fall in!” “By Jove!” said Adams. “Are you going to resist? That spells felony, doesn't it?” Winton pointed to the waiting octopod. “I'm going to order the Two-fifteen down out of the way: you may go with her if you like.” “I guess not!” quoth the assistant, calmly lighting a fresh cigarette. And then to the water-boy, who was acting quartermaster: “Give me a rifle and a cartridge-belt, Chunky, and I'll stay here with the boss.” “And where do I come in?” said Biggin to Winton reproachfully. “You'll stay out, if your head's level. You've done enough already to send you to Canyon City.” “I ain't a-forgettin' nothing,” said Peter cheerfully, casting himself flat behind a heap of earth on the dump-edge. While the sheriff's posse was picking its way gingerly over the loose rock and earth dam formed by the landslide, the window went up in the Rosemary and Winton saw Virginia. Without meaning to, she gave him his battle-word. “We are a dozen Winchesters to your one, Mr. Deckert, and we shall resist force with force. Order your men back or there will be trouble.” Winton stood out on the edge of the cutting, a solitary figure where a few minutes before the earth had been flying from a hundred shovels.