"And I want you to do two errands for me, kid. You give this to Pappy Sanders--the storekeeper, you know"--here he produced the little eohippus from his pocket--"and tell him to send it to a jeweler for me and get a hole bored in it so it'll balance. Want to use it for a watch-charm when I get a watch. And if we pull off this Bransford affair I'll have me a watch. Now don't you lose that! It's turquoise--worth a heap o' money. Besides, he's a lucky little horse." "I'll put him in my pocketbook," said Gurdon. "Better give him to Pappy first off, else you're liable to forget about him, he's so small. Then you tell Pappy to send me out some grub. I won't make out no bill. He's grubstakin' the mine; he'll know what to send. You just tell him I'm about out of patience. Tell him I want about everything there is, and want it quick; and a jar for sour dough--I broke mine. And get some newspapers." He hesitated perceptibly. "See here, boys, I hate to mention this; but old Pappy, him and this Jeff Bransford is purty good friends. I reckon Pappy won't much like it to furnish grub for you while you're puttin' the kibosh on Jeff. You better get some of your own. You see how it is, don't you? 'Tain't like it was my chuck." Stone came while they saddled. He spoke apart with Griffith as to Mr. Long, and a certain favor he bore to the escaped bank-robber; but Griffith, admitting his own self-deception in that line, outlined the history of the past unhappy night. Stone, who had suffered only a slight misgiving, was fully satisfied. As Steele started for the railroad Mr. Stone set out to complete the circuit of Double Mountain, in the which he found no runaway tracks. And Griffith and Long, sleeping alternately--especially Griffith--kept faithful ward over the gloomy gate of Double Mountain. CHAPTER XIV FLIGHT "Keep away from that wheelbarrow--what the hell do you know about machinery?"--ELBERT HUBBARD.[B] [Footnote B: It is not intimated that Mr. Hubbard wrote this--merely that he printed it.--AUTHOR.] Just after dark a horseman with a led horse came jogging round the mountain on the trail from Escondido. On the led horse was a pack bound rather slouchily, not to a packsaddle, but to an old riding saddle. The horses were unwilling to enter the circle of firelight, so the rider drew rein just beyond--a slender and boyish rider, with a flopping wide-brimmed hat too large for him. "Oh, look who's here!" said Tobe, as one who greets an unexpected friend. "Hello, Tobe! Here's your food, grub, chuck and provisions! Got your outlaw yet? Them other fellows will be out along toward midnight." He went on without waiting for an answer: "Put me on your payroll. Pappy said I was to go to work--and if you was going to quit work to hunt down his friend you'd better quit for good. Lead on to your little old mine. I don't know where it is, even."