It was a splendid, unfaltering run, and, when the rider swung down before the little corrugated iron building that housed Yavapai's motor car, the stallion was black with water and his breath came and went with the gasps of fatigue and nervous tension. Bruce turned from his horse and stepped toward the open door of the garage. A man was there, behind the car, looking dolefully down at an array of grease covered parts that littered the floor. "Jimmy, I want you to take me out on th' Valley road this mornin'. How soon can we get away?" "It won't be this mornin' or this afternoon, Bruce," the man said, with a shake of his head. "I've got a busted differential." "Can't it be fixed?"--misgiving in his voice. "Not here. I have to send to Prescott for a new one. I'll be laid up a couple of days anyhow." Bayard did not answer. Just stood trying to face the situation calmly, trying to figure his handicap. "Is it awful important, Bruce?" the man asked, struck by the cowman's attitude. "I guess th' end of th' world's more important,"--as he turned away, "but to me, an' compared to this, it's a small sized accident." He walked slowly out into the street and paused to look calculatingly at Abe. Then, turning abruptly, struck by a new possibility, he ran across to the Manzanita House, entered the door, strode into the office, took down the telephone receiver and rattled the hook impatiently. "I want Hi Boyd's ranch," he said to the operator. Then, after a wait in which he shifted from foot to foot and swore under his breath: "Hello ... Boyd's? Is this Hi Boyd? It is? ... Well Hi, this is Bruce Bayard an' I've got to have a horse from you this mornin'...." "A horse!" came the thin, distant exclamation over the wire. "Everybody wants horses off me today...." "But I've _got_ to have one, Hi! It's mighty important. Yours is th' only ranch that's on my way--" "... an' we let one get away this mornin'," the voice went on, not pausing for Bruce's insistence, "'fore daylight an' left a lady who spent th' night with us a foot. We had to go catch up another for 'em an' Lytton--Ned Lytton, was th' man--only got on two hours ago ... three hours late! No, they ain't a horse on th' place that'll ride." "Can't you catch one for me?" Bruce persisted. "How? Run him down on foot? If I was a young man like you, I might, but now...." Bayard slammed up the receiver and turned away, staring at the floor. He walked into the street again, looking about almost wildly. One by one the agencies that might prevent the impending catastrophe out yonder had been rendered helpless. The automobile, the chance of getting a change horse, his haste in riding to Yavapai and its consequent inroads made upon Abe's strength.