And stopped all movement with a jerk, while an inarticulate exclamation came from him. For the first time his sight had encountered that for which he had been seeking. He was motionless an instant, then lowered the glass to his chest-level and stared hard with naked eyes. He wet his lips with his tongue and strained forward, used the glasses again, shifted his footing, looking about with a show of bright nervousness, and rubbed the lenses on his shirt briskly. "He ain't even waitin' to take th' road," he said aloud. "He's in a powerful hurry!" Once more the instrument picked out the moving dot under that vast dome of brilliant blue sky and, for a lengthy interval Benny held his aided gaze upon it, watching it disappear and come into sight again, ever holding toward him through wash and over swells, maintaining its steady crawling. He moved further out on the dump to obtain a better view and leaned against the rusty ore car on its track that he might be steadier; for sight of that purposeful life down yonder had started ever so slight tremors through his stalwart limbs. He muttered to himself, and again looked alertly about, right and left and behind. His eye was brighter, harder. When he looked into the valley again, sweeping its expanse to find the horseman who had momentarily disappeared, he stood with gaze fixed in quite another direction and, when he had suppressed his breath an instant to make absolutely certain, he cried excitedly: "In bunches! They're comin' in droves!" He put down the binocular, took the six-gun from its holster, twirled the cylinder briskly and caressed the trigger with an eager finger. His mouth had become a tight, straight line and his brows were gathered slightly, as in perplexity. He breathed audibly as he watched those indications of human life on the valley. He knew then the greatest torment of suspense.... Ten minutes later, when the near dot had become easily discernible to the naked eye, when the figure of horse and rider was in sharp detail through the glass, the ominous quality about the man gave way to frank mystification. He flung one leg over the corner of the ore car, and his face ceased to reflect his great determination, became puzzled, half alarmed. "That's Bruce's stallion, if I ever seen him!" he thought, "An' he's been run to th' last breath." The horse went out of sight, entered the timber below Benny and the clicking of stones, the sounds of shod hoofs floundering over bare rocks gave evidence that he would be at the mine level in another five minutes. The man hitched his gun belt about, took one more anxious, puzzled look down into the valley where other figures moved, and walked down the trail toward the cabin slowly, watching through the pines for sight of the climbing animal.