As he approached the almost lifeless coals of the evening’s fire he was surprised to see a man arise from the dense shadow of a pile of rock and dart away. He at first thought it was one of the miners, but the apparent haste and stealthy step aroused the scout’s suspicion. He stepped along and peered behind the rock pile to see if there might be others. He saw only a little sparkling point of light that would hardly have burned a baby’s finger. But the scout stared in horror for an instant, then bounded over the rocks like a madman. He tore at the spluttering spark with his bare hands, but it was already beyond the grasp of his fingers under the rock pile. It was crawling away rapidly, its single baleful eye snapping defiantly at its pursuer. Buffalo Bill plunged his hands among the rocks and tore them away with insane fury. He hurled them right and left, at the same time shouting: “Turn out, boys! Get behind the rocks! A blast!” Then he came to the powder can. He felt its rim, and he saw the fatal spark, but where the fuse was attached he could not see. He grasped the can with both hands and ripped it from its surroundings. The sputtering light clung to it. Like lightning he raised the can above his head and threw it far out over a chasm that yawned a rod away. A roar and blinding flash in mid-air told how near the scout had been to being too late. The concussion threw him and others who had jumped up at his shouts, from their feet. But no one was injured. Torches and lanterns were lighted and a search of the camp begun. “It’s the work of Bloody Ike, the powder fiend,” declared Hickok, and the others agreed with him. “He has got away with your other can of powder and the coil of fuse,” said the scout to the miners. “And every can of that powder is worth a small fortune, ’way out here,” mourned one of the men. “I didn’t suppose there was a devil bad enough, in existence, to attempt to kill ten men in cold blood,” said Hickok. “If it’s Ike Pelletier, who once handled the explosives in the Bridger range mines, he’d murder a regiment for a hundred dollars. And I’d give twice that to get next to him for a few minutes,” said Avery. “Well,” said the scout, “I am convinced that he is in this basin now--he can’t be far off, for I saw the man who lighted the fuse running away--and we must hunt the villain down and see that he pays the penalty for his crimes.” “That is all right from your standpoint,” said Avery. “You represent the law. But I represent justice swift and sure, with no chance for a slip-up. If I see Ike first, you will never take him back for trial.” “Didn’t you see him that day at the surveyors’ shanty?” asked the scout. “Yes, I saw both men, but I didn’t recognize either of them, yet I thought the one with whiskers resembled some one I had known.” “If you have a bullet for him, there must be a story behind it?” suggested one of the miners.