There was no moon that night, and the sky had become suddenly overcast so that Ross faced a dense darkness pierced only by the candle-light from the window of the McKenzie shack. He stumbled toward this, feeling his way so slowly along the narrow trail that he unwittingly approached the cabin silently and surprised an altercation within. Sandy's voice was raised in vehement assertion and Waymart's lower rumble in protest. As he was groping for the door, he heard Sandy say: "I tell ye, Mart, wild hosses won't drag 'im up here s' long as that young feller is in these mountings, and we may want 'im here." Then Waymart's response, "Well, what be ye aimin' to do about it? Don't bite off more'n ye can swaller. Ye do that too often. He'll be out of here in a few weeks. What's eatin' ye? 'Let well enough alone.'" "Yes," scornfully from Sandy. "Ye maverick! They won't go till we----" Ross, his hand on the door, had stubbed his toe against a stone. "Sh," came Sandy's warning in lowered tones. "What's that?" There was a step across the floor. Ross instinctively fell back into the darkness and slipped behind a tree. The door was jerked open and Sandy's figure appeared. An instant he looked out and then turning back, said disgustedly, "Nobudy, but guess we don't need t' yell loud enough t' be heard up t' Wilson's." CHAPTER VIII ROSS'S "HIRED MAN" As the door closed on Sandy, Ross beat a hasty retreat. His first thought was that the brothers were discussing him. The fact that they were in the valley to watch the progress of work on the Weimer-Grant claims and that they were interested in his being there and not anxious to have him remain, all aided in the interpretation of the McKenzies' speeches. "But who on earth is it that won't come as long as I am here and why not?" he asked himself as he stumbled back in the direction of the light in Weimer's cabin. "Vat's you pack for alreddy?" demanded Weimer from his bunk as Ross opened the door. "Ist dem McKenzies mit Wilson, hein?" "No," returned Ross, "but I decided that I am tired enough to turn in instead of going visiting," and he forthwith "turned in," but did not go to sleep immediately. Truth to tell, he was uneasy. He felt that Sandy, behind that good-natured, friendly exterior, was full of schemes. The McKenzies wanted the claims, and Ross had unexpectedly interposed himself between them and their desires. Therefore, their schemes must include him. What was on foot now? He tossed restlessly in his bunk assailed with qualms of fear that he tried to conceal from himself. "Ah, what you afraid of?" he asked himself disgustedly. "They won't shoot you nor yet tie you hand and foot and throw you over the Crosby trail. As Steele says, I haven't a thing to fear personally from 'em. That's not their way. Go to sleep."