Linda turned softly, then started back. She did not even give a second's thought to the folly of trying to break through. She watched the sentinel over her shoulder and saw him turn about. Far distant though he was, she could tell by the movement he made that he had discovered her. She was almost four hundred yards away by then, and she lashed her horse into a gallop. The man cried to her to halt, a sound that came dim and strange through the burn, and then a bullet sent up a cloud of ashes a few feet to one side. But the range was too far even for the Turners, and she only urged her horse to a faster pace. She flew down the narrow trail, turned into the main trail, and galloped wildly toward home. But the sentry did not follow her. He valued his precious life too much for that. He had no intention of offering himself as a target to Bruce's rifle as he neared the house. He headed back to report to Simon. Young Bill--for such had been the identity of the sentry--found his chief in the large field not far distant from where Bruce had been confined. The man was supervising the harvest of the fall growth of alfalfa. The two men walked slowly away from the workers, toward the fringe of woods. "It looks as if we'll have to adopt rough measures, after all," Young Bill began. Simon turned with flushing face. "Do you mean you let him get past you--and missed him? Young Bill, if you've done that--" "Won't you wait till I've told you how it happened? It wasn't Bruce; it was Linda. For some reason I can't dope out, she went up in the big burn back of me and saw me--when I was too far off to shoot her horse. Then she rode back like a witch. They'll not take that trail again." "It means one of two things," Simon said after a pause. "One of them is to starve 'em out. It won't take long. Their supplies won't last forever. The other is to call the clan and attack--to-night." "And that means loss of life." "Not necessarily. I don't know how many guns they've got. If any of you were worth your salt, you'd find out those things. I wish Dave was here." And Simon spoke the truth for once in his life: he did miss Dave. And it was not that there had been any love lost between them. But the truth was--although Simon never would have admitted it--the weaker man's cunning had been of the greatest aid to his chief. Simon needed it sorely now. "And we can't wait till to-morrow night--because we've got the moon then," Young Bill added. "Just a new moon, but it will prevent a surprise attack. I suppose you still have hopes of Dave coming back?" "I don't see why not. I'll venture to say now he's off on some good piece of business--doing something none of the rest of you have thought of. He'll come riding back one of these days with something actually accomplished. I see no reason for thinking that he's dead. Bruce hasn't had any chance at him that I know of. But if I thought he was--there'd be no more waiting. We'd tear down that nest to-night."