Toward morning Silent Moore returned with the posse, and at the first streak of dawn they took up the trail of the murderers. For a time it led due south toward the Mexican border; then it headed sharply to the west, toward the lava fields. Here the trail was lost. The lava fields were a maze of smooth slopes, abrupt ridges, and deep depressions. For seventy miles they roughly paralleled the border. And in all that expanse of rock there was no sign of verdure, save only an occasional cactus. The posse scattered and searched for the trail. The sun blazed down and turned the desolate place into a furnace. The hunters were grim men, not easily turned aside. The sun baked them, they suffered from the lack of water, but they continued to search. Toward noon, "Ace" Cutts, with five of the judge's riders from the Bar X Ranch, joined the search. The men dismounted and climbed the jagged slopes. They cut their hands and tore their boots on the knifelike edges of the lava rock. The sun rose past meridian. The rocks and sand were too hot to touch. All that day the men of the posse continued their search, but found nothing. At last, toward evening, they realized their hunt was in vain. Beaten, baffled, they gathered for the return trip to town. "Yuh figure Jim Allen could track those devils?" Tom Powers asked of Toothpick. "Sure could," the lanky cow-puncher replied. The sheriff reined in his horse. "Then if yuh know where he is, go get him." Toothpick was about to answer when he saw Ace Cutts and three other riders were closely watching him. He remembered Dutchy's warning. He decided to remain silent. If he sought out Jim Allen, it would be well not to let people know it. He shook his head. "The little devil is like a flea--no one knows where to find him," he declared. The remark seemed plausible enough. They were close to Cannondale when another of the judge's riders joined them. The lathered flanks of his pony told of a hard ride. He swayed in his saddle as he sought out his boss. "Judge, they jumped us an' downed Hank and Bill. They got me in the shoulder----" "And those two hundred two-year-olds?" The judge knew the answer even before he asked the question. "They run 'em off." Judge Ransom gripped his saddle. No one there realized what this meant to him--financial ruin. The Lava Gang had made good their threat. The sheriff had hoped that the wounded man they had found the night before would be able to identify one of the murderers. But this hope was dashed when he met Bill Anderson as they entered the town. "That poor fellow," Anderson told him, "got one of his bandages loose and bled to death. I never heard him move, but he was dead when I got to town." The sheriff, followed by Toothpick, hurried to the doctor's house, where they were shown the dead man. "Toothpick, yuh helped do him up; look them bandages over," the sheriff said. After a brief examination Toothpick straightened, caught the sheriff's eye and nodded.