"No, I guess not. I sure reckon Emerson would say we didn't. Nick, what made you get that fool notion in your head that I didn't have sand to get through?" "I didn't think you didn't have sand, Tommy. I thought--the trail was so narrow, I thought you'd tumble off." A broad grin sent the curling ends of his mustache up toward his eyes and he went on: "Tom, you sure looked plumb ridiculous!" Shaking hands again, they turned to their work. They stood on the steep, sloping side of the mountain, which was cracked and seamed with a network of chasms and gulches. A ridge ran slantingly down the mountain and the intricate, irregular network of narrow, steep-sided cracks and gulches which filled the slope finally gave, on the right hand, into the deep, gaping canyon which had been their thoroughfare, and on their left into another, apparently similar, some distance to the south. Farther up, toward the backbone of the ridge, there seemed to be a narrow stretch, unbroken by the gulches, which extended to the next canyon. They made their way thither and walked slowly along, stopping now and then to scan the mountain side or to sweep with their eyes the visible portions of the canyons below and behind them. They had covered more than half the distance between the two canyons when Tom, who had been studying one particular spot far down the mountain, exclaimed: "Nick, there's water down there! See where the top of that pine tree comes up above the rocks, away down there, nearly to the divide?" "You're sure right," said Nick, looking carefully over the ground which Tom indicated. A moment later he went on: "That's the head of the spring in the canyon where our camp is! You can follow the course of the gulch right along. I reckon that's where we'll find what we're looking for!" They turned to retrace their steps, their faces eager and alert and their feet quickening beneath them, when through the silence came the dull, far-away thud of a pistol shot. It was behind them and seemed to come from the canyon toward which they had been walking. With one glance at each other they drew their pistols and ran toward its head. They clambered over the boulders and, with reckless leaps and swings, let themselves down to its floor. Pausing only a moment to reconnoiter, they hurried down the gulch, casting quick glances all about them for the first sign of a living being. After a little they stopped and listened intently, each holding a cocked revolver, but not the faintest sound broke the midday stillness. "Do you reckon it was in this canyon?" said Tom in a hoarse whisper. "Got to be," Nick replied, poking out his lower jaw. "We've been sniffing the trail long enough. We'll give them a bait now."