about the rest of it, are they? The Drifter said to head toward the
Big Peak. The Double A would be right near there--in the foothills.
Looks easy, don't it? But I reckon we'll have to hump ourselves to get
there by feedin' time, this noon, eh?"

A little later, Streak having rested, Sanderson mounted and rode
forward, toward the peak of a majestic mountain that loomed far above
them.




CHAPTER IV

IH WHICH A MAN IS SYMPATHETIC

It was shortly after noon when Sanderson, urging Streak to the crest of
an isolated excrescence of earth surrounded by a level of sage and
cactus, saw within several hundred yards of him a collection of
buildings scattered on a broad plain that extended back several hundred
yards farther until it merged into the rock-faced wall of a butte that
loomed upward many feet.

Sanderson halted Streak on the hilltop to glance around. The
buildings, evidently, belonged to the Double A ranch, and the country
was all the Drifter had claimed for it.

The big stretch of plain--in fact, the entire basin--could be made
fertile by the judicious use of water. Sanderson was not an engineer,
but he had sufficient natural knowledge of land to enable him to