Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/96

78 it isn't? The valley is anywhere from a quarter- to a half-mile wide. Maybe there is something we might find along the edges. We've got lots of time, let's each take a side and work along the foot of the hills"

"Time!" exclaimed McKeever, "I'd stay here all summer, if I thought we could clean up this gang! That's a good idee. The goin's a-goin' to be rough, an' it mightn't do no good—but it won't do no harm. The first one to get to Jap's waits for the other. An' if we want one another, here's the signals: two quick shots an' one fifteen seconds later means, come a-runnin'. One shot first, an' then two quick ones means, come cautious, look for trouble." "I got you," assented Connie; "I'll tackle the left bank, and you take the right—So long!" "So long!" cried McKeever, and both turned from the trail.

The valley was a quarter of a mile wide at the point where they separated, the ground rising gently from the bed of the creek to the base of almost perpendicular rock walls. Connie worked his way to the foot of the rock ledge and headed down stream, picking his way among boulders