white figure running down the garden walk.

"Is Mr. Cardigan hurt?" she demanded in an agony of suspense.

George Sea Otter grunted contemptuously. "Nobody hurt 'cept the Black
Minorca. I am taking him to your company hospital, miss. He tried to
shoot my boss, so I shoot him myself once through the leg. Now my
boss says: 'Take him to the Laguna Grande hospital, George.' Me, I
would drop this greaser in the bay if I was the boss."

She laughed hysterically. "On your way back from the hospital stop
and pick me up, George," she ordered. "This senseless feud has gone
far enough. I must stop it--at once."

He touched his broad hat, and she returned to the house to dress.

Meanwhile Colonel Pennington had reached the crossing once more,
simultaneously with the arrival of Sam Perkins, the chief of police,
accompanied by two automobiles crammed with patrolmen. Perkins
strutted up to Bryce Cardigan and Buck Ogilvy.

"What's the meaning of all this row, Mr. Cardigan?" he demanded.

"Something has slipped, Sam," Bryce retorted pleasantly. "You've been
calling me Bryce for the past twenty years, and now you're mistering
me! The meaning of this row, you ask?" Bryce continued. "Well, I'm
engaged in making a jump-crossing of Colonel Pennington's tracks,
under a temporary franchise granted me by the city of Sequoia. Here's
the franchise." And he thrust the document under the police chief's
nose.