A second band of outlaws, unseen before, came galloping along the western mountain side, snorting at the clangor and the rank smell of the sheep, and Creede eyed them with professional interest as the leaders trotted past. Many times in the old days he had followed along those same ridges, rounding up the wild horses and sending them dashing down the cañon, so that Hardy could rush out from his hiding place and make his throw. It was a natural hold-up ground, that _redondo_, and they had often talked of building a horse trap there; but so far they had done no more than rope a chance horse and let the rest go charging down the box cañon and out the other end onto Bronco Mesa.
It was still early in the morning when Juan Alvarez rode down the pass and invaded the forbidden land. He had the name of a bad _hombre_, this boss herder of Jasper Swope, the kind that cuts notches on his rifle stock. Only one man had ever made Juan eat dirt, and that man now watched him from the high rocks with eyes that followed every move with the unblinking intentness of a mountain lion.
"Uhr-r! Laugh, you son of a goat," growled Creede, as the big Mexican pulled up his horse and placed one hand complacently on his hip. "Sure, make yourself at home," he muttered, smiling as his enemy drifted his sheep confidently down into the _redondo_, "you're goin' jest where I want ye. Come sundown and we'll go through you like a house afire. If he beds in the _redondo_ let's shoot 'em into that box cañon, Jim," proposed the big cowman, turning to his partner, "and when they come out the other end all hell wouldn't stop 'em--they'll go forty ways for Sunday."
"Suits me," replied Jim, "but say, what's the matter with roundin' up some of them horses and sendin' 'em in ahead? That boss Mexican is goin' to take a shot at some of us fellers if we do the work ourselves."
"That's right, Jim," said Creede, squinting shrewdly at the three armed herders. "_I'll_ tell ye, let's send them wild horses through 'em! Holy smoke! jest think of a hundred head of them outlaws comin' down the cañon at sundown and hammerin' through that bunch of sheep! And we don't need to git within gunshot!"
"Fine and dandy," commented Jim, "but how're you goin' to hold your horses to it? Them herders will shoot off their guns and turn 'em back."