Startled, all below glanced quickly upward.
"There seems to be trouble down there," Tom suggested.
"There sure is," nodded one of the armed men with the automobile party.
"Now, it's too glorious a day to spoil it with fighting," Reade went on. "Can't we arbitrate?"
"The first move for you, young man," warned one of the four men, raising his rifle, "is to face about and git outer here."
"Not while there are women and children present who might get hurt,"
Tom dissented, with a shake of his head.
"Git, I tell you!" shouted the man, now aiming his rifle full at
Tom's chest. Git—-before I count five."
"Save your cartridge," proposed Tom. "I'm too poor game, and I'm not armed, either. Surely you wouldn't shoot a harmless orphan like me." Saying which the young engineer, having found a path down the cliff nearby, started slowly to descend.
"Get back there! Another step, and I'll put a ball through you!" roared the man who had Reade covered with his rifle.
"That wouldn't prove anything but your marksmanship," Suggested Tom, and coolly continued to descend.