"Jumpers!" Joe answered, and turned to his companions. "It's the first of the boys up from the settlement."
In a minute or two the newcomers arrived and Joe explained the matter.
"We were making for your fire when we heard the shot and hastened on our fastest hustle," said one. "Now we'll go along and bounce the blamed jumpers out."
Dawn was breaking when they reached Scaith's camp. They found several men very busy, but they stopped a moment when the party came up.
"You have to get off the ground!" ordered one of the men from the Landing. "The sooner you quit the better for you!"
"We're going," was the sullen answer. "I reckon we know when you've got the best of us."
"Then," said the other man, "we'll wait till you start—and we won't wait long!"
Shortly afterward Scaith's party took the trail to the south, and as there were six of them Joe concluded that his first assailant had not been seriously damaged by his fall into the ravine. When they had gone, one of the new arrivals turned to Joe.
"Carnally and Graham should be here before night," he said. "They were getting ready to come up when we left. Jake allowed he wanted to be on the ground."