And yet his eyes glowed as he looked out and down at the country that lay, slumbering in the pure white light of the dawn.
He saw, dotting the floor of the basin, the roofs of houses.

From his height they seemed to be close together, but Sanderson was not misled, and he knew that they were separated by miles of virgin soil--of sagebrush and yucca, and soapweed and other desert weeds that needed not the magic of water to make them live.
When Sanderson finally mounted Streak, the sun was up.

It took Streak two hours to descend the slope leading down into the basin, and when once horse and rider were down, Sanderson dismounted and patted Streak's moist flanks.
"Some drop, eh, Streak ?" he said.

"But it didn't fool us none.

We knowed it was some distance, didn't we?
An' they ain't foolin' us about the rest of it, are they?
The Drifter said to head toward the Big Peak.