Down at Sinkhole camp five or six riders were driving a bunch of Rolling R horses into the corral where Johnny kept his riding horse overnight.

They were not dreaming vaguely of the future, these riders.

Instead they were very much awake to the present and the risks thereof.

On the nearest ridge that gave an outlook to the north, a sentinel was stationed in the shade of a rocky out-cropping, ready to wheel and gallop back with a warning if any rode that way.
When the horses were corralled and the gate closed, one man climbed upon the fence and gave orders.

This horse was to be turned outside--and the gate-tender swung open the barrier to let it through.