Modern Permanent Magnets 1st Edition

John J. Croat
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MODERN PERMANENT
MAGNETS
WOODHEAD PUBLISHING SERIES IN ELECTRONIC AND OPTICAL MATERIALS

MODERN PERMANENT
MAGNETS

Edited by

John J. Croat
Naples, Florida, (USA)

John Ormerod
JOC LLC, Loudon, Tennessee, (USA)
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Contents

Contributors ix

1 The history of permanent m ­ agnets 1

John J. Croat, John Ormerod
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Lodestones: the first permanent magnets 3
1.3 Early permanent magnet studies 4
1.4 The era of steel permanent magnets 7
1.5 The discovery of alnico permanent magnets 9
1.6 The discovery of hard ferrite magnets 11
1.7 The discovery of Sm-Co permanent magnets 12
1.8 The discovery of NdFeB permanent magnets 16
1.9 The discovery of Sm-Fe-N permanent magnets 20
1.10 Future permanent magnet materials 20
1.11 Summary 27
References 28

2 Fundamental properties of permanent magnets 31

Kalathur Narasimhan
2.1 Introduction 31
2.2 The different families and types of permanent magnets 31
2.3 Key magnetic parameters 34
2.4 On the origin of magnetism 36
2.5 The different types of magnetism 41
2.6 The origin of anisotropy in permanent magnets 43
2.7 Magnetic domains and domain walls 47
2.8 Magnetic hysteresis 51
2.9 Coercivity mechanism in modern permanent magnets 57
2.10 Stability of permanent magnets 58
References 62

3 Recent advances in hard f­ errite magnets 65

Alberto Bollero, Ester M. Palmero
3.1 Introduction 65
3.2 Historical overview of M-type Sr- and Ba- Hexaferrites 65
3.3 Crystal structure, intrinsic magnetic properties, microstructure
and morphology 70
3.4 Advances towards the improvement of intrinsic magnetic properties 74
vi Contents

3.5 Industrial fabrication routes 77

3.6 Recycling efforts, recovery, and reusability in production line 96
3.7 Applications of hexaferrites: present and perspectives 100
References 104

4 Modern Sm-Co permanent magnets 113

Jinfang Liu, Michael Walmer, Melania Jasinski
4.1 Introduction 113
4.2 Manufacturing process of Sm-Co magnets 114
4.3 High (BH)max Sm2Co17 type permanent magnets 116
4.4 Temperature compensated Sm-Co magnets 120
4.5 Ultra-high temperature Sm-Co magnets with small
reversible temperature coefficient of Br122
4.6 Performance of Sm-Co magnets in special environments 123
4.7 Laminated Sm-Co magnets 127
4.8 Additive manufacturing 128
4.9 Small magnets 129
4.10 Sm-Co nanoparticles and nanoflakes for nanocomposite magnets 130
4.11 Summary 132
References 133

5 The status of sintered NdFeB magnets 135

Masato Sagawa, Yasuhiro Une
5.1 Introduction 135
5.2 History of the development of Nd-Fe-B 135
5.3 Compositions of the NdFeB sintered magnets
and their magnetic properties 138
5.4 Production process for sintered NdFeB magnets 143
5.5 Progress in the microstructure investigation 155
5.6 Development of HRE-Free and reduced HRE magnets 159
5.7 Ultimate NdFeB sintered magnets for EV traction motors 164
References 166

6 Compression bonded NdFeB permanent magnets 169

John J. Croat
6.1 Introduction 169
6.2 The compression molding process 170
6.3 Isotropic compression bonded NdFeB permanent magnets 174
6.4 Anisotropic hot deformed NdFeB compression bonded magnets 191
6.5 Compression molded HDDR permanent magnets 197
References 206

7 Injection molded permanent magnets 209

Thomas Schliesch
7.1 Introduction 209
Contents vii

7.2 Overview of applications, basic parameters and materials 210

7.3 Manufacturing 218
7.4 Polarization patterns 221
7.5 Design of in-mold magnetized magnets 226
7.6 Design of pulse magnetized magnets 230
7.7 Applications - Sensors 236
7.8 Applications – Electrical machines 243
7.9 Summary 247
Acknowledgments 247
References 248

8 Hot formed NdFeB magnets 251

Yutaka Yoshida, Norio Yoshikawa
8.1 Introduction 251
8.2 Development of hot-formed Nd-Fe-B magnets 252
8.3 Characteristics of hot-deformed Nd-Fe-B magnets 266
8.4 Fundamental research 276
8.5 Applications 290
8.6 Future outlook 294
8.7 Concluding remarks 298
Acknowledgments 298
References 299

9 Bonded Sm-Fe-N permanent magnets 305

J.M.D. Coey, Takahiko Iriyama
9.1 Introduction 305
9.2 Interstitial modification 309
9.3 Basic characteristics of Sm-Fe-N compounds 311
9.4 Magnet processing 317
9.5 Applications 331
9.6 Conclusion 335
Acknowledgments 337
References 337

10 Critical materials for permanent magnets 343

Alexander H. King, Roderick G. Eggert
10.1 Introduction 343
10.2 What is a critical material? 344
10.3 Critical materials in permanent magnets 345
10.4 Effects of criticality on technology evolution, and vice versa 352
10.5 Source diversification 355
10.6 Substitution 358
10.7 Summary 368
Acknowledgments 368
References 368
viii Contents

11 Permanent magnet coatings and testing procedures 371

Steve Constantinides
11.1 Introduction 371
11.2 Magnet characteristics relevant to coating 371
11.3 Coating permanent magnets 377
11.4 Coating test and evaluation 393
11.5 Summary 399
References 401

12 Permanent magnet markets and applications 403

John Ormerod
12.1 Introduction 403
12.2 Permanent magnet materials 407
12.3 Applications and markets 407
12.4 Price/Performance ratio for permanent magnet types – niche
and mass market magnet materials 414
12.5 Current and future major applications and devices 415
References 433
Web link 434

Glossary of magnetic terms 435

Index 439
Contributors

Alberto Bollero IMDEA Nanoscience, Madrid, Spain

J.M.D. Coey Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Steve Constantinides Honeoye, New York, United States
John J. Croat Naples, Florida, (USA)
Roderick G. Eggert Colorado School of Mines and Critical Materials Institute,
Golden, Colorado, (USA)
Takahiko Iriyama Daido Steel Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan
Melania Jasinski Electron Energy Corporation, Landisville, PA, USA
Jinfang Liu Electron Energy Corporation, Landisville, PA, USA
Alexander H. King Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, (USA)
Kalathur Narasimhan P2PTechnologies, Moorestown, NJ
John Ormerod JOC LLC, Loudon, Tennessee, (USA)
Ester M. Palmero IMDEA Nanoscience, Madrid, Spain
Masato Sagawa Daido Steel Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan
Thomas Schliesch Max Baermann GmbH, Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany
Yasuhiro Une Daido Steel Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan
Michael Walmer Electron Energy Corporation, Landisville, PA, USA
Yutaka Yoshida Daido Steel (America) Inc., Victoria, BC, Canada
Norio Yoshikawa Daido Electronics Co., Ltd., Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan
The history of permanent
­magnets 1
John J. Croata, John Ormerodb
a
Naples, Florida, (USA), bJOC LLC, Loudon, Tennessee, (USA)

1.1 Introduction
Modern permanent magnets are now a quintessential component in a wide spectrum
of electomechanical devices including motors, generators, sensors, loudspeakers,
instruments, traveling wave tubes, bearings and clutches that are used in a wide range
of products ranging from automobiles to missiles. Rare earth permanent magnets
have become a critical part of many high-tech products, including personal comput-
ers, MRI, high-capacity hard disk drives (HDD), wind power electric generators and
hybrid and electric vehicle drive motors. In addition, high performance permanent
magnets have allowed the miniaturization of many products such as laptop comput-
ers and other consumer electronic products. In fact, modern rare earth permanent
magnets now play an increasingly important role as an enabler and driver of technol-
ogy. Without NdFeB permanent magnets such products would not have developed
or would not have developed nearly so rapidly. This book provides an overview of
all of the commercially important families of permanent magnets that are currently
manufactured. Although permanent magnets are now used in large quantities, the
development and use of permanent magnets was a relatively slow process. The first
permanent magnets known to humans were naturally occurring lodestones which are
created when bolts of lightning struck deposits of the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4).
Although there are reports about the magical attractive properties of lodestones that
date to as early as the sixth century BC, it was not until about the 11th century AD
that they were first used in compasses, the first practical use of a permanent magnet.
Although the properties of lodestones are comparatively poor, it was not until the mid-
18th century that the first permanent magnets were produced with higher properties
and it was not until the 1930s and the development of alnico magnets that magnetic
properties increased to the point where engineers were able to use permanent magnets
in electomechanical devices like motors and generators. Prior to this, permanent mag-
nets properties were so low that engineers were forced to use electromagnets for these
devices. It was not until the mid-20th century and the development of ferrite magnets
that permanent magnets began to be used in significant quantities.
The increasing use and importance of permanent magnets has been driven largely
by a significant increase in magnetic properties. This is shown in Fig. 1.1, which
displays the chronological development of the various families of permanent magnets
over time and presents a very graphic picture of the evolution that has occurred in
permanent magnets in the last century. This chronology is expressed in terms of maxi-
mum energy product (BH)max, which is the figure of merit most frequently used to
Modern Permanent Magnets. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-88658-1.00004-2
Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Modern Permanent Magnets

Fig. 1.1 The chronological development of permanent magnets since 1917.

rate and compare the various families and grades of magnets. This number is propor-
tional to the energy stored in the magnet and, therefore, the work that can be done by
the magnet. As seen in this figure, between about 1917 and 2000 the maximum energy
product increased by about fifty times. Over the same time, intrinsic coercivity levels
have increased by an almost 100 times, from about 250 Oersted to as high as 25,000
Oersted. The 1950s and 1960s saw the development of sintered ferrite magnets, one
of the most important discoveries in the history of permanent magnets. These magnets
are still the most commonly used in terms of volume, a testament to their unparal-
leled economic efficiency and chemical stability. In 2020, an estimated 900,000 tons
of sintered ferrite magnets were produced. Another major step in the evolution of
permanent magnets was the discovery of Sm-Co magnets in the 1960s and 1970s. The
discovery of Sm-Co magnets stimulated a great period of basic research which even-
tually led to the discovery of NdFeB magnets. As seen in Fig. 1.1, between 1970 and
1990, energy products increased by a factor of 12 compared to those obtained by the
best ferrite magnets. The last 50 years has also seen the development of various grades
of bonded magnets produced by compression and injection molding techniques. The
status and recent developments in all of these families of magnets are presented in
the following chapters. Also included are four chapters of general interest. Chapter 2
provides a discussion of the fundamental properties of permanent magnets so that the
non-specialist readers can more easily follow the discussion of the various families
of magnets. In addition, Chapter 10 provides an overview of the situation regarding
critical material used in magnets, including rare earths and cobalt. Today you will
find many articles in the news about how important key materials are for many high
technology products and permanent magnets are no exception. Since coating are
required for most rare earth based permanent magnets, a review of current coating
The history of permanent ­magnets 3

and coating evaluation technology is provided in Chapter 11. Finally, a chapter on

the markets and major applications for the various families of permanent magnets is
provided in Chapter 12.

1.2 Lodestones: the first permanent magnets

As previously mentioned, the first permanent magnets known and used by humans
were lodestones, which are naturally occurring magnetized pieces of the iron mineral
magnetite (Fe3O4) (Mills 2003; NASA 2020). Lodestones typically contain small
amounts of titanium or other elements which slightly increase the coercivity of the
magnetite and make them less susceptible to demagnetization over time. It appears
that unless these elements are present the magnetite does not have the properties nec-
essary to become or stay permanently magnetized. Lodestones are believed to become
magnetized when lightning strikes the surface of magnetite deposits. It is well known
that there is a magnetic field associated with a bolt of lightning and the prevailing
theory is that fragments of the magnetite rock are ejected from the deposit and these
pieces become instantly magnetized by the lightning strike. The typical lodestone has
relatively poor magnetic properties with a coercive force of about 50 Oersted and an
energy product well below 1 MGOe (7.9 kJ/m3), too low to be included on the chart
in Fig. 1.1. However they strongly attract other iron objects as shown in the photo-
graph in Fig. 1.2. Since this is a natural process, lodestones are still being produced in
magnetite deposits around the world. Lodestones also served another important role
as the means by which the first steel magnets were magnetized.
It is not known when humans first discovered the propertied of lodestones. One
place where lodestones were commonly found was in the prefecture of Magnesia in
the Greek province of Thessaly and the name magnet or magnes comes from this

Fig. 1.2 A demonstration of the ability of loadstone to attract iron objects (Annet 1921).
4 Modern Permanent Magnets

region. The earliest known written reference to them was made by the sixth century
BC Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus who reported on the ability of the lodestone
to attract pieces of iron and other lodestones. Lodestones are also referred to in early
Chinese chronicles that date to as early as the fourth century BC. Most historians
credit the Chinese with the development of the first compasses but when they actu-
ally did this is still being debated. The first incontestable reference to the use of a
magnetized needle for navigation appears in the Dream Pool Essay written by Song
Dynasty writer Shea Kua in 1086 CE. This essay also describes how an iron needle
was magnetized by rubbing it against a lodestone and then used in a compass by sus-
pending it from a single silk thread. This was probably the world’s first practical use
of a permanent magnet (Needham 1962; New World Encyclopedia 2020).
At this time historians are unsure if compass technology spread to the rest of the
world or was independently discovered. Many historians believe that the technology
was probably transferred to both Europe and the Islamic world from China by traders
traveling down the Silk Roads. The earliest European reference to the compass used
for navigation is found in the book De naturis rerum (on The Nature of Things) writ-
ten by the English scholar Alexander Neckam in about 1190. However, he refers to the
compass as a common navigation tool, an indication that it was being used somewhat
earlier. One argument used for an indigenous European discovery is that the earli-
est European compasses had sixteen basic divisions whereas early Chinese versions
had twenty-four In the Islamic world, the earliest reference to the use of a compass
for navigation is found in The Book of the Merchant’s Treasure, written by Baylak
al-Kibjaki in about 1282. However, the author describes having witnessed the use of
a compass on a ship some forty years earlier. By the late-12th century the compass
became widely used for navigation and is believed to have resulted in a significant
increase in world trade.

1.3 Early permanent magnet studies

Humans had long recognized that there appeared to have two distinct poles on lode-
stone magnets and came to call them south-seeking and north-seeking poles. They also
tried to find a magnetic monopole by cutting the magnets in two. Of course, they sim-
ply produced two new magnets that seemed to have weaker properties. For some time
scholars and navigators did not understand why the magnet rotated into a north-south
direction and some, including the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, speculated
that the magnets were being oriented by the north star, which they believed must be a
giant celestial magnet. The first serious study of permanent magnets was carried out
by the English physician and scholar William Gilbert near the end of the 15th century.
Gilbert had a great interest in magnets and the strange directional properties of the
compass needle. Some of his early discoveries were that the magnetic strength of
lodestones could be increased by adding iron tips or keepers and reported that doing
so could increase the weight of iron that could be lifted by a lodestone by a factor of
five. He also discovered that the magnetism of a lodestone could be destroyed by heat-
ing to high temperature. He also reinvented the method of magnetizing iron needles by
The history of permanent ­magnets 5

rubbing them with lodestone, a practice first used by the Chinese. Gilbert was also the
first to recognize that the best artificial magnets were produced from “hardened iron”
which contained higher levels of carbon as opposed to “soft iron” which contained
lower levels of carbon. Of course, the higher carbon levels resulted in slighter higher
coercivity, enabling the magnet to retain its magnetization.
One of his most important experiments was to trace the magnetic field of a spherical
piece of lodestone with a compass. He discovered that magnetic flux lines extended
from the poles and were circular in shape and from this he eventually made his most
important discovery, that the earth itself was a great magnet with a north and south
pole. For the first time it was known why a compass aligned itself in a north-south
direction. He published his extensive work in the book De Magnete, Magneticisque
Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure (On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies
and on That Great Magnet the Earth) (Gilbert 1600). This book became the most
influential book on magnetism for the next two centuries and shattered many popular
myths and theories that were prevalent at the time. These included the widely held
belief that a magnetic field could cure common diseases and that garlic, goat’s blood
or diamonds could counteract a magnetic field. In an age when much that was written
about permanent magnets was little more than superstition, Gilbert’s work stands out
as one of careful scientific inquiry.
The Relationship between Magnetism and Electricity: Gilbert also had an inter-
est in the properties of static electricity. He carefully observed the attraction between
two pieces of amber that had been rubbed to build up a charge of static electricity
but concluded that this force was different than that between two magnetized bod-
ies. Among his observations was that the electric force was a surface phenomenon
whereas the magnetic force was a property of the entire body of the magnet. He also
noted that the electric force (the spark of electricity) became dissipated when trans-
ferred to another body but the magnetic force remained constant when interacting
with another iron body. He was the first to use the terms “electric force” and “electric
attraction” to describe the attraction between the two pieces of amber. To describe
this electric attraction he coined the word electricus which means “like amber” from
the Greek word elektron for amber. Albert’s book De Magnete would provide the
first tentative studies of both magnetism and electricity and he sensed that they were
somehow connected. However, it would be almost two centuries after publication of
this book before scientists would discover the close relationship between electricity
and magnetism.
One of the most important events leading to this discovery was the development of
the first battery by the Italian physicist Alessandra Volta in the year 1800. His-early
batteries consisted of two dissimilar metals immersed in an electrolyte. Although he
investigated many different combinations, his best results were obtained using plates
of zinc and copper with either a weak sulfuric acid solution or salt brine electrolyte.
The importance of the development was that it allowed the production of a continu-
ous electric current for the first time. All previous electricity studies were carried out
on static electricity obtained by rubbing an object like amber. In 1820 the Danish
physicist Hans Christian Oersted discovered that electricity passing through a con-
ductor produced a magnetic field by observing that the flowing current deflected the
6 Modern Permanent Magnets

needle of a compass. This demonstration would not have been possible without the
development of the battery by Volta. Later in the same year the French physicists
Jean-Baptiste Biot and Felix Savant discovered that a current-carrying wire exerts a
magnetic force that is inversely proportional to the distance from the wire. This was
a very important discovery because it demonstrated for the first time the possibility
that electricity and magnetism could be combined to do work. Also during the 1820s,
the French physicist Andre-Marie Ampere measured the force between two current
carrying conductors and developed Ampere’s Law, the first mathematical equation
establishing the relationship between electricity and magnetism. This law provided a
way to calculate the magnetic field that is produced as a result of an electric current
moving through a wire of any shape, including a solenoid.
These early discoveries eventually led to the invention of the electromagnet by
the Englishman William Sturgeon in 1824. The invention of the electromagnet was
one of the most important developments in the history of magnetism because it led to
the development of the first important electromechanical devices, including the first
practical electric motors. A rendering of Sturgeon’s first electromagnet from a paper
that he gave to the Royal Society in London in 1824 is shown in Fig. 1.3. Sturgeon
activated the electromagnet by turning on the current from a batter through a switch
which consisted of a small cup of liquid mercury. We see again how important the
development of the battery was to the future understanding of electricity. Without
the battery to provide a steady current, Sturgeon’s and other experiments involving the
study of electricity could not have taken place.
In combination these pioneering discoveries led to the first primitive electome-
chanical devices, including electric motors and generators. Although the electric
motor resulted from the combined inventions and innovations of many different
scientists, credit for the first working motors go to the Prussian scientist Moritz
Jacobi in 1834 who built a motor rated at 15 W to power a boat. In the same year the

Fig. 1.3 A rendering of William Sturgeon’s first electromagnet (Henry 1824).

The history of permanent ­magnets 7

American team of Thomas Davenport and Orange Smiley built a motor rated at 4.5 W.
Their motors could rotate at 1000 rpm and were used to power a number of devices,
including a printing press. Although these early electric motors used both steel bar
magnets and electromagnets for their magnetic circuit, the permanent magnets did
not have the strength to provide high performance and were soon replaced entirely
by electromagnets. It was not until the discovery of alnico magnets in the 1930s that
permanent magnets once again came to be used in motors. Of course, today electric
motors are by far the largest single application for permanent magnets, accounting for
an estimated 45 percent of the production of all types of magnets by volume.

1.4 The era of steel permanent magnets

Compound Steel Magnets: The first commercially available permanent magnets
were compound steel magnets produced by bundling together a number of small iron
rods or needles that were magnetized by rubbing them unidirectionally with a lode-
stone magnet. These magnets were referred to as “artificial magnets” and there were
a number of techniques used to produce them. One of the most effective was placing
one end of the iron rod in contact with one pole of a lodestone and then repeatedly
rubbing along the length of the iron rod or needle. The rubbing is believed to slightly
heated or vibrated the iron rod, causing the domain walls to move more easily and
magnetize the iron. Evidence for this is that if oil or other lubricant was applied to
the iron before the rubbing, the magnetization achieved was much reduced. Although
artificial steel magnets were produced by this technique in many different regions,
notably France and Russia, it was in England that the technology reached its zenith
and London eventually became the center for the world’s first permanent magnet
industry. This would have been near the start of the Industrial Revolution which is
usually considered to have begun in England and Scotland in about 1750.
The first person to produce large compound magnets by bundling together a
number of smaller iron magnets was the Englishman Servinton Savery in the 1730s
(Savery 1730). Savory used lodestones to magnetize small iron rods measuring about
1.25 mm (1/20 inch) in diameter x 70 mm (2–¾ inch) in length. He then assembled
37 of these small rods in rectangular shaped bundles. To increase the holding power
of his magnets, Savory attached soft iron keepers to the ends in the same manner as
Gilbert. He then used these large bundles to magnetize larger solid iron bar magnets
by what he referred as the “divided touch” method. This method, involved position-
ing two of these bundled magnets with opposing polarity over the iron bar to be
magnetized and then drawing the two magnets apart. A small gap was left between
the two poles of the magnets as shown in the drawing in Fig. 1.4(a). Because of the
high permeability of iron, the magnetic field produced by the two magnet bundles
would not penetrate very deeply into the iron bar being magnetized, greatly limiting
the thickness of the iron bars that could be fully. magnetized. However Savory is
reported to have produced iron bar magnets measuring as large as 400 × 19 × 19 mm
(16 × 3/4 × ¾ inch) by his divided touch technique and that these magnets had sub-
stantial holding power.
8 Modern Permanent Magnets

Fig. 1.4 (a) The divided touch method used by Servinton Savery. (b) The modified divided
touch method used by Gowin Knight.

Another Englishman who became particularly renowned for the manufacture of

large magnets from hardened steel was Gowin Knight (1713–72) (Knight 1744). Like
Savory, he produced large magnets by bundling together smaller magnets that were
also magnetized by the divided touch method. However, he developed a modifica-
tion of Savory’s technique which involved positioning two bundled magnets at an
angle relative to the surface of the bar to be magnetized. This technique is shown
in Fig. 1.4(b). Knight used this technique to produce quite powerful bar magnets
typically measuring 38 × 1.27 × 0.635 cm (15 × 1/2 × ¼ inch) which he sold for 10
guineas each, a considerable sum in 18th century England. These iron bar magnets
were quite powerful and one is reported as being able to lift 28 times its weight of
iron. Knight actually kept this technique a secret during his working life but it was
revealed by an associate following his death in 1772. Although Knight produced very
powerful bar magnets for the time, he was most renowned for building very large
compound magnets by bundling together his bar magnets. His-largest was a magnet
measuring 1.6 × 0.15 × 0.1 m (5 foot 4 inches x 6 inches x 4 inches). This magnet was
comprised of 480 separate bar magnets and was eventually used by Michael Faraday
for some of his experiments involving magnetism. Gowin eventually became wealthy
by manufacturing not only large magnets but also high quality compasses for sailing
ships, particularly for the British Royal Navy.
Steel Alloy Magnets: An important step in the history of permanent magnets was
the development of the first steel alloy magnets during the 19th century. This devel-
opment was made possible because metal workers were finally able to build furnaces
that could exceed 1,538 °C (2,800 F), the melting point of iron. The first of these steel
alloy magnets were tungsten magnets containing about 0.6 wt. percent carbon and
5.0 to 5.5 wt. percent tungsten. Magnets with Hci = 70 Oe (5.6 kA/m), Br = 9.5 kG
(0.95 T) and BHmax = 0.39 MGOe (3.1 kJ/m3) were obtained. These magnets, which
were developed in Germany and Austria between 1883–85, were the first important
alloy magnets. By about 1885 chromium steel magnets contained about 6.0 wt.
The history of permanent ­magnets 9

percent Cr, were also developed. These magnets became particularly popular during
World War I when the supply of tungsten became limited.
The next important steel alloy magnet development took place in Japan where
physicist Kotaro Honda invented KS steel permanent magnets in 1917 (Honda and
Saitô 1920). The typical composition of these steel magnets was 0.4–0.8 wt. per-
cent carbon, 30–40 wt. percent cobalt, 5–9 wt. percent. tungsten, 1.5–3 wt. percent
chromium with the balance iron. The cast magnets were tempered by heating at
950 °C and then quenching in heavy oil. Magnets with a cobalt content of 30 percent
achieved Hci = 250 Oe (20 kA/m), Br = 9.0 kG (0.9 T) and (BH)max = 0.94 MGOe
(7.5 kJ/m3). The coercivity values achieved were roughly three times those obtained
with tungsten steel magnets. KS magnets were the first permanent magnets developed
with an energy product close to 1 MGOe and is the first permanent magnet with an
energy product high enough to be included on this chart in Fig. 1.1. These permanent
magnets are those designated KS-Steel, where KS stands for Kichizaemon Sumitomo,
who was the head of the family that provided financial support for the research lead-
ing to the invention. The development of KS steel magnets would be the first in a long
list of permanent magnet discoveries by Japanese scientists that occurred during the
20th century.

1.5 The discovery of alnico permanent magnets

One of the most historically important families of permanent magnets are Alnico mag-
nets, which are iron alloys containing Al, Ni and Co. They are characterized by high
magnetic remanence but low coercivity. Because of the low coercive force, they are
subject to demagnetization and must be used in a closed magnetic circuit or with a high
length/diameter ratio. Alnico alloys have some of the highest Curie temperatures of any
magnetic material, around 800 °C (1,470 F), although the maximal working temperature
is normally limited to around 525 °C (975 F). Until the discovery of Sm-Co magnets in
the 1970s they were the strongest permanent magnets available and were the first mag-
nets used in large amounts in electromechanical devices like motors and sensors. The
first alnico magnets were produced by the Japanese metallurgist Tokushichi Mishima
in 1932 (Mishima 1932). His-first magnets were cast, isotropic alloys containing
25 at. percent nickel, 10 at. percent aluminum with the balance Fe. These alloys achieved
an energy product of about 1 MGOe and a coercive force of about 400 Oe (32 kA/m),
which was almost twice that of the best steel magnets available at that time. These are
the MK-Steel magnets referred to in Fig. 1.1 where MK is an acronym for Mitsujima ka
magnetic, ‘Mitsujima ka’ being the name of Mishima’s childhood home. These magnets
were greatly improved by adding cobalt, which substituted for part of the iron, and the
addition of Cu and other additive like Ti and Nb to improve the coercivity. By the end
of the 1930s Alnico magnets with energy products between 1.5 and 1.8 MGOe (12 and
14.3 kJ/m3) were being produced on a commercial basis.
In 1938, a major advancement in these materials occurred when it was discov-
ered that anisotropic alnico magnets could be produced by annealing the alloys in a
magnetic field (Oliver and Sheldon 1938). This discovery led to the development of
10 Modern Permanent Magnets

permanent magnets with energy products that were up 5 MGOe (40 kJ/m3). These
anisotropic magnets eventually became known as Alnico 5 through 9 grades of mag-
nets. Further improvements to these anisotropic magnets was made by directional
cooling of the cast alloys before annealing in a magnetic field. Energy products as
high as 11 MGOe (87 kJ/m3) were produced and these are the magnets designated
Columnar-Alnico in Fig. 1.1. Continued development eventually led to alnico mag-
nets with energy products as high as 13 MGOe (103.5 kJ/m3) with Br = 11.5 kG
(1.15 T) and Hci = 1.5 kOe (119 kA/m).
Most alnico magnets are produced by casting in sand molds. After removing from
the molds the magnets are first given a high temperature solutioning treatment at
about 1,250 °C . The magnets are then slowly cooled (1–1.5 °C/min.) from about 850
to 750 °C in a magnetic field of about 1,500 Gauss. The magnets are then given a
hear treatment to improve coercivity. This varies between manufacturers but a typical
hear treatment might be to hold for 2 h at 625 °C, then cool over a period of 6 h to
560 °C and then hold at 560 °C for 16 h. In some instances a chill plate is added to
the bottom of the molds during the casting process to achieve a degree of directional
cooling. This is one means by which columnar alnico magnets are produced. These
magnets have the highest Br values of the various grades of alnico magnets
The hard magnetic properties of alnico magnets rely on the shape anisotropy asso-
ciated with a two phase nanostructure comprising ferromagnetic Fe-Co needles in a
matrix of weakly magnetic Al-Ni. A TEM of the typical anisotropic microstructure
that forms when these materials are annealed in a magnetic field is shown in Fig. 1.5.
The micrograph is for an Alnico 8 type alloy with a composition of 36.2 wt. percent
cobalt, 14.0 wt. percent nickel, 6.6 wt. percent aluminum, 5.0 wt. percent titanium
and 3.0 wt. percent Co after annealing in a magnetic field of 1,500 Gauss. The aver-
age width and length of the needles are about 50 nm (0.05 μm) and 500 nm (0.5 μm),
respectively. It is this high L/D ration which provides the high shape anisotropy and
the source of the coercive force in these type materials. The coercivity mechanism in

Fig. 1.5 TEM of the microstructure that forms in an alnico magnet when the alloy is
annealed in the presence of a magnetic field (Iwama and Takeuchi 1974).
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“Yes. We’d better rouse the men and get right up there. There may
be danger if the valley gets flooded.”
Tug did not wait for the others. His words had expressed only palely
the alarm he felt. If the break in the dam was a serious one—and it
must be to have reached the mesa so quickly—the Quarter Circle
must inevitably be flooded. He knew Betty was at her ranch. One of
the men had mentioned in his hearing that he had seen her and Ruth
going up the afternoon before. He was worried—very greatly
worried.
His long strides carried him over the ground fast, but his fears moved
faster. Presently he quickened his pace to a run. Dawn was at hand.
He was splashing through water five or six inches deep.
Swinging round a bend in the road, he pulled up for a moment in
dismay. Through the gap in the hogback, beyond which was the
Quarter Circle D E ranch, a solid stream of water was pouring. Its
flow was as steady and as constant as that of a river.
Cut off from the road, he splashed through a deepening stream to
the foot of the hogback. It was a stiff quarter of an hour’s climb to
reach the rock-rim below the ridge. He grudged the two or three
minutes’ delay in finding a practicable ascent up the twenty-five-foot
rim, for he was in a desperate hurry. Hand over hand he went up the
face of the rock, clinging to projecting knobs, to faults in the surface,
and to shrubbery rooted in narrow crevices. Over the edge of the
sandstone he drew himself to the level surface above.
One glance from the summit showed him a valley submerged. Most
of the cattle had evidently escaped to the higher ground, warned by
the first of the flood as it poured down. He could see the upper
hillside dotted with them. The barn, the bunkhouse, the ranch house
itself, were all gone. Fragments of them might be made out on the
surface of the lake that had formed—if one could call a pent-up,
raging torrent by such a name.
His eyes swept the valley in search of the ranch house. He found
one of the eaves sticking out of the current. All the rest of the
overturned building was under water.
The strength oozed from his body. He was terribly shaken. If Betty
was in the house—and he had no reason to suppose that she was
not—she must have gone down in the flood. He could not, he would
not believe it. And yet—
Again his glance moved down the valley. His gaze stopped at some
rock spires known as the “Steeples.” Some part of a building, much
battered by the waves, was caught there. Even as he looked, his
heart leaped. For from a window a white flag was streaming. He
could see now that some one was leaning out and waving a sheet or
a tablecloth.
He hurried down the hogback, every nerve of him quivering with
desire to answer that appeal for help. He must get to her—at once—
before the smashing current tore down and devoured her precarious
and doubtful haven. Even as he went leaping down the hillside to the
shore, his mind was considering ways and means.
A swimmer could not make it straight through the tumbling waters to
the Steeples. He would be swept down and miss his goal. From what
point should he start? He tried to decide this as he ran up the valley
close to the edge of the water.
Opposite the point where the pasture-wire fence ran up the hill, a spit
of higher land extended into the flooded area. He found a cedar post
flung up by the waves.
Tug took off his shoes and his coat. He waded out, pushing the post
before him. Presently he was in deep water. The swift current was
sweeping him before it. He fought to get farther out in the stream, but
he saw that the fencepost was impeding him. It came to him that he
would be carried past the Steeples if he could not make more
headway across the valley.
He let the fencepost go and struck straight across with a strong, long
stroke. The drag of the rushing water was very powerful, and he had
continually to watch out for floating planks and timbers racing toward
the gap between the hogbacks.
The cold from the melted snow in the uplands chilled him to the
marrow. He had not fully rebuilt his blood from the illness he had
been through. Before he had been in the stream many minutes, he
knew that the force in him was failing. The velocity of the flow was
too mighty for him to resist. Tossed here and there by conflicting sets
of the current, he drifted as helplessly as a chip in a rough sea. His
arms moved feebly. His legs were as though weighted. Soon now, he
had no doubt, his head would sink and the waters close above it.
Then, out of a clear sky, a miracle occurred. It took the form of a
rope that dropped from heaven, descended in a loop over his head
and one arm, tightened, and dragged him from the racing channel
into an eddy.
Three men were at the other end of the rope. They were standing on
the roof of a one-story building that had stranded on a submerged
island. A group of three cottonwoods had caught the floating building
and held it against the pressure of the flood.
The exhausted swimmer was dragged to the roof. He lay there,
completely done, conscious, but no more than that.
“Where in Mexico you haided for, anyhow?” a voice drawled.
Hollister looked up. The speaker was the cowboy Dusty, who had
once dragged him back to the Diamond Bar K ranch at the end of a
rope. One of the others he recognized as the lank rider Burt, who
also had been present on that occasion.
“Lucky you were here,” the rescued man said. “I was all in.”
“Tha’s twice I done roped you,” Dusty reminded him. “I sure got
bawled out proper last time. Say, howcome you in this Arctic Ocean,
anyhow?”
“I was trying to reach Betty Reed. She’s in a broken bit of the house
at the Steeples. At least some one is.”
“It’s her all right. We drifted down here ’bout an hour ago. She’s been
singin’.”
“Singing?”
“Hymns. ‘How Firm a Foundation,’ an’ like that. Her an’ the kid an’
Mandy. Say, fellow, it’s been one heluva night if any one asks you.”
Burt spoke. “Was you tryin’ to swim to where Miss Betty’s at? You’ve
got guts. You didn’t hardly have a chanct with all the water in the hills
a-b’ilin’ down.”
“She can’t be far from here if you heard her sing.”
“Not fur. Mebbe a hundred yards. Mebbe twice that fur. But I wouldn’t
tackle that swim for a million dollars. I never claimed to be no fish,”
Dusty explained.
“Downstream from here?”
“Yep. Over thataway. See the Steeples through the trees?” The
cowboy asked for information: “How much longer do you reckon the
water from yore dam is gonna keep on comin’?”
“Not much longer now.”
“Well, I’ve sure had a plenty. An’ they call this a dry country.”
“Wish you’d rub my arms and legs. I’m cold,” the engineer said.
They massaged him till he glowed.
Tug stepped to the edge of the roof and studied the current.
Presently he spoke to the others. “Much obliged for your help, boys.
I’ll be going now.”
“Going where?” asked Dusty, mouth open from astonishment.
“To the Steeples.”
“You darned son of a gun! What’s got into you, fellow? You been
drowned once to-day—’most. Ain’t that enough?”
“I can make it there now.”
“Never in the world.” The puncher was emphatic. “We come through
by the skin of our teeth, with a roof under us. This ain’t no swimmin’-
pool. If you know when you’re well off, you’ll stay where you’re at.”
Tug did not wait to argue the matter. His business would not wait. He
waved a hand and dived from the roof.
The problem before him was a simple one. Whether it could be
solved, he did not know. While being carried down, he must fight his
way as far across the valley as possible. He might be swept close to
the Steeples and yet not be able to make a landing. If he failed to do
this, he was lost.
He did not stop to see what headway he was making. All his energy
went into the strokes with which he cleft the water. With every ounce
he had he fought to gain distance. Within a minute or two he would
know whether he had won.
A log careened down. He stopped swimming, in order not to be
struck. The current flung him round. Just below him were the spires
of rock for which he was making.
In another moment the current was driving him past. A long pole
stuck out into the water from the wreck of the house and rose and
fell with the swell. He caught hold of this and flung his body across it.
Precariously he clung, several times almost losing his hold. He
edged along it, carefully, until he had worked into the shell of the
house. One wall was gone entirely. Another had been partially ripped
out. Through these openings the river raced.
Tug let go the telephone pole to which he had been clinging and
swam to the stairway. Here he found a foothold and sank down, half
in the water and half out. Again the strength had gone out of him.
Then, marvelously, as he lay there panting, the icy chill clutching at
his heart, there came to him a clear, warm voice raised in a hymn.
Betty’s voice! His heart exulted. He listened to the brave words,
gallantly sung.
She was singing, “Hold the Fort.”
 CHAPTER XXXVIII
BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT

“Do you fink Jesus will come, Betty?” a small voice inquired
anxiously.
“I think he’ll send some one, dear—Dad or Lon or—some one.”
Ruth considered. “Do you fink he’ll send him in time for bweakfast?
I’m offul hungwy.”
Betty did not know about breakfast, but aloud she quite confidently
thought so. Hope was resurgent in her heart. The worst of the flood
was over. Its level had already receded two or three inches. She had
just discovered that. Within the past hour its fury had beaten in and
torn away one wall of the house. Another had been partially
destroyed. The shell of a building that was left could not much longer
endure. But she did not believe that much time would pass before a
rescue was attempted. A few minutes since she had heard Dusty’s
cheerful shout, and, though he was probably marooned himself, it
was a comfort to know that her party was not the only one in the
devastated valley.
“My fry-pans an’ my cook-stove an’ my kitchen are plumb scattered
every which way. I reckon I nevah will see them no mo’,” Mandy
mourned. “An’ las’ week I done bought dem luminous dishes frum
dat peddler.”
“Aluminum, Mandy.”
“Das all right. Luminous or luminum, I ain’ carin’ which. What I wuz
sayin’ is—”
Mandy stopped, to let out a yell of fright. A dripping figure, hatless,
coatless, shoeless, was standing at the head of the stairs. The face
was white and haggard. The body drooped against the door jamb for
support.
Straight from Betty’s heart a cry of joy leaped. He had come to her.
Through all the peril of the flood he had come to her.
“Tug!” she cried, irradiate, and moved to him with hands
outstretched.
He was profoundly touched, but his words reflected the
commonplace of the surface mind. “I’m wet,” he warned.
She laughed that to scorn, a little hysterically, and went blindly into
his arms, a smirr of mist in her eyes. All night she had been under a
strain, had carried the responsibility of facing peril for all of them.
Now she cast that burden, without a moment’s hesitation, on broader
shoulders.
His lip trembled. “I was afraid,” he whispered, as his arms went
round her. “Horribly afraid till Dusty told me he’d heard you singing.”
“Oh, I’m glad you’ve come! I’m glad!” she wailed softly.
He held her close, as though he were afraid that even yet malign fate
might try to snatch her from him. Beyond a shadow of a doubt he
knew now that if they lived nothing could keep them apart. She had
been right. The sin that had held him from her was a dead and
shriveled thing. It was no more a part of him than are discarded
horns part of a living stag.
Tug murmured, with emotion, “Thank God! Thank God!”
Into this stress of feeling Ruth interjected herself. She saw no reason
for being out of the picture.
“Did Jesus send you?” she asked, tugging at his shirt-sleeve.
He did not quite understand.
Ruth explained, with the impatience of superiority. “Why, don’chu
know? ‘Hold the fort, f’r I am comin’, Jesus signals still.’ Betty said ’f
he didn’t come he’d send some one.”
“I’m sure God sent him,” Betty said, her voice unsteady.
“Bress de Lawd,” Mandy chimed in. “Now you git us off’n this yere
busted house, Mr. Man, fer I don’ like no rampagin’ roun’ thisaway on
no ocean v’yages.”
Betty explained that he could not get them off just yet. They would
have to wait to be rescued.
“Whaffor he come ’f he ain’ gwine rescue us?” Mandy sniffed.
The girl smiled into the eyes of her lover. She knew why he had
come, and in his presence by some magic the fear had dropped from
her heart. The current dragging at their tottering place of refuge
could not shake her sure confidence that all was well with them.
Hollister looked the situation over with the trained eye of an
engineer. He must get them to the rocks before what was left of the
house collapsed. But how? He could not take them with him through
the waves beating against the sandstone. It was not certain that he
could make a safe landing himself.
But if he could reach the flat ledge above, he might contrive some
kind of bridge out of the dead and down trees lying there. It would be
a hazardous affair, but he was in no position to be choice about ways
and means.
Briefly he explained to Betty his plan. She clung to him, tremulously,
reluctant to let him go.
“Must you?” she murmured, and shuddered at the black waters
rushing past. “Must you go in again? Couldn’t we just wait here?”
“’Fraid not, dear. You feel how the house is shaking. It can’t last long.
We’ve got to reach the rocks.”
“It’s been pretty awful, Tug. When the wall was swept out, I thought
—” She shook that appalling memory out of her mind and smiled at
him, shyly, adorably. “I’m not afraid as long as you’re here.”
“Don’t be afraid,” he reassured. “I think I can do it, Betty.”
“Can’t I help?”
“Yes. Knot together two sheets to make a rope. I’ll need it later.”
He dropped from a window, found himself caught in an irresistible
tide that swept him away like a chip. It was all over in a moment. He
was whirled round and dashed into the rocks. The impact knocked
the breath out of him. He clung, desperately, to a jutting spar of
sandstone, hardly conscious of what he was doing.
The life went out of him. When he came to consciousness, he lay on
the shelf, feet and legs still in the water. He noticed that his head
was bleeding and for an instant wondered what it was all about.
Betty’s voice reached him. “Tug! Tug!”
She was leaning out of the window of the tossing house.
He rose and waved a hand. Strength flowed back to him in waves.
The haze lifted from his brain. He visualized the problem of the
bridge and set about meeting it.
The dead trees on the ledge were young pines. They had been
broken off from the roots, probably blown from the crevices because
they were insufficiently rooted. He dragged one to the edge of the
sloping surface of the boulder and raised it till it was upright.
“Back from the window, Betty,” he shouted.
Her head and shoulders disappeared. He balanced the tree-trunk
carefully, measured the distance again with his eye, and let it fall
toward the house. The end of it crashed through the window panes
and landed on the casing.
Tug dragged forward a second pole, shouted a warning to Betty
once more, and balanced the pine carefully. A second later it toppled
forward, urged by a slight push, and the butt dropped into the casing
beside the others.
On this frail bridge Tug crept on hands and knees toward the
building. The house tilted down and back. The end of the logs
slipped. Betty clung to them, desperately, while Hollister edged
forward.
“I’ll take that rope,” he told the girl.
Mandy handed out the sheets. As the bridge swayed and dipped, he
knotted the linen round the logs, tying them together in two places. It
was a hazardous business, but he got through with it safely.
A few seconds later he was in the bedroom.
“Ruth first,” said Betty.
Tug nodded. “Tie her to my back. She might get frightened and let
loose.”
The child whimpered as he crept out upon the logs.
“Betty’s coming too in a minute,” her sister called cheerfully. “Just
shut your eyes, Ruthie, and hang tight.”
The narrow suspension bridge swung dizzily with every lift of the
racing flood. Tug inched along, his feet locked together beneath the
water that reached for him. Once he lost his balance from a lurch of
the logs, but he managed to recover himself. Ruth screamed.
“All right, dear,” he told her, and presently was pulling himself upon
the rocks.
Hollister left the little girl there and recrossed to the building. Betty
crawled out on the bridge, the man close behind her.
She looked down, and was appalled. The pour of the stream that
was so close carried the power of a mountain river in flood. Her body
swayed. She could never get across—never in the world.
The voice of her lover came, strong and comforting. “Steady, Bess.
We’re all right.”
His assurance went through her veins like wine. Tug was behind her.
Of course, they would reach the rocks.
The logs dipped almost to the water at the middle. A monster that
seemed to be alive dragged at her feet.
“Oh, Tug!” she cried.
“Keep going. We’re almost across.”
And presently they were, safe on the slanting sandstone shelf.
He returned for Mandy.
“I cayn’t nevah git acrost on that there rickety rack,” she moaned. “I’d
bust dem poles spang in two.”
Hollister was not sure himself that they would hold her weight, but he
knew that before many minutes the house was going to break up. He
coaxed and urged her to the attempt, and after she began the
crossing he clung to the end of the bridge with all his weight.
How Mandy got across none of them ever knew. She stopped twice
to announce that she could not do it, but after more exhortation
continued edging along. To the very moment when Betty reached a
hand to her, she insisted that she was going to be drownded.
Not three minutes after Tug had crossed to the rock shelf, the shell
of the house shivered and collapsed. It went out with a rush, and
presently was nothing but a lot of floating planks.
Betty watched it go, with trembling lips. “If you hadn’t come,” she
murmured.
His soul went out to her in swift response. “I had to come. It wasn’t
chance. That’s how it was meant to be. Why not? Why wouldn’t I be
near enough to come when you needed me?”
She caught his hand. “You dear boy,” she breathed.
“There’s nobody like you—nobody I ever met,” he cried in a whisper,
as lovers have done since Adam first wooed Eve. “Could any one
have done more for me than you? Your faith rebuilt my life. If I’m
ever anything, I owe it to you. And now—the greatest gift of all. Why
to me? Why not to Merrick, far more worthy of you?”
In her smile was the world-old wisdom Leonardo has expressed in
his Mona Lisa.
“Love doesn’t go by merit, does it? I wonder if Justin isn’t too worthy.
He’s perfect in himself—complete. He doesn’t need me.”
“God knows I need you, if that’s a reason,” he said humbly. “But it’s
not fair to you.”
“Was it Justin who swam through the flood to save me?” she asked
softly, her face aglow.
“He’s doing a much more sensible thing—building a raft to get you
ashore.”
“Who wants her lover to do the sensible thing?” She turned to him
impulsively, warm, tender, luminous, a rapt young thing caught in a
surge of generous emotion. “I’d want mine to do just what you did—
come through water or through fire instantly when I needed you. I’d
love you now, if I never had before.”
“And if Merrick had come?”
“He couldn’t come. It wouldn’t be Justin to do that—to fling his life
away on a thousandth chance. Don’t you see, Tug? He doesn’t tread
the mountain-tops—and you do.”
“I see you’re always giving. If I could only wipe the slate out, Betty—
begin my life over again to-day,” he said wistfully.
In her deep, soft eyes a dream lingered. “That’s just what I want—to
begin everything with you. It’s silly, but I’m jealous of all those years
when I didn’t have you—of all the sorrows and joys you’ve had, of
the girls and the men you’ve known—because I can’t share them
with you. I’ve got to know all you think and share all your hopes. If
you ever think, ‘She’s just my wife—’”
“Never that. Always, ‘She’s my wife,’” he promised.
“As long as you say it that way, Tug,” she murmured, and clung to
him with a little feminine savagery of possession.
Ruth, impatient at being ignored, again claimed attention.
“Talk to me, too,” she ordered.
Tug caught her small hand in his. “Of course, we’ll talk to little sister.”
“Are you my big brother?” she asked.
Betty stooped and snatched the child to her. “He’s going to be,” she
whispered.
Upon this Ruth set the seal of her approval. “Goody, I like him. An’
he’ll get me heaps ’n’ heaps of tandy. More’n anybody.”
 CHAPTER XXXIX
THE TURN OF A CROOKED TRAIL

Jake Prowers had intended, while the work of destruction was

under way, to return to his ranch and let it take its course. The body
of Cig would be found, and the tramp would be blamed for the
disaster. It would be remembered that he had already tried once to
blow up the workers in the tunnel.
The cowman knew that public opinion would not hold him blameless.
He would be suspected of instigating the crime, but, with Cig out of
the way, nothing could be proved. There would not be the least
evidence that could touch him. He had done a good job in getting rid
of the New York crook. Moreover, he had not lifted a hand against
the man. Was he to blame because a drunken loafer lay down and
deliberately went to sleep where a charge of dynamite would shortly
blow him up?
The wise course, Prowers knew, was to retire for a time to the
background and to be greatly surprised when he was told that the
dam had gone out. But there was in him a desire stronger than
prudence. He wanted to see the flood racing through the Quarter
Circle D E and its waters being wasted on the Flat Tops which they
were to have reclaimed. Half his pleasure in the evil thing he had
done would be lost if he could not be on the ground to gloat over
Clint Reed and Merrick.
Before the night had fully spent itself, he was on his way to the
Quarter Circle D E. The sun was almost up over the hilltops by the
time he looked down from the rim of the little valley upon the havoc
he had wrought. The ranch buildings were all gone, though he could
see battered remnants of them in the swirling stream. Fences had
been rooted out. A young orchard below the house was completely
submerged.
The destruction was even greater than he had anticipated. It had not
occurred to him that any lives would be lost, but he judged now that
the men at the ranch had probably been drowned.
His interest drew him closer, to a point from which he could see the
lower part of the valley. He made here two discoveries. Three men
were out in the flooded district on the roof of a low building. Another
group, on the shore line below him, were building two rafts, evidently
with a rescue in mind.
One of the workmen caught sight of Prowers and called to him. Jake
decided it was better to go down, since he had been recognized.
He glanced at the dam engineer and subdued a cackle. It might
easily be possible to go too far just now.
“You move yore reservoir down here last night, Merrick?” he asked
maliciously. “Wisht I’d ’a’ known. I’d kinda liked to ’a’ seen you
bringin’ it down.”
Merrick said nothing. He continued to trim an edge from a plank with
a hatchet. But though he did not look at Prowers his mind was full of
him. He had been thinking about him all morning. Why had the dam
gone out? Had it been dynamited? Was this the work of him and his
hangers-on?
“’Seems like you might ’a’ let a fellow know,” the cowman
complained in his high, thin voice.
Black appeared, dragging a plank he had salvaged. He looked at
Prowers, and instantly his mind was full of suspicion. He had known
the old man thirty years.
“’Lo, Don,” continued Jake with an amiable edge of irony. “Always
doing some neighborly good deed, ain’t you? You’ll be a Boy Scout
by an’ by if you don’t watch out.”
Black looked at him with level eyes. “Howcome you here so early,
Jake?”
“Me! On my way to Wild Horse. Come to that, I’m some surprised to
see you, Don.”
“I been workin’ for Mr. Merrick,” the range rider said curtly. “That’s
why I’m here. But mostly when you go to Wild Horse you don’t
ramble round by the Quarter Circle, Jake. I’m kinda wonderin’ how
you happened round this way.”
“Huntin’ for a two-year-old reported strayed over thisaway. Lucky I
came. I’ll be able to help.” He turned to Merrick unctuously, his
bleached eyes mildly solicitous. “If the’s a thing on earth I can do,
why I’m here to go to it.”
The men were carrying one of the rafts to the edge of the water.
Merrick gave his whole attention to the business of manning and
equipping it.
“This raft heads for the Steeples,” he announced. “Two volunteers
wanted to steer it.”
Black stopped chewing tobacco. “How about you ’n’ me, Jake?” he
asked quietly.
For once Prowers was taken at disadvantage. “I ain’t any sailor,
Don.”
“None of us are. But you offered to help. ’Course, if you’re scared.”
The cattleman’s head moved forward, his eyes narrowed. “Did you
say scared?”
“Sure. Last time I seen you, Jake, you was guessin’ I had a yellow
streak. I’m wonderin’ that about you now. I’m aimin’ to go on this
boat. Are you?” The range rider’s gaze bored into the eyes of the
man he had served so long. It was chill and relentless as steel.
Prowers was no coward, but he had not the least intention of
voyaging across the flood in so frail a craft.
“Too old, Don. I ain’t strong as some o’ these young bucks. You go
on, an’ when you come back we’ll settle about that yellow streak for
good an’ all.”
The raft set out on its perilous journey. A young surveyor had offered
to go as the second member of the crew.
Pegs had been driven into the edges of the raft for rowlocks. The
oars had been hastily fashioned out of planking.
The float drifted into the rapid water and was caught by the current.
Black and his companion pulled lustily to make headway across
stream. There was a minute of desperate struggle before the craft
swung round, driven by the force of water tumbling pell-mell down.
A rowlock snapped. Black’s oar was dragged from his hand. A log
crashed into the raft and buckled it up. Caught by a cross-tide, the
two who had been flung into the water were swept into an eddy.
They swam and clambered ashore.
It had not been five minutes since Black had embarked on this
adventure, but, as he moved up the shore toward the little group of
men he had left, he saw that something unexpected had developed.
Prowers was in the saddle and he had his gun out. It was
threatening Merrick’s group of rescuers. The cattleman’s thin, high
voice came clear to the range rider.
“Don’t you touch me! Don’t you! I’ll fill you full of lead sure’s you
move an inch, Merrick.”
Then, swiftly, he swung his horse round and galloped away.
Out of the hubbub of explanation Black gathered the facts. The man
whom Prowers had lured from the dam with a message that his wife
was worse had stopped for later information at a ranch house on the
way down. He had telephoned his house and talked with his wife. He
was perplexed, but relieved. After an hour’s chat at the ranch, he
had headed for the dam and reached the scene in time to identify
Prowers as he left.
A minute ago he had arrived and told what he knew. The engineer
had accused Prowers point-blank of the crime. His men had talked of
lynching, and Prowers had fled.
Black did not discuss the situation. He returned to camp, saddled a
horse, and took from his roll of bedding a revolver. Five minutes later
he was jogging into the hills. A day of settlement had come between
him and the man who had deflected him from the straight and well-
worn trails of life.
He knew the size of his job. Jake was a bad man with a gun, swift as
chain lightning, deadly accurate in aim. It was not likely that he would
let himself be taken alive. The chances were that any man who
engaged in a duel with him would stay on the field of battle. Don
accepted this likelihood quietly, grimly. He meant to get Jake
Prowers, to bring him in alive if possible, dead, if he must.
The range rider had no qualms of conscience. Prowers had probably
drowned several innocent people, very likely Betty and her little
sister among them. The fellow was dangerous as a mad wolf. The
time had come to blot him out. He, Don Black, was the man that
ought to do it. If Jake surrendered, good enough; he would take him
to Wild Horse. If not—
So his simple mind reasoned foggily. He was essentially a deputy
sheriff, though, of course, he had not had time to get Daniels to
appoint him. That was merely a formality, anyhow.
Don rode straight to the Circle J P ranch. He swung from the saddle
and dropped the lines in front of the house. As he did so, he noticed
two buzzards circling high in the sky.
Prowers must have seen him coming, for when Don turned toward
the porch the little man was standing there watching him. Black
moved forward, spurs jingling.
His eyes did not lift from those of Prowers. At the foot of the steps he
stopped. “I’ve come after you, Jake,” he said evenly.
The skim-milk eyes in the leathery face narrowed. They were hard
and shining pin-points of wary challenge.
“What for, Don?”
“For blowin’ up the dam, you yellow wolf.”
“Then come a-shootin’.”
The forty-fives blazed. The roar of them filled the air. Across the
narrow range between the two men bullets stabbed with deadly
precision.
Black swayed on his feet. He knew he was shot through and through
in several places, that he could count his life in minutes, perhaps in
seconds. Through the smoke rifts he could see the crouching figure
flinging death at him. Still firing, he sank to his knees. He could no
longer lift the revolver, and as his body plunged to the ground the
last cartridge was exploded into the sod.
Down the steps toward him rolled the shrunken form of his foe,
slowly, without volition, every muscle lax. They lay close to each
other, only their eyes alive to glare defiance till the film of dissolution
shadowed them.
They must have passed out within a few seconds of each other.
 CHAPTER XL
BETTY DISCOVERS WHY SHE IS YOUNG

From the house Tug had brought matches with him. He gathered
pine boughs and lit a fire upon the rock slab. The warmth of it went
through them and restored their diminished vitality.
“The water’s going down fast,” Betty said. “See the rock. It’s several
inches lower.”
“Yes. Merrick will be here soon.”
Except for Ruth and Mandy, the girl did not care how long he was.
She was young, and in love. Beside her sat the man who was to be
her mate. A flash of the eye brought happiness. A touch of the hand
thrilled.
Even when she did not look at him, she was acutely conscious of his
presence. Without turning her head she saw the line of the razor
stroke where the golden down ceased on his tanned cheek, was
aware of the gallant set of the fine head on strong shoulders. Oh, it
was good to be near him, to know that out of all the millions of men
in the world she had found her mate. There was in her a strange, a
primitive, instinct to accept his leadership, a desire to be subject to
his wishes and commands.
She smiled. This was not like her. Perhaps it was a merely
temporary aberration.
“Are we really all alike?” she asked herself, trying to understand this
love-complex that already was changing her point of view. “We want
to be free, want to express ourselves. We’re thinking of nothing else.
And then—enter a man. Our house of cards comes toppling down,
and we don’t care a bit. Sometimes, of course, he isn’t the right man.
Then—tragedy, I suppose.”
The young philosopher, looking at her hero, was very sure he was
the right man. Her certainty went beyond evidence, beyond faith.
Merrick’s raft reached them about noon. He was admirable in the
rôle of rescuer. Efficiency showed in everything he did, even to the
sandwiches, and coffee in a thermos bottle, which he had not
forgotten to bring.
“Where’s Dad?” asked Betty, between bites.
“He and Forbes were at First View last night.”
“Does he know we’re safe?”
“Yes. He’s headed for home now.”
Within the hour they were back at the Diamond Bar K. Clint drove up
a few minutes later, Forbes beside him.
The cattleman took his children in his arms and held them close. He
could not talk without breaking down. He dared not put his feeling
into words. They had come back to him from the dead—these two.
Inside of him a river of unshed tears flowed.
Betty left him making over Ruth and slipped into the next room
where some one was waiting for her. Lon Forbes was telling Hollister
some news.
“... Jake’s men found ’em there dead, not three feet apart. Both guns
empty. Four bullets in Jake’s body, five in Don’s—an’ most any one
of ’em a fatal wound. They were that game they wouldn’t quit. It
takes a heap o’ killin’ to finish an old-timer, I’ll say.”
Tremulously, Betty moved forward. “Who?” she asked.
Lon told her. “I’m sorry about Black, but Jake sure had it comin’,” he
finished.
The foreman passed into the other room to tell Clint the news.
In a hushed voice Betty talked the tragedy over with Tug. The
swiftness with which Nemesis had overtaken and obliterated
Prowers was appalling to her. She had a momentary vision, vivid and
amazingly sure, of God in the shadows passing judgment on the sins