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Handbook of Solid-State
Lighting and LEDs
SERIES IN OPTICS AND OPTOELECTRONICS
Series Editors: E Roy Pike, Kings College, London, UK
Robert G W Brown, University of California, Irvine, USA
Recent titles in the series
Nanophotonics and Plasmonics: An Integrated View
Dr. Ching Eng (Jason) Png and Dr. Yuriy Akimov
Handbook of Solid-State Lighting and LEDs
Zhe Chuan Feng (Ed.)
Optical Microring Resonators: Theory, Techniques, and Applications
V. Van
Optical Compressive Imaging
Adrian Stern
Singular Optics
Gregory J. Gbur
The Limits of Resolution
Geoffrey de Villiers and E. Roy Pike
Polarized Light and the Mueller Matrix Approach
José J Gil and Razvigor Ossikovski
Light—The Physics of the Photon
Ole Keller
Advanced Biophotonics: Tissue Optical Sectioning
Ruikang K Wang and Valery V Tuchin (Eds.)
Handbook of Silicon Photonics
Laurent Vivien and Lorenzo Pavesi (Eds.)
Microlenses: Properties, Fabrication and Liquid Lenses
Hongrui Jiang and Xuefeng Zeng
Laser-Based Measurements for Time and Frequency Domain Applications: A Handbook
Pasquale Maddaloni, Marco Bellini, and Paolo De Natale
Handbook of 3D Machine Vision: Optical Metrology and Imaging
Song Zhang (Ed.)
Handbook of Optical Dimensional Metrology
Kevin Harding (Ed.)
Biomimetics in Photonics
Olaf Karthaus (Ed.)
Handbook of Solid-State
Lighting and LEDs

Edited by
Zhe Chuan Feng
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC


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No claim to original U.S. Government works

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Feng, Zhe Chuan, editor.


Title: Handbook of solid-state lighting and LEDs / edited by Zhe Chuan Feng.
Other titles: Series in optics and optoelectronics ; 25.
Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, [2017] |
Series: Series in optics and optoelectronics ; 25
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052771| ISBN 9781498741415 (hardback ; alk. paper) |
ISBN 149874141X (hardback ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Light emitting diodes. | LED lighting--Materials. | Solid
state electronics.
Classification: LCC TK7871.89.L53 H364 2017 | DDC 621.32--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052771

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Contents

Preface����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix
Editor������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ xi
Contributors�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xiii

Section I  Overview

1 From the Dawn of GaN-Based Light-Emitting Devices to the Present Day................. 3


Hiroshi Amano
2 Spectrum-Related Quality of White Light Sources.......................................... 13
Yue Jun Sun, Dragan Sekulovski, Mart Peeters, Kees Teunissen, Remy Broersma, and
Rene Wegh
3 Nanofabrication of III-Nitride Emitters for Solid-State Lighting. . .................. 31
Tao Wang and Yaonan Hou
4 III-Nitride Deep-Ultraviolet Materials and Applications............................... 67
Jianwei Ben, Xiaojuan Sun, and Dabing Li

Section II  GaN-Based LEDs for Lighting


5 Efficiency Droop of Nitride-Based Light-Emitting Diodes............................ 99
Chia-Yen Huang and Hao-Chung Kuo
6 Design and Fabrication of Patterned Sapphire Substrates for GaN-Based
Light-Emitting Diodes.................................................................................... 123
Guoqiang Li, Haiyan Wang, and Zhiting Lin
7 Surface Plasmon–Coupled Light-Emitting Diodes........................................ 141
Chia-Ying Su, Chun-Han Lin, Yang Kuo, Yu-Feng Yao, Hao-Tsung Chen, Charng-Gan Tu,
Chieh Hsieh, Horng-Shyang Chen, Yean-Woei Kiang, and C.C. Yang
8 Deep Level Traps in GaN Epilayer and LED. . ................................................. 161
Xuan Sang Nguyen and Soo Jin Chua

v
vi Contents

9 Photoluminescence Dynamics in InGaN/GaN Multiple Quantum Well


Light-Emitting Diodes.................................................................................... 185
Tao Lin and Zhe Chuan Feng

Section III  Deep Ultraviolet LEDs and Related Technologies


10 Technological Developments of UV LEDs . . .................................................... 219
Ching-Hsueh Chiu, Po-Min Tu, Tzu-Chien Hong, Chien-Chung Peng, Chien-Shiang
Huang, and Shih-Cheng Huang
11 Influence of Carrier Localization on Efficiency Droop and Stimulated
Emission in AlGaN Quantum Wells.............................................................. 243
Gintautas Tamulaitis
12 Solar-Blind AlGaN Devices. . .......................................................................... 285
Jiangnan Dai, Jingwen Chen, Jun Zhang, Wei Zhang, Shuai Wang, Feng Wu, and
Changqing Chen

Section IV Laser Diodes


13 Laser Diode–Driven White Light Sources..................................................... 299
Faiz Rahman
14 InGaN Laser Diodes by Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy. . ............. 321
Czeslaw Skierbiszewski, Muziol Grzegorz, Turski Henryk, Siekacz Marcin, and Marta Sawicka
15 GaN-Based Blue and Green Laser Diodes...................................................... 361
Jianping Liu and Hui Yang

Section V Nano and Other Types of LEDs


16 Photonic Crystal Light-Emitting Diodes by Nanosphere Lithography. . ....... 393
Kwai Hei Li and Hoi Wai Choi
17 ZnO-Based LEDs............................................................................................ 437
Hao Long
18 Natural Light-Style Organic Light-Emitting Diodes......................................481
Jwo-Huei Jou, Meenu Singh, and Yi-Fang Tsai

Section VI Novel Technologies and Developments


19 III-Nitride Semiconductor LEDs Grown on Silicon and Stress Control
of GaN Epitaxial Layers . . ................................................................................. 517
Baijun Zhang and Yang Liu
20 Hole Accelerator for III-Nitride Light-Emitting Diodes. . ............................. 557
Zi-Hui Zhang, Yonghui Zhang, Xiao Wei Sun, and Wengang Bi
Contents vii

21 Metalorganic Chemical Vapour Deposition (MOCVD) Growth of GaN


on Foundry Compatible 200 mm Si. . ..............................................................571.
Li Zhang, Kenneth E. Lee, Eugene A. Fitzgerald, and Soo Jin Chua
22 Terahertz Spectroscopy Study of III–V Nitrides............................................ 617
Xinhai Zhang and Huafeng Shi
23 Internal Luminescence Mechanisms of III-Nitride LEDs.............................. 651
Shijie Xu
24 Fabrication of Thin-Film Nitride-Based Light-Emitting Diodes. . ................ 677
Ray-Hua Horng, Dong-Sing Wuu, and Chia-Feng Lin
Index. . ......................................................................................................................691
Preface

Economic and industrial developments have advanced the world economy and culture to extreme levels,
which are having a high cost in terms of overuse and starvation of energy sources leading to potential harm
and destruction to the future of human existence. This threat has raised major concerns in all countries
irrespective of wealth or richness of energy sources. Clearly, the promotion of new, advanced technologies
aimed at saving precious energy resources is the best and only way to combat the harmful effects. Among
various options, solid-state lighting (SSL), especially semiconductor-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs),
should prove to be a reliable direction for the development of energy optoelectronics technologies.
More than 100 years ago, lighting technology had its major breakthrough based on the efforts of Thomas
Edison and others in the invention of the electric light bulb. The recent breakthrough and development in
semiconductor LEDs—in particular based on gallium nitride (GaN) and related wide gap semiconductors—
have opened a new century of LED lighting, changing our daily lives, industry, and society.
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji
Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-
saving white light sources.” Energy-efficient and environmentally friendly solid-state light sources, in
particular GaN-based LEDs, are revolutionizing an increasing number of applications and bring clear,
widespread benefits in areas such as lighting, communications, biotechnology, imaging, and medicine. It
is expected that LEDs may replace traditional light bulbs and tubes to achieve a new lighting paradigm.
The III-nitride-based industry has now formed and with it there are rapid developments across the world.
It is expected that III-nitride-based LEDs may replace traditional light bulbs to realize a revolution in
lighting similar to the impact of Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb more than 100 years ago.
Tremendous research and industry achievements and developments have been made in recent years.
Handbook of Solid-State Lighting and LEDs reviews many of these significant results and progress, covering
basic concepts and critical aspects, and serves professors, scientists, engineers, and students in the field.
The handbook is organized for a wide range of audiences and covers major aspects of SSL and LED science
and technology. Each chapter, written by experts in the field, reviews important topics and achievements
in recent years, discusses progress made by different groups, and suggests further work needed. The hand-
book provides useful information on SSL–LED materials and devices; nanoscale processing; fabrication of
LEDs, light diodes, photodetectors, and nanodevices; and characterization, application, and development
of the various SSL and LED devices and nanoengineering.
This handbook consists of 24 review chapters, led by Prof. Hiroshi Amano, and divided into six main
sections: “Overview,” “GaN-Based LEDs for Lighting,” “Deep UV LEDs and Related Technologies,”
“Laser Diodes,” “Nano and Other Types of LEDs,” and “Novel Technologies and Developments.” The con-
tents present the key properties of SSL and LEDs, describing current technologies and demonstrating
the remaining challenges facing R&D in the twenty-first century. This book serves a diverse audience of
material growers and evaluators, device design and processing engineers, potential users and newcomers,
postgraduate students, engineers, and scientists in the field. If readers are interested, they are welcome to
explore a recently published sister book I edited, III-Nitride Materials, Devices and Nanostructures.

ix
x Preface

Developments in SSL and LED materials and devices happen so quickly that invariably the handbook
will miss some advances. Nonetheless, it captures the current state of the art, in particular those made
from the start of this century up to the recent years. We look forward to the future when, even if the pure
science remains the same, further strides will be made on the engineering and materials side.

Zhe Chuan Feng


Editor

Professor Zhe Chuan Feng earned his PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Pittsburgh
in 1987. Previously, he received his BS (1962–1968) and MS degrees (1978–1981) from the Department of
Physics at Peking University. He has had positions at Emory University (1988–1992), National University
of Singapore (1992–1994), Georgia Tech (1994–1995), EMCORE Corporation (1995–1997), Institute of
Materials Research & Engineering, Singapore (1998–2001), Axcel Photonics (2001–2002), and Georgia
Tech (2002–2003). In 2003, Professor Feng joined National Taiwan University as a professor at the
Graduate Institute of Photonics & Optoelectronics and Department of Electrical Engineering, focusing on
materials research and MOCVD growth of LED, III-nitrides, SiC, ZnO, and other semiconductors/oxides.
He is currently a distinguished professor at the Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Detection
Technology, Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics in the School of Physical Science and
Technology at Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
Professor Feng has edited nine review books on compound semiconductors and microstructures,
porous Si, SiC and III-nitrides, ZnO devices, and nanoengineering and has authored or coauthored more
than 570 scientific papers with more than 220 indexed by the Science Citation Index and cited more than
2540 times. He has been a symposium organizer and invited speaker at different international confer-
ences and universities and has been a reviewer for several international journals including Physical Review
Letters, Physical Review B, and Applied Physics Letters. He has served as a guest editor for special journal
issues and has been a visiting or guest professor at Sichuan University, Nanjing Tech University, South
China Normal University, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Nankai University, and Tianjin
Normal University. He is a member of the International Organizing Committee for the Asia-Pacific
Conferences on Chemical Vapor Deposition and International Conference for White LEDs and Solid-
State Lighting and is on the Board of Directors for the Taiwan Association for Coating and Thin Film
Technology. Professor Feng is an elected fellow of SPIE (2013).

xi
Contributors

Hiroshi Amano Hao-Tsung Chen


Center for Integrated Research of Future Department of Electrical Engineering
Electronics Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics
Institute of Materials and Systems for National Taiwan University
Sustainability Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan Horng-Shyang Chen
Department of Electrical Engineering
Jianwei Ben Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and National Taiwan University
Applications Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics
and Physics Jingwen Chen
Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics
Changchun, People’s Republic of China Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Wengang Bi
Institute of Micro-Nano Photoelectron and Hoi Wai Choi
Electromagnetic Technology Innovation Department of Electrical and Electronic
School of Electronics and Information Engineering
Engineering The University of Hong Kong
Hebei University of Technology Pokfulam, Hong Kong
and
Key Laboratory of Electronic Materials and Ching-Hsueh Chiu
Devices of Tianjin Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc.
Tianjin, People’s Republic of China Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China

Remy Broersma Soo Jin Chua


Philips Lighting Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and
Eindhoven, The Netherlands Technology
and
Changqing Chen Department of Electrical and Computer
Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Engineering
Huazhong University of Science and Technology National University of Singapore
Wuhan, People’s Republic of China Singapore, Singapore

xiii
xiv Contributors

Jiangnan Dai Chien-Shiang Huang


Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc.
Huazhong University of Science and Technology Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Chia-Yen Huang
Zhe Chuan Feng
Department of Photonics & Institute of Electro-
Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials &
Optical Engineering
Detection Technology
National Chiao Tung University
Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics
Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
School of Physical Science & Technology
Guangxi University
Shih-Cheng Huang
Nanning, People’s Republic of China
Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc.
Eugene A. Fitzgerald Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology
Singapore, Singapore Jwo-Huei Jou
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
and
National Tsing-Hua University
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts Yean-Woei Kiang
Department of Electrical Engineering
Muziol Grzegorz
Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics
Institute of High Pressure Physics
National Taiwan University
Polish Academy of Sciences
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Warsaw, Poland

Turski Henryk Hao-Chung Kuo


Institute of High Pressure Physics Department of Photonics & Institute of
Polish Academy of Sciences Electro-Optical Engineering
Warsaw, Poland National Chiao Tung University
Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Tzu-Chien Hong
Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc.
Yang Kuo
Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Department of Electrical Engineering
Ray-Hua Horng Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics
Institute of Electronics National Taiwan University
National Chiao Tung University Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Kenneth E. Lee
Yaonan Hou Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and
Department of Electronic and Electrical Technology
Engineering Singapore, Singapore
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, United Kingdom Dabing Li
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and
Chieh Hsieh Applications
Department of Electrical Engineering Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics
Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics and Physics
National Taiwan University Chinese Academy of Sciences
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China Changchun, People’s Republic of China
Contributors xv

Guoqiang Li Jianping Liu


State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics
and Devices Key Laboratory of Nanodevices and Applications
and Chinese Academy of Sciences
Engineering Research Center on Solid-State Suzhou, People’s Republic of China
Lighting and its Informationisation of
Guangdong Province Yang Liu
and School of Electronics and Information Technology
Department of Electronic Materials State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials
School of Materials Science and Engineering and Technologies
South China University of Technology Sun Yat-Sen University
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Hao Long
Kwai Hei Li School of Electronics and Information
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Engineering South-Central University for Nationalities
The University of Hong Kong Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Siekacz Marcin
Institute of High Pressure Physics
Chia-Feng Lin Polish Academy of Sciences
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and
National Chung Hsing University TopGaN Ltd
Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China Warsaw, Poland

Xuan Sang Nguyen


Chun-Han Lin Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and
Department of Electrical Engineering Technology
Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics Singapore, Singapore
National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China Mart Peeters
Philips Lighting
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Tao Lin
Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials & Chien-Chung Peng
Detection Technology Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc.
Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
School of Physical Science & Technology
Guangxi University Faiz Rahman
Nanning, People’s Republic of China School of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science
Russ College of Engineering and Technology
Zhiting Lin Ohio University
State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials Athens, Ohio
and Devices
and Marta Sawicka
Engineering Research Center on Solid-State Institute of High Pressure Physics
Lighting and its Informationisation of Polish Academy of Sciences
Guangdong Province and
South China University of Technology TopGaN Ltd
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China Warsaw, Poland
xvi Contributors

Dragan Sekulovski Kees Teunissen


Philips Lighting Philips Lighting
Eindhoven, The Netherlands Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Huafeng Shi Yi-Fang Tsai


Department of Electrical and Electronic Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Engineering National Tsing-Hua University
Southern University of Science and Technology Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, Republic of China
Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

Meenu Singh Charng-Gan Tu


Department of Materials Science and Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
National Tsing-Hua University Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics
Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, Republic of China National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Czeslaw Skierbiszewski
Institute of High Pressure Physics
Po-Min Tu
Polish Academy of Sciences
Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc.
and
Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
TopGaN Ltd
Warsaw, Poland
Haiyan Wang
Chia-Ying Su State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials
Department of Electrical Engineering and Devices
Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics and
National Taiwan University Engineering Research Center on Solid-State Lighting
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China and its Informationisation of Guangdong Province
South China University of Technology
Xiao Wei Sun Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering
College of Engineering Shuai Wang
Southern University of Science and Technology Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics
Guangdong, People’s Republic of China Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Xiaojuan Sun
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Tao Wang
Applications Department of Electronic and Electrical
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics Engineering
and Physics University of Sheffield
Chinese Academy of Sciences Sheffield, United Kingdom
Changchun, People’s Republic of China

Yue Jun Sun Rene Wegh


Philips Lighting Philips Lighting
Eindhoven, The Netherlands Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Gintautas Tamulaitis Feng Wu


Semiconductor Physics Department Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics
Vilnius University Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Vilnius, Lithuania Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Contributors xvii

Dong-Sing Wuu Li Zhang


Department of Materials Science and Engineering Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and
National Chung Hsing University Technology
Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China Singapore, Singapore

Shijie Xu
Department of Physics Shenzhen Institute of Wei Zhang
Research and Innovation Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics
HKU-CAS Joint Laboratory on New Materials Huazhong University of Science and Technology
The University of Hong Kong Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Xinhai Zhang
C.C. Yang
Department of Electrical and Electronic
Department of Electrical Engineering
Engineering
Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics
Southern University of Science and Technology
National Taiwan University
Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

Hui Yang Yonghui Zhang


Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics Institute of Micro-Nano Photoelectron and
Chinese Academy of Sciences Electromagnetic Technology Innovation
Suzhou, People’s Republic of China School of Electronics and Information
Engineering
Yu-Feng Yao Hebei University of Technology
Department of Electrical Engineering and
Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics Key Laboratory of Electronic Materials and
National Taiwan University Devices of Tianjin
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China Tianjin, People’s Republic of China

Baijun Zhang
School of Electronics and Information Technology Zi-Hui Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Institute of Micro-Nano Photoelectron and
and Technologies Electromagnetic Technology Innovation
Sun Yat-Sen University School of Electronics and Information
Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China Engineering
Hebei University of Technology
Jun Zhang and
Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Key Laboratory of Electronic Materials and
Huazhong University of Science and Technology Devices of Tianjin
Wuhan, People’s Republic of China Tianjin, People’s Republic of China
I
Overview
1 From the Dawn of GaN-Based Light-Emitting Devices to the Present Day
Hiroshi Amano................................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction • History of GaN-Based Blue LEDs • Summary • References
2 Spectrum-Related Quality of White Light Sources Yue Jun Sun, Dragan Sekulovski,
Mart Peeters, Kees Teunissen, Remy Broersma, and Rene Wegh................................................13
Introduction • Methods of Measuring and Specifying Light
Quality • White Light • Conclusion • References
3 Nanofabrication of III-Nitride Emitters for Solid-State Lighting Tao Wang and
Yaonan Hou.....................................................................................................................................31
Introduction • Growth and Fabrication of III-Nitride LEDs with
Nanostructures • Fabrication of Hybrid White LEDs • Fabrication of Phosphor-
Free White LEDs • Summary and Outlook • Acknowledgment • References
4 III-Nitride Deep-Ultraviolet Materials and Applications Jianwei Ben, Xiaojuan Sun,
and Dabing Li................................................................................................................................. 67
Introduction • Growth of AlN • Growth of AlGaN • Doping of AlGaN • AlGaN Low-
Dimension Structure • Applications of AlGaN-Based Materials • Summary • References

1
1
From the Dawn of
GaN-Based Light-Emitting
Devices to the Present Day
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 3
1.2 History of GaN-Based Blue LEDs .......................................................5
Hiroshi Amano 1.3 Summary ................................................................................................9
Nagoya University References......................................................................................................... 10

Abstract It is believed that group III nitride semiconductors are among the most promising materials
for solving global problems and realizing a sustainable society. GaN and related nitride materials have
had a major impact on human lives. Their most important application is blue LEDs. Portable games
machines and cellular or smart phones are very familiar items, especially to young people. Until the
end of the 1990s, all the displays of portable games machines and cellular phones were monochrome.
The younger generation can now enjoy full-color portable games such as Pokemon Go because of the
emergence of blue LEDs. Today, the applications of blue LEDs are not limited to displays. In combina-
tion with phosphors, blue LEDs can act as a white light source and are also used in general lighting. This
chapter describes the development of GaN-based blue LEDs from the early 1960s to the 1990s.

1.1 Introduction
According to the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the light-emitting diode (LED) lamp holds great
promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to
an electricity grid.
On February 7, 2015, Luvsannyam Gantumur, the Minister of Science and Education of Mongolia, visited
Nagoya University. He gave his hearty appreciation to researchers of LEDs for their social implementation
of new artificial lighting systems. He said that a nomadic life was the traditional lifestyle of the Mongolian
people. However, many young Mongolians do not want to continue a nomadic life and tend to move to
urban areas such as Ulan Bator and live in permanent houses. He told me that the emergence of LED lamps
has changed the attitudes of the Mongolian people and some young people are returning to a nomadic life.
On March 27, 2016, I had the opportunity to visit a Mongolian family, who lived at an hour’s drive from
Ulan Bator. They lived in a ger, a Mongolian tent, as shown in Figure 1.1a. In their ger, they had an LED
lamp as shown in Figure 1.1b, and they used solar panels and a battery as the electricity source. It was
reassuring to learn that LED lighting can not only contribute to modern life but also help maintain the
traditional lifestyles of people trying to coexist with the natural environment.
LEDs are considered to be the fourth generation of artificial light sources. Before the nineteenth cen-
tury, fire was the only light source, based on the chemical reaction or oxidation of flammable materials.

3
4 Handbook of Solid-State Lighting and LEDs

(a)

(b)

FIGURE 1.1 (a) Mongolian ger and person living in a ger. The panel to the left of the ger is a solar panel. The para-
bolic antenna to the right is for satellite TVs and smart phones. (b) LED lamp used in a ger.

However, CO2 emission was inevitable because most flammable materials are composed of carbon and
hydrogen. In 1879, the incandescent lamp was invented after a long history of development. Joseph Swan
in the United Kingdom and Thomas Edison in the United States first demonstrated the use of the incan-
descent lamp, for which both submitted patents that were granted in 1880 [1]. The mechanism of light
emission from incandescent lamps involves blackbody emission, meaning that it is based on classical
quantum theory. It is not clear who invented the fluorescent light bulb, but in 1934, Arthur Compton in the
United Kingdom and George Inman in the United States demonstrated the use of fluorescent light bulbs.
These bulbs comprise a vacuum glass tube that is coated on the inside with several fluorescent materials.
Electrons are emitted from a cathode in the tube and excite Hg vapor. The excited Hg vapor emits UV
photons that excite the fluorescent materials. Then visible light is emitted from the fluorescent materials.
From the Dawn of GaN-Based Light-Emitting Devices to the Present Day 5

The mechanism of the fluorescent bulb involves energy transfer from energetic electrons to UV photons
and from UV photons to visible photons. Therefore, the mechanism of light emission is actually based on
quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, a fragile glass tube and Hg, which is an environmentally hazardous
element, are necessary. Therefore, I believe LEDs are the ultimate light source because light emission is
based on energy through band-to-band transitions in a solid, which are also a phenomenon based on
quantum mechanics. In addition, no environmentally hazardous substances are necessary.
Today, portable game machines and cellular or smart phones are very familiar items, and not only
young people but people of all ages can enjoy beautiful full-color displays. In the United States, portable
game machines based on liquid crystal displays were first released in 1979 by the Milton Bradley Company,
then cellular phones became commercially available in 1983 by Advanced Mobile Phone System, but until
the end of the 1990s, the displays of all portable game machines and cellular phones were monochrome.
So it should be emphasized that with the emergence of blue LEDs people can now enjoy full-color portable
games and cellular/smart phones. Today, the applications of blue LEDs are not limited to displays. In com-
bination with phosphors, blue LEDs can act as a white light source and also be used in general lighting.
In 2015, the number of LED packages produced worldwide was more than 304 billion, nearly 41 times the
world’s population, about 54% of which were GaN-based LEDs [2]. Nitride-based devices have become
a key part of human lives and are used as general lighting in the backlight units of TVs, PCs, and smart
phones/cellular phones; traffic signals and street lights; huge displays and billboards in stadiums; optical
storage; and broadband wireless communications.
In the following section, I will describe how blue LEDs were developed, especially in the mid-1980s
and early 1990s. The contribution of blue LEDs to saving energy and the environment and their future
prospects for society are also discussed.

1.2 History of GaN-Based Blue LEDs


Red, yellow, and green LEDs were commercialized in the early 1960s and 1970s using GaAsP [3] and
GaP:N [4], respectively. Considering that As-based III–V compounds are used in red LEDs and P-based
III–V compounds are used in green LEDs, it should be easy to predict which colors can be obtained from
which element from the periodic table. At that time, many researchers believed that blue LEDs could be
realized using N-based III–V compounds, that is, GaN.
To grow bulk GaN crystals from a solution, we need very high pressure and temperature, comparable
to those needed for the growth of diamonds or even higher-quality crystals [5,6]. However, because it
is unlikely that GaN crystals can be grown under such extreme conditions, a chemical reaction should
be used to reduce the pressure and temperature required for GaN crystal growth. We also have to use a
foreign substrate, that is, GaN must be grown on a different material. For GaN synthesis, we use ammo-
nia as the nitrogen source [7] because nitrogen molecules are inert and do not react with metallic Ga. In
contrast, ammonia is very reactive at around 1000°C, the temperature at which GaN can be synthesized.
Therefore, a limited numbers of materials can be used as the substrate.
Sapphire is a promising substrate material because it is stable at high temperatures and does not strongly
react with ammonia [8]. The most serious problem with sapphire is its large mismatch with GaN of up to
16% for the (0001) planes. Some researchers believe that for heteroepitaxial growth, the lattice mismatch
should not exceed 1% [9], so a mismatch of 16% would make heteroepitaxial growth virtually impossible.
GaN powder was first synthesized in 1932 by the reaction of metallic Ga with NH3 at high temperature
[10]. However, no description of the expected applications of GaN was given in that study. In 1959, H. G.
Grimmeiss and H. Koelmans from Philips Forschungslaboratorien at Aachen and Eindhoven, respec-
tively, first reported the low-temperature luminescence properties of GaN powder grown by the same
method, showing the potential of GaN as a light-emitting material [11]. This group also submitted a patent
on GaN as a light-emitting material in 1960 [12].
Following these findings, in 1971, the RCA group led by J. I. Pankove developed the first GaN-based
blue LEDs. These were metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS)-type LEDs fabricated by halide vapor phase
6 Handbook of Solid-State Lighting and LEDs

epitaxy or hydride vapor phase epitaxy or halogen vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE), which involved the
chemical reaction of Ga and hydrogen chloride to form GaCl and ammonia [13]. Unfortunately, these
LEDs were MIS-type, rather than pn-junction-type, and therefore their efficiency was limited, ranging
only from 10−5 to 3 × 10−4. Nevertheless, in the 1970s, following the success of the RCA group, many of the
world’s top electrical companies, such as RCA, Philips, Oki Electric, Hitachi, and Matsushita Research
Institute Tokyo (MRIT), tried to commercialize MIS-type blue LEDs, but all their efforts failed [14–18]. At
that time, it was believed impossible to grow p-type GaN because of self-compensation [19], which means
that if we dope acceptors as an impurity, the same number of intrinsic donors such as nitrogen vacancies
is generated to compensate for the doped acceptors.
In 1972, Osamura et al. deposited InGaN, a compound related to GaN, by the electron beam evapora-
tion of metal sources in DC discharge nitrogen plasma over the full compositional range from InN to GaN
[20]. They reported a large absorption edge of InN of 1.9 eV, rather than the currently accepted bandgap
of 0.65 eV, which might have been caused by the unintentional formation of InON. No luminescence data
were reported. It took 19 years for the first luminescence data of InGaN to be reported [21] and 30 years
for the bandgap of InN to reach the present value [22].
Many researchers and companies gave up on GaN and started research on other materials, such as
ZnSe and SiC. The manager of MRIT also decided to abandon the project on GaN. However, the leader
of the GaN research team, Dr. Isamu Akasaki, could not abandon GaN and moved from MRIT to Nagoya
University in 1981, where he became a professor. I joined his laboratory in 1982 as an undergraduate
student and was highly motivated by my graduate dissertation on GaN-based blue LEDs. At that time, I
was interested in microcomputer systems, now called personal computers (PCs). In 1975, Bill Gates and
Paul Allen established Micro-Soft. One year later, the Apple I computer was developed by Steve Jobs and
Stephen Wozniak. From these successes, the personalization of computer systems progressed rapidly and I
wanted to contribute to the further development of microcomputer systems, particularly their displays. At
that time, Braun tubes were used in all displays, which were large, heavy, and had high energy consump-
tion. So, I thought that if I could make blue LEDs, I would help change the world. That is why I was so
motivated and focused on my research subject of GaN.
The problem in fabricating MIS-type blue LEDs using HVPE was that the growth rate was so high that it
was difficult to control the thickness of the insulating layer in the MIS-type structure. Therefore, the operat-
ing voltage could not be controlled. Professor Akasaki also noted the difficulty of growing GaN by molecular
beam epitaxy (MBE) from his experience in the 1970s. Therefore, he decided to use metalorganic chemical
vapor deposition (MOCVD) or metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) for GaN growth.
The first report of the formation of III–V compounds by MOCVD was in 1960. A group from Union
Carbide reported the formation of an In(CH3)3–PH3 adduct [23]. The first report of the epitaxial growth of
III–V compounds including group III nitrides on a substrate was in a patent filed by Monsanto Co. [24].
The North American Rockwell group first reported the experimental deposition of GaN on sapphire and
SiC substrates by MOCVD in 1971 [25].
At that time, funding for research at Japanese universities was insufficient. Also, there was no commer-
cially available MOVPE system especially designed for GaN growth. Thus, it was impossible to purchase
an MOVPE system. In 1982, a Master’s student 2 years older than me developed the first vertical-type
MOVPE reactor [26]. At that time, the flow rate was so low that I could not grow GaN using hydrogen as
the carrier gas. I tried to visualize the flow pattern by using the reaction between TiCl4 and H2O to form
TiO2 powder and found that the flow rate would be insufficient if I used hydrogen as the carrier gas [26].
In 1984, Y. Koide, a PhD student, joined Professor Akasaki’s laboratory and started research on AlGaN
and AlN, while I focused on growing GaN. Together, we modified the MOVPE reactor. I visited several
laboratories and found that the flow rate would be insufficient if I used the old configuration of gas supply
tubes in the reactor. So I merged all the gas lines into one line, which increased the flow rate from a few
centimeters per second to more than 4 m/s [27]. Then, I successfully grew polycrystalline GaN on a sap-
phire substrate despite using hydrogen as the carrier gas. However, the surface was rather rough and the
quality was very poor. I tried to grow GaN many times while varying the growth temperature, the flow
From the Dawn of GaN-Based Light-Emitting Devices to the Present Day 7

rates of the source and carrier gases, the configuration of the linear tubes, the susceptor shape, and other
parameters, but I could not grow high-quality GaN with a smooth surface. The large lattice mismatch
(16%) was too great a problem for an inexperienced student like me to overcome. Therefore, almost 3 years
passed without any success. I measured the x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, the Hall effect, and so
forth, but all the properties were poor and no promising new results were obtained.
In February 1985, I was almost nearing the completion of my Master’s degree. I had decided to start
a PhD program in April, and while all the other students went on a graduation trip, I conducted experi-
ments on my own. At that time, Koide was growing Al-containing nitrides, such as AlN and AlGaN, and
I was growing GaN. When I compared his Al-containing crystals with my GaN, the surface of his crystals
seemed to be smoother. I concluded that AlN could be used to effectively grow GaN with a better surface
morphology, so I tried to grow a thin AlN layer on a sapphire substrate immediately before the growth of
GaN. At that time, I knew that the epitaxial temperature of AlN was higher than 1200°C. However, because
the old oscillator did not work well, I could not get the temperature to reach 1200°C. Then I suddenly
remembered a discussion in the laboratory with Dr. Sawaki, an associate professor, who had explained
that the growth process of boron phosphide (BP) on Si [28], for which the lattice mismatch is as large as
16%, was similar to that of GaN and sapphire. Before Professor Akasaki started his laboratory at Nagoya
University in 1981, Dr. Tatau Nishinaga studied the epitaxial growth of BP on Si by vapor phase epitaxy. Dr.
Sawaki mentioned the effectiveness of using a preflow of phosphorus as a source gas immediately before
BP growth on Si and pointed out that the phosphor atoms appeared to act as nucleation centers. From
this, I imagined that if I supplied a small amount of AlN at a low temperature, it should provide nucleation
centers. Normally, I used to look inside the reactor during growth to see whether there was an interfer-
ence pattern on the substrate, whereby I could check that the source gas had been properly supplied. That
time, however, I was so tired that I forgot to check the interference pattern, so when I removed the sample
from the reactor and saw that it had a highly smooth surface which was perfectly transparent, I thought
that I had made a mistake and forgotten to supply trimethylgallium. But thinking it over, I realized that I
had not made a mistake, so I checked the surface using a Nomarski-type microscope and found that I had
actually succeeded in growing atomically flat GaN. Following the advice of Professor Akasaki, I further
characterized the film by determining its crystalline, optical, and electrical properties, all of which turned
out to be superior to those reported in previous papers. This process is known as “low-­temperature-
deposited buffer layer technology” and it has been used by many researchers worldwide [27,29–45]. At
that time, the majority of university professors in Japan had a negative impression of the submission of
patents by university professors. However, Professor Akasaki came from a company and was aware of the
importance of intellectual property rights. I was also interested in submitting a patent. So, I prepared the
draft of a patent for low-temperature-deposited buffer layers. To ensure that the patent would be granted,
I carefully considered similar previous results. For example, Dr. Akiyama from Oki Electric used a low-
temperature-deposited GaAs buffer layer for the growth of GaAs on Si [46], so I focused on the novelty of
using an AlN buffer layer, and not a GaN buffer layer. Dr. Yoshida from the Electrotechnical Laboratory
used single-crystalline AlN for the growth of GaN on a sapphire substrate [47], so I focused on the novelty
of low-temperature deposition, which implies that the layer is not single-crystalline but polycrystalline or
amorphous. The patent was submitted in 1985 [48] and was granted in 1986. In 1989, Nichia Chemicals
submitted a patent for a low-temperature-deposited buffer layer with a much wider range of compositions
from GaN to close to AlN but not AlN [49]. I also submitted a paper on our breakthrough to the journal
Applied Physics Letters [27], which accepted it for publication. I thought that the paper would attract the
interest of other researchers, but I was wrong. At that time, the majority of blue LED researchers were
interested in ZnSe, and GaN researchers were in the minority, although this allowed us to concentrate on
research without the high stress of competition from other groups.
Anyway, I thought that our next task should be to realize p-type GaN. At that time, experienced mem-
bers of the laboratory thought that nitrogen vacancies were the origin of the high donor density in nomi-
nally undoped GaN films and that by doping GaN with an acceptor impurity such as Zn, the same number
of shallow donors would be automatically generated. Therefore, it appeared that p-type GaN would be
8 Handbook of Solid-State Lighting and LEDs

FIGURE 1.2 Second MOVPE reactor for GaN growth in Akasaki Laboratory, Nagoya University.

impossible to realize. This mechanism is called self-compensation, and even today it is a hot topic [50].
I had a different impression. I was unconvinced by the mechanism of self-compensation and I believed
that p-type GaN could be realized. We were very lucky that a government organization, Japan Science and
Technology (JST) Agency, was interested in our achievement of growing high-quality GaN crystals on a
sapphire substrate by MOVPE using a low-temperature-deposited AlN buffer layer and decided to support
us. As a result, Akasaki Laboratory was able to buy a new MOVPE reactor from ULVAC, which is shown in
Figure 1.2. More importantly, JST encouraged us to start a collaboration with a private company. As a result,
the rubber company Toyoda Gosei decided to collaborate with us. This partnership between the industry,
the government, and academia is thought to be one of the most successful projects supported by JST.
Although we grew many Zn-doped GaN samples, they were all highly resistive or even n-type. In
1987, during my PhD program, I observed very sharp exciton emission at a cryogenic temperature from
Zn-doped GaN grown on c-plane and a-plane sapphire [30]. I also measured the deformation potential
of GaN. I was excited by the results and presented them at the annual fall meeting of the Japan Society
for Applied Physics, held at Nagoya University in 1987. However, I was a bit disappointed to see that there
were only four people in the room for my presentation: the chairman, Professor Akasaki, another guy, and
myself. As I mentioned earlier, researchers were more interested in other compound semiconductors and
GaN researchers were in significant minority. Moreover, in 1987, during my internship as part of my PhD
program, I found that Zn-related blue emission was irreversibly enhanced during cathodoluminescence
measurement [51], a process I referred to as low-energy electron beam irradiation (LEEBI) treatment.
However, even after LEEBI treatment, Zn-doped GaN did not show p-type conductivity. Nevertheless,
I was excited with this result, which I presented at an international conference on luminescence held at
Beijing, China, in 1987 [51]. I also hoped to write a journal paper on this treatment. At that time, PhD
candidates of the Department of Electric Engineering in Nagoya University were required to write at least
three journal papers to obtain a PhD in addition to a doctoral thesis. However, I found that the LEEBI
effect itself had been observed by researchers at Moscow University 4 years earlier [52]. Because I was
unable to write a third journal paper, I abandoned the plan of obtaining a PhD within 3 years of my doc-
toral course, and in 1989, I became a research associate at the Akasaki Laboratory of Nagoya University
From the Dawn of GaN-Based Light-Emitting Devices to the Present Day 9

without a PhD. While reading the textbook Bonds and Bands in Semiconductors by Dr. Phillips [53], I
found one graph particularly interesting because it showed that Mg is better than Zn for the activation of
acceptors in GaP, the material used in green LEDs. Although the Mg source, bis-Cp2Mg, was very expen-
sive, I implored Professor Akasaki to let me purchase some. He kindly gave me permission, and after wait-
ing several months for it to arrive, I was finally able to grow many Mg-doped samples with my laboratory
partner, Kito, a Master’s student. Here, I would like to mention the pioneering work of Dr. Maruska in 1972
[54], who at the time was a PhD student at Stanford University. He succeeded in fabricating the world’s
first MIS-type violet LED using Mg-doped GaN. All our Mg-doped GaN samples were highly resistive in
the as-grown state, but after LEEBI treatment, some samples showed p-type behavior when subjected to
hot probe measurement. I knew that hot probes were not considered to be reliable and that no one would
believe that p-type conduction had been achieved. Kito then performed Hall effect measurements on the
samples, by which we finally established that we had achieved p-type GaN for the first time in the world.
We also fabricated p–n junction ultraviolet/blue LEDs [55–58]. Soon after that, Dr. Nakamura’s group
also used LEEBI treatment [59,60]. In 1992, Dr. Nakamura claimed that p-type GaN could be obtained
by simple thermal annealing [61]. Today, almost all LED companies use thermal annealing. The mecha-
nism of p-type conduction involves the desorption of hydrogen near Mg acceptors, as first pointed out by
Professor van Vechten [62], and confirmed experimentally by Dr. Nakamura [61].
For us, another important task was to realize true blue emission using a band-to-band transition, so
from 1986 onward we tried to grow InGaN. However, this was also very difficult and we only succeeded
in growing InGaN with an In composition of less than 1.7% [63]. In 1989, Dr. Matsuoka’s group at NTT
reported the successful growth of InGaN under an extremely high ammonia supply while using nitrogen
as a carrier gas [64]. The only difference between our work and that of the NTT group was the carrier gas;
we used hydrogen as the carrier gas. They also reported blue-violet photoluminescence at 77 K, indicating
the incorporation of a high In content. However, at room temperature, deep-level-related yellow emission
was observed. The mechanism of In incorporation in InGaN has been elucidated through thermodynamic
analysis by Professor Koukitu et al. [65,66].
Finally, by combining high-quality-crystal growth technology using a low-temperature-deposited buffer
layer, p-type growth technology by Mg doping with LEEBI or thermal annealing, and InGaN growth technol-
ogy, Nichia Corporation succeeded in commercializing double-heterostructure-type InGaN blue LEDs for
the first time in the world in 1993 [67]. They also fabricated single-quantum-well LEDs in 1995 [68], which are
also a very important technology for enhancing the efficiency of nitride LEDs because a very narrow quantum
suppresses the quantum-confined Stark effect [69], thus increasing the transition probability [70].
Let me explain how InGaN LEDs can contribute to improving the electricity situation, especially in
Japan. Many people will remember the great earthquake of east Japan and the meltdown of the nuclear
power plants in March 2011. For the next 3 years, none of the 48 nuclear electricity generators in Japan
were in operation [71]. Although three nuclear power plants restarted operation, they were not enough
to make up for the loss of 30% of Japan’s generating capacity of all the nuclear power plants before 2011.
The U.S. Department of Energy predicted that three quarters of lighting will have been replaced with LED
lighting systems by the year 2030 in the United States, resulting in a 7% reduction in electricity use [72]. In
the case of Japan, the penetration of LED lighting systems into the market is expected to be much faster.
A research company in Japan has predicted that by 2020, more than 95% of the sales of general lighting
systems will be LED lighting systems [73]. More importantly, we can develop and supply compact lighting
systems to the younger generation, especially children in remote areas without access to electricity.

1.3 Summary
This chapter mainly gives a history of the development of GaN-based blue LEDs. I wrote this manu-
script as a message to young scientists and engineers with the desire to invent something that will benefit
humans. I sincerely hope that this message will encourage the next generation to tackle some of the world’s
problems through science and engineering.
10 Handbook of Solid-State Lighting and LEDs

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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

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