aves
pour over them. Lee felt herself strangling and tried to rise, but a
heavy hand on her shoulder held her face down. She sputtered and coughed,
fighting desperately for breath. A silk handkerchief was slipped over her
face and knotted behind. She felt sick and dizzy. The knowledge flashed
across her mind that she could not stand this long. In its wake came
another dreadful thought. Was she going to die?

The hand on her shoulder relaxed. Lee felt herself lifted to her feet.
She caught at Billie's arm to steady herself, for she was still queer in
the head. For a few moments she stood there coughing the smoke out of her
lungs. His arm slipped around her shoulder.

"Take yore time," he advised.

A second shift of the breeze had swept the smoke away. This had saved
their lives, but it had also given Snaith's men another chance at them A
bullet whistled past the head of Clanton, who was for the time a few
yards from his friends. Instantly he whipped the rifle up and fired.

"No luck" he grumbled. "My eyes are sore from the smoke. I can't half
see."

Lee was not yet quite herself. The experience through which she had just
passed had shaken her nerves.

"Let's get out of here quick!" she cried.

"Take yore time. There's no hurry," Prince iterated. "They won't shoot
again, now Jim's close to us."

The younger man grinned, as he had a habit of doing when the cards fell
against him. "Where'd we go? Look, they've headed us off. We can't
travel forward. We can't go back. I expect we'll have to file on the
quarter-section where we are," he drawled.

A rider had galloped forward and was dismounting close to the river. He
took shelter behind a boulder.

Billie swept with a glance the plain to their right. A group of horsemen
was approaching. "More good citizens comin' to be in at the finish of
this man hunt. They ought to build a grand stand an' invite the whole
town," he said sardonically.

A water-gutted arroyo broke the line of liver-bank. Jim, who was limping
heavily, stopped and examined it.

"Let's stay here, Billie, an' fight it out. No use foolin' ourselves.
We're trapped. Might as well call for a showdown here as anywhere."

Prince nodded. "Suits me. We'll make our stand right at the head of the
arroyo." He turned abruptly to the girl. "It's got to be good-bye here,
Miss Lee."

"That's whatever, littlest pilgrim," agreed Clanton promptly. "If you get
a chance send word to Webb an' tell him how it was wit