I'm goin' to down him right here in this room!"

Slade started, his face paled. He laughed mirthlessly.

"Well," he said, watching Antrim keenly; "if he's as fast as he used to
be--before gettin' to be a big guy in this neck of the woods tamed
him--you'll have to be lightnin'--an' then some!"

He wheeled, and went out of the door, where he stood, looking toward the
plains on the other side of the river, grinning derisively.

* * * * *

Two hours later Selden clattered to the door of the cabin and
dismounted, conveying the news that Moreton and Lawler were riding
north, toward Willets. And within a few minutes after the appearance of
Selden, Slade and forty-eight of Antrim's men rode swiftly, scurrying
into the star haze, straight into the south wind that swept out of the
Wolf River valley.

The men rode close together for more than an hour, until they reached
the crest of the big valley, where they halted, closely massed, and
scanned the semi-gloom in front of them.

The big valley was silent, somber. There was no movement in it. Looking
down from the crest the Antrim men could see the dim outlines of the
Circle L buildings; and they had no trouble in distinguishing the
ranchhouse, out of which through a window, a feeble glimmer of light
came. The other buildings were dark.

One of the men laughed raucously, as he pointed out the light. "That's
mebbe Lawler's old woman, settin' up, wonderin' what her boy's been
grabbed by the law for," he sneered. "Well, she'll be wonderin'
more--after Blondy gits through with him."

Slade chuckled, but said nothing. He was hoping that by this time on the
morrow Antrim would have discovered that Kane Lawler could "sling" a gun
with the speed and accuracy he had used in the old days.

Far down in the valley, Slade pointed out the cattle. They were
scattered a little, as though perfunctorily guarded, but still massed
enough to make the task of rounding them up comparatively simple to the
big group of men in Slade's company.

"There ain't more'n half a dozen men ridin' night herd down there," said
Slade as he pointed out the forms of several horsemen in the vicinity of
the herd; "an' likely enough they ain't watchin' a hell of a lot." He
issued some orders, and the group on the crest of the valley split up.
Some of them rode west along the edge of the valley, where there was a
fringe of juniper and post oak to conceal them; others slid down into