w still bathed the street, just as it had done ten
minutes earlier. But there was a difference. Dave felt a shiver run down
his spine.

From the horses Bandy barked a warning. "Hurry, Jake, for God's sake.
They're all round us."

CHAPTER XL

BIG-GAME HUNTERS AT WORK

Bob and his partner did not rush out of the hotel instantly to get into
the fray. They did what a score of other able-bodied men of Bear Cat were
doing--went in search of adequate weapons with which to oppose the bank
robbers. Bear Cat was probably the best-equipped town in the country to
meet a sudden emergency of this kind. In every house, behind the door or
hanging on the wall, was a rifle used to kill big game. In every house
was at least one man who knew how to handle that rifle. All he had to do
was to pick up the weapon, load it, and step into the street.

June was in the kitchen with Chung Lung. The Reverend Melancthon Browning
had just collected two dollars from Chung for the foreign missionary
fund. Usually the cook was a cheerful giver, but this morning he was
grumbling a little. He had been a loser at hop toy the night before.

"Mister Blowning he keep busy asking for dollars. He tell me givee to the
Lord. Gleat smoke, Lord allee timee bloke?"

The girl laughed. The Oriental's quaint irreverence was of the letter and
not of the spirit.

Through the swing door burst Bob Dillon. "Know where there's a rifle,
June?"

She looked at him, big-eyed. "Not the Utes again?" she gasped.

"Bank robbers. I want a gun."

Without a word she turned and led him swiftly down the passage to a
bedroom. In one corner of it was a belt. Bob loaded the gun.

June's heart beat fast. "You'll--be careful?" she cautioned.

He nodded as he ran out of the door and into the alley behind.

Platt & Fortner's was erecting a brick store building, the first of its
kind in Bear Cat. The walls were up to the second story and the window
frames were in. Through the litter of rubbish left by the workmen Bob
picked a hurried way to one of the window spaces. Two men were crouched
in another of these openings not fifteen feet from him.

"How many of 'em?" he asked in a loud whisper.

Blister answered from the embrasure opposite. "D-don't know."

"Still in the bank, are they?"

"Yes."

Some one peered out of Dolan's through the crack of a partly opened door.
Bob caught the gleam of the sun upon the barrel of a gun. A hat with a
pair of eyes beneath the rim of