oment trembling terribly, then with a
low moan collapsed under him.

Lee swung out and to one side, landing clear as the big brute fell. He
did not understand. He had ridden the animal hard but certainly not
hard enough for this. And then he saw and his eyes blazed with anger.
He had heard no shot, nothing beyond the metallic pounding of the shod
hoofs on flinty road, but there from an ugly hole in the neck the
saddle-horse was pouring out its blood.

"Smokeless powder and a Maxim silencer!" muttered Lee, his eyes taking
note of the ten thousand possible hiding-places on the cliff's.

In his ears there was a little whine as a second bullet sang its way by
his head. Again he sought to locate the marksman, again saw nothing
but crag and precipice and brushy clump. He took time for that thing
which came so hard to him, sent a bullet from his own revolver into his
horse's brain, and then slipped out of the clearing into the shelter of
the pines.

"Two miles left to the border line," he estimated it. "Afoot."

Stiff from the saddle, he moved on slowly for a little. But as his
muscles responded and warmed to the effort, he broke into a trotting
run. Only a little now could he keep under cover; if he went on with
any degree of speed he must keep to the road and the open. The thought
came to him that he might lie under cover until dark. The second
thought came to him that he had assured Judith that he would be back on
time, and he forged ahead.

For the second time that day he heard the whine of a bullet. He
thought that the shot came from the cliffs just at the head of Squaw
Creek canon. But he could not be sure. There was ample protection
there for a man hiding, tall brush in a hollow and three or four
stunted trees, wind-twisted. He'd make the climb to-morrow and see
about it. Now he'd keep right on moving. Little used to travelling
save on a horse's back he was shot through with odd little pains when
at last he came to the border-line fenced and the waiting horse. Tommy
Burkitt held it for him while Lee mounted.

"Somebody up on the cliffs, head of the canon," panted Lee at Tommy's
amazed expression when Lee came running into sight. "Killed my horse.
Go after him, Tommy. Tell the other boys." And on he went, pounding
out the last fifteen miles, the canvas bag beating safely against his
side.

Judith, in the courtyard, watched him ride in. She looked swiftly at
him from the watch on her wrist.