spicion that one of the men from the cliffs had made his
way down to join issue at close quarters, was gone in a clear
understanding. That was the bark of Judith's rifle; she had slipped
away from him without an instant's delay and was creeping closer and
closer to the cabin.

"Damn the girl!" cried Lee angrily. "She'll get her fool self killed!"

But as he ran forward to join her, he realized that she was doing the
right thing--the only thing if they did not want to lie out here all
night for the men on the cliffs to pick off in the morning light. He
knew that she could shoot; it seemed that she could do everything that
was a man's work and which a woman should know nothing about.

A fresh thought locked his hand like steel about his gun-stock.
Suppose that Judith, in the mad thing she was attempting, should
actually succeed in it, that she should bring down the man she was
attacking? How would Bud Lee feel about it when the boys came to know?
What would Bud Lee answer when they asked what he was doing about that
time? "Nursin' a scratched leg? Mos' likely! Huh!" He could hear
old Carson's dry cackle.

Frowning into the night, he thought that he could make out the dim blur
of Judith's form. The girl was standing erect; shooting, too, for
again the duel of red spurts of flame told where she and her quarry
stood.

Meantime Lee ran on, changing his original purpose, swerving out from
where Judith was moving forward, turning to the left, hopeful to come
to close quarters with their assailant before she could go down under
that sharp rifle-fire or could bring down the other. For certainly, if
she kept on that way, the time would come when some one would stop hot
lead.

Lee shifted his rifle to his left hand, taking his revolver into his
right. From the cliffs came a shot and he grunted at it
contemptuously. It could do nothing but assure those below that there
was still some one up there.

"Three of them to our two," he estimated, "counting the two jaspers on
the cliff. Two of us to their one, counting what's down here. And
that's all that counts right this minute."

A shot from Judith; a shot from the cabin; two shots from the cliffs.
The two shots from above brought fresh news; not only were they closer
together, but they indicated the men up yonder were coming down. Lee
hurried.

Then, at last, his narrowed eyes made out the faint outline of that
which he sought. Close to the cabin, low down,