Singer, and--sans End!"

he misquoted, with a sneer; and immediately interrupted his irony to
give way to one of his sudden blind rages.

With incredible swiftness his right hand moved forward and up, catching
revolver from scabbard as it rose. But by a fraction of a second his
purpose had been anticipated. A closed fist shot forward to the salient
jaw in time to fling the bullets into the ceiling. An arm encircled the
outlaw's neck, and flung him backward down the stairs. The railing broke
his fall, and on it his body slid downward, the weapon falling from his
hand. He pulled himself together at the foot of the stairs, crouched for
an upward rush, but changed his mind instantly. The young officer who
had flung him down had him covered with his own six-shooter. He could
hear footsteps running toward him, and he knew that in a few seconds he
would be in the hands of the soldiers. Plunging out of the doorway, the
desperado vaulted to the saddle and drove his spurs home. For a minute
hoofs pounded on the hard, white road. Then the night swallowed him and
the echo of his disappearance.

"That was Bannister of the Shoshones and the Tetons," the girl's white
lips pronounced to Lieutenant Beecher.

"And I let him get away from me," the disappointed lad groaned. "Why, I
had him right in my hands. I could have throttled him as easy. But how
was I to know he would have nerve enough to come rushing into a hotel
full of soldiers hunting him?"

"Y'u have a very persistent cousin, Mr. Bannister," said McWilliams,
coming forward from the alcove with shining eyes. "And I must say he's
game. Did y'u ever hear the like? Come butting in here as cool as if he
hadn't a thing to do but sing out orders like he was in his own home. He
was that easy."

"It seems to me that a little of the praise is due Lieutenant Beecher.
If he hadn't dealt so competently with the situation murder would have
been done. Did you learn your boxing at the Academy, Lieutenant?" Helen
asked, trying to treat the situation lightly in spite of her hammering
heart.

"I was the champion middleweight of our class," Beecher could not help
saying boyishly, with another of his blushes.

"I can easily believe it," returned Helen.

"I wish y'u would teach me how to double up a man so prompt and
immediate," said the admiring foreman.

"I expect I'm under particular obligations to that straight right to
the chin, Lieutenant," chimed in the sheepman. "The fact is that