ready to start."

Half an hour later they reached her home. It was close to supper time,
but Weaver would not stay.

"See you next week," he said quietly, and turned his horse toward the
Twin Star ranch.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HOLD-UP

From the wash where the sink of the Mimbres edges close to Noches two
riders emerged in mid-afternoon of a day that shimmered under the heat
of a blazing sun. They travelled in silence, the core of an alkali dust
cloud that moved with them and lay thick upon them. Well down over their
eyes were drawn the broad-rimmed hats. One of them wore sun goggles and
both of them had their lower faces covered by silk bandannas as if to
keep out the thick dust their ponies stirred. For the rest their
costumes were the undistinguished chaps, spurs, shirt, neckerchiefs, and
gauntlets of the range.

With one distinction, however: these were better armed than the average
cow-puncher jaunting to town for the quarterly spree. Revolver butts
peeped from the holsters of their loosely hung cartridge belts.
Moreover, their rifles were not strapped beneath the stirrup leathers,
but were carried across the pommels of the saddles.

The bell in the town hall announced three o'clock as they reached the
First National Bank at the corner of San Miguel and Main Streets. Here
one of the riders swung from the saddle, handed the reins and his rifle
to the other man, and jingled into the bank. His companion took the
horses round to the side entrance of the building, and waited there in
such shade as two live oaks offered.

He had scarce drawn rein when two other riders joined him, having come
from a direction at right angles to that followed by him. One of them
rode an iron-gray, the other a roan with white stockings. Both of these
dismounted, and one of them passed through the side door into the bank.
Almost instantly he reappeared and nodded to his comrade, who joined him
with his own rifle and that of the first man that had gone in.

There was an odd similarity in arms, manner, and dress between these and
the first arrivals. Once inside the building, each of them slipped a
black mask over his face. Then one stepped quickly to the front door and
closed and locked it, while the other simultaneously covered the teller
with a revolver.

The cashier, busy in conversation with the first horseman about a loan
the other had said he wanted, was sitting with his back to the cage of
the teller. The first warning h