ts.

He had heard several reports while dismounting and ascending the hill,
and by the time he looked over the crest he saw that the battle was
over. He saw the three men grouped about a cluster of rocks on a hill
not more than a hundred yards distant. Two of the men were bending
over the third, who was stretched out on his back, motionless. It
appeared to Sanderson that the two men were searching the pockets of
the other, for they were fumbling at the other's clothing and,
seemingly, putting something into their own pockets.

Sanderson scowled. Now that the fight was over, he was at liberty to
investigate; the ethics of life in the country did not forbid
that--though many men had found it as dangerous as interference.

Sanderson stood up, within full view of the two men, and hailed them.

"What's bitin' you guys?" he said.

The two men wheeled, facing Sanderson. The latter's answer came in the
shape of a rifle bullet, the weapon fired from the hip of one of the
men--a snapshot.

Sanderson had observed the movement almost as soon as it had begun, and
he threw himself head-long behind the shelter of the rock at his side
as the bullet droned over his head.

If Sanderson had entertained any thought of the two men being
representatives of the law, trailing a wrongdoer, that thought would
have been dispelled by the action of the men in shooting at him. He
was now certain the men were what he had taken them to be, and he
grinned felinely as he squirmed around until he got into a position
from which he could see them. But when he did get into position the
men had vanished.

However, Sanderson was not misled. He knew they had secreted
themselves behind some of the rocks in the vicinity, no doubt to wait a
reasonable time before endeavoring to discover whether the bullet had
accomplished its sinister object.

Sanderson's grin grew broader. He had the men at a disadvantage.
Their horses, he had observed before calling to them, were in a little
depression at the right--and entirely out of reach of the men.

To get to them they would have to expose themselves on an open stretch
between the spot where the horses were concealed and the hill on which
they were secreted, and on the open stretch they would be fair targets
for Sanderson.

The men had brought Sanderson into the fight, and he no longer had any
scruples. He was grimly enjoying himself, and he laid for an hour,
flat on his stomach behind the rock, his