ime her voice reached Owen's ears the men had scattered, running
in all directions. Several ran directly away from the house, others
toward it, some went toward the corners of the building nearest them.
All were running zigzag fashion.

Owen, his eyes blazing, fired three times in rapid succession. One of
the men tumbled, headlong, turning over several times and landing face
downward on the sand of the yard; but several others, apparently
uninjured, ran straight for the ranchhouse.

There were no stationary targets for Owen to shoot at. By the time he
had fired the three shots the men were all moving. Several the girl
saw as they ran around the ranchhouse; three or four others ran
straight for the door in which she stood.

She cried sharply to Owen, and the latter fired once, as three or four
figures crossed the porch. The girl could not tell whether or not Dale
was one of the three, for the men moved quickly.

Owen missed; Mary heard him curse. And before he had time to do either
again the men were inside. Mary was standing near Owen, and she had
reached down for one of the pistols that lay on the floor.

By the time the men entered the door she had raised the weapon, and as
the first figure burst through the opening, she leveled the weapon and
pulled the trigger.

The gun went off, but did no apparent damage, and before she could fire
again the men were upon her. She threw the heavy weapon into the face
of the man nearest her--she did not look at him; and ran through the
nearest door, which opened into the kitchen. She heard the man curse
as the weapon struck him full in the face, and she knew, then, that she
had struck Dale.

In the kitchen the girl hesitated. She would have gone outside, on the
chance that the men there might not see her, but, hesitating at the
kitchen door, she saw a big man running toward it.

So she turned and ran into the room she used as a pantry, slamming the
door behind her, bolting it and leaning against it, breathing heavily.

She had not, however, escaped the eyes of the man who had been running
toward the kitchen door. She heard Dale's voice, asking one of the men
if he had seen her, and the latter answered:

"She ducked into the pantry and closed the door."

She heard a man step heavily across the kitchen floor, and an instant
later he was shoving against the door with a shoulder.

"Bolted, eh?" he said with a short laugh. He walked away, and
presently returned.