any man sleep. Hour after
hour Folsom's little garrison was on the alert. The women had all been
moved to the deep, dry cellar, Mrs. Hal moaning over her baby, utterly
unnerved, Jessie silent, but white and tremulous; the herdsman's wife,
an Amazon, demanded the right to have a gun and fight by her husband's
side; Lizette, the Indian girl, faint and starved, asked nothing but to
be allowed to crouch at the door of the room where Halbert lay, fevered
and unconscious, and Pappoose, scorning danger, flitted from her
brother's bedside to her father's log-barricade at the east porch. In
dread anxiety the hours dragged by, and at last Lannion reached forth
his hand and pulled the shirt sleeve of his comrade Jake, half-dozing at
his side. In an instant the latter was kneeling at his post. "What is
it?" he queried, and Lannion, pointing to the first faint, pallid gleam
in the eastern sky, whispered: "Time to be up, man. It's coming."

For half an hour, except for the rushing of the Laramie, a silence
almost unearthly had brooded over the prairie, and even the dogs seemed
lulled to sleep. But now, as the cold light crept slowly over the
distant range, and a soft flush began to overspread the pallor of the
dawn, far out over the valley the yelp of a coyote began again and all
men strained their ears and listened, while strong hands grabbed the
growling dogs and pinned them to earth, for, beginning at the east, the
cry was taken up on every side. Folsom's ranch seemed beleaguered by the
gaunt, half-famished wolves of the upland prairies. "Look to your
sights, now, men! Down into the cellar, Pappoose!" exclaimed Folsom,
kindling with fierce excitement. "I've been the friend of all that tribe
for thirty years, but when they break faith with me and mine that ends
it! Look to your sights and make every shot count!" he cautioned, as he
made the rounds of the little shelters thrown up during the past two
days. "We can stand off a hundred of 'em if you only keep your grit."

Again the clamor as of coyotes ceased. It was only the Indian signal
"Ready," and every ranchman knew that with the rising sun, if not
before, the swoop would come. Again as the light broadened the dogs were
loosed and presently were challenging all four points of the compass.
The unseen foe was on every hand.

Perched as it was on a little rise, the ranch stood forth conspicuous
over the valley. At the foot of the slope to the south lay the corral
and some of the