ely load one before the other was being passed to her. Each side
had resorted to the expediency of rising, firing and ducking down again.
They were too near for me to risk an inch of head for more than the
necessary fraction of a second, and sometimes, in my haste, I aimed at
nothing at all. A vigorous fire, whether effective or not, would hold
off their rush. But when I peeped over the next time a rifle, protruding
from around a tree, showed me that one, at least, had reached the
nearest point of cover. I banged at it and ducked, as several shots
whizzed over me. It was rather discouraging work, this of being forced
to keep down! Another brief silence on their part was suggestive of a
new move, and I felt sure that they were preparing for a charge.

Calling this to Doloria, I began to bob up at different places along the
wall, trying in a frenzy to check them, and for the moment was
successful. Then I heard her give a cry, as a bullet split the stock of
the rifle she was loading.

"Some one's in a tree shooting down at us! Look out!" she called,
rolling over to get beneath the nearer wall.

Upon hearing this I gave up trying to dodge, and stood to the parapet
determined to drop as many as possible before being dropped myself; for
if their number were materially reduced she might be able, as a last
resort, to come off victor with the automatic. And spurred by this
intention I faced them so resolutely that they were compelled to hug
their cover. But a second shot from the tree, slanting downward, struck
the surface of the sand filling we had used between our walls; it hit a
few inches directly in front of my face, knocking up a shower of grit
that, for the moment, completely blinded me.

I must have wheeled around with my arm across my eyes, because the men
believed that I'd been done for, and with a triumphant howl started
forward. Doloria, too, thought the end had come, and gave one despairing
cry that I shall remember if I live a thousand years. Through my
blurred vision I got a glimpse of her face, a blending of courage and
horror and purpose, as she raised the automatic to her temple.

And then by some divine insight I sprang and snatched it away. The howls
of triumph had ceased; no leering enemy appeared above our parapet. The
smart in my eyes was passing enough for me to see four of them running
southward across the prairie with the speed of deer, and suddenly I knew
that, without realizing it, I had just been