t, was blown wide open by the gusty wind
and a tall man stood in the black rectangle of the doorway. His
appearance and attitude were significant, making useless all conjecture.
A faded red bandana handkerchief was knotted about his face with rude
slits for the eyes. A broad black hat with flapping, dripping brim was
down over his forehead. In his two hands, the barrel thrust forward into
the room, was a sawed-off shotgun.

He did not speak, it being plain that words were utterly superfluous and
that he knew it. Nor was there any outcry in the room. At first the girl
had not seen, her back being to the door. Nor had old man Adams, his red
rimmed eyes being on the girl. They turned together. The old man's jaw
dropped; the girl's eyes widened, rather to a lively interest, it would
seem, than to alarm. One had but to sit tight at times like this and
obey orders....

The intruder's eyes were everywhere. His chief concern, however, from
the start appeared to be Hap Smith. The stage driver's hand had gone to
the butt of his revolver and now rested there. The muzzle of the short
barrelled shotgun made a short quick arc and came to bear on Hap Smith.
Slowly his fingers dropped from his belt.

Bert Stone, a quick eyed little man from Barstow's Springs, whipped out
a revolver from its hidden place on his person and fired. But he had
been over hasty and the man in the doorway had seen the gesture. The
roar of the shotgun there in the house sounded like that of a cannon;
the smoke lifted and spread and swirled in the draft. Bert Stone went
down with a scream of pain as a load of buckshot flung him about and
half tore off his outer arm. Only the fact that Stone, in firing, had
wisely thrown his body a little to the side, saved the head upon his
body.

The wind swept through the open door with fresh fury. Here a lamp went
out, there the unsteady flame of a candle was extinguished. The smoke
from the shotgun was mingled with much wood smoke whipped out of the
fireplace. The man in the doorway, neither hesitating nor hurrying,
eminently cool and confident, came into the room. The girl studied him
curiously, marking each trifling detail of his costume: the shaggy black
chaps like those of a cowboy off for a gay holiday; the soft grey shirt
and silk handkerchief to match knotted loosely about a brown throat. He
was very tall and wore boots with tall heels; his black hat had a crown
which added to the impression of great height. To th