ull of 'em. I got plenty cartridges."

Despite the danger, old man Annersley smiled as he choked back a word
of appreciation for Pete's stubborn loyalty and grit. When he spoke
again Pete at once caught the change in tone.

"You keep away from the window," said Annersley. "Them coyotes out
there 'most like aim to rush me when the blaze dies down. Reckon
they'll risk settin' fire to the cabin. I don't want to kill
nobody--but--you keep back--and if they git me, you stay right still in
here. They won't hurt you."

"Not if I git a bead on any of 'em!" said Young Pete, taking courage
from his pop's presence. "Did you shoot any of 'em yet, pop?"

"I reckon not. I cut loose onct or twict, to scare 'em off. You keep
away from the window."

Young Pete had crept to the window and was gazing out at the sinking
flames. "Say, ain't we pardners?" he queried irritably. "You said we
was when you brung me up here. And pardners stick, don't they? I
reckon if it was my shack that was gittin' rushed, you 'd stick, and
not go bellyin' under the bunk and hidin' like a dog-gone prairie-dog."

[Illustration: "Say, ain't we pardners?"]

"That's all right," said Annersley. "But there's no use takin'
chances. You keep back till we find out what they're goin' to do next."

Standing in the middle of the room, well back from the southern window,
the old man gazed out upon the destruction of his buildings and
carefully hoarded hay. He breathed hard. The riders knew that he was
in the cabin--that they had not bluffed him from the homestead.
Probably they would next try to fire the cabin itself. They could
crawl up to it in the dark and set fire to the place before he was
aware of it. Well, they would pay high before they got him. He had
fed and housed these very men--and now they were trying to run him out
of the country because he had fenced a water-hole which he had every
right to fence. He had toiled to make a home for himself, and the boy,
he thought, as he heard Young Pete padding about the cabin. The
cattlemen had written a threatening letter hinting of this, yet they
had not dared to meet him in the open and have it out face to face. He
did not want to kill, yet such men were no better than wolves. And as
wolves he thought of them, as he determined to defend his home.

Young Pete, spider-like in his quick movements, scurried about the
cabin making his own plan of battle. It did not occur to him that he
might