, carrying out his
threat, shot down Larch Cadmus.

Holly lost no time in dodging behind the structure, moving with the
stealth of an Indian in the stillness of the night. Then he made a
circuit so wide that, as he gradually described a half-circle and came
round to the point whence he had first advanced to the dwelling, he
was so far off that the keenest vision from the interior could not
catch a glimpse of him.

Certain of this, he ran only a short distance, when he came up with
the half-dozen mounted rustlers of whom Cadmus had spoken, and who
were wondering at the unaccountable delay.

The messenger quickly made everything plain, and they straightway
proceeded to take a hand in the business.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A MISCALCULATION.

Larch Cadmus was well fitted to act the leader of so desperate a
company of men. He was chagrined beyond measure at the manner in which
the tables had been turned on him, but, like all such persons, when
caught fairly, he knew how to accept the situation philosophically.

None understood better than he that the individual who held that
Winchester levelled would press the trigger on the first provocation.
He was the one that had sent the warning, and the other was the one
that had received it. The twenty-four hours' truce had been ended by
the words and action of Cadmus himself, and his chief wonder, now that
Fred Whitney was with him, was that Monteith Sterry should show any
mercy to his persecutor; had the situations been reversed, the course
also would have been different.

But the ruffian was on the alert. He noticed the guarded movement of
Spark Holly at the moment Whitney entered his home, and he needed no
one to tell him what it meant.

He had slipped off to bring help and it would not take him long to do
it, though Cadmus might well feel uneasy over what would take place
when Sterry should learn the trick played on him.

It may be that a person's senses are keener in situations of grave
peril than at other times, for, calculating as clearly as he could the
period it would take his comrade to reach the horsemen, only a short
way back on the prairie, Cadmus heard sounds which indicated their
approach, though they must remain invisible for several minutes.

"Wal," said he, in his off-hand manner, directly after Whitney had
whisked into the house, "now that you're together, how long do you
mean to keep this thing up?"

"We're through," was the response.

"What do y