ensation that of a
whip-lash cutting deep. He saw del Rio stagger back under the impact
of a forty-five-caliber bullet which must have merely grazed him, since
it did not knock him off his feet. Del Rio, his lips streaming his
curses and hatred, fired again. But his wound had been sorer than
Norton's, his aim was less steady, and now as he gave back it was to
fall heavily and lie still.

It had lasted less than five minutes. "It's Jim Galloway's fight and
Galloway don't come!" some one had shouted. They broke again, gave
back and back . . . and then were running, every man of them scenting
defeat and much worse than defeat unless he came to a horse before
another five minutes. And after them, firing now as they ran, came
Brocky's cowboys and Norton's men.

"They've got all of their horses over there together," yelled Brocky
into Norton's ear. "The horses for those Ginneys who have been hiding
out in the mountains, too. That's why I cut in between them that way.
Now if we can only scatter their cayuses . . . why, Roddy, we'll have
every damned one of 'em afoot to be rounded up when we get ready!"

And Brocky, limping as he went, had raced along after the others.

But Norton did not follow. His eyes had gone to the horses which he
and the San Juan men had left beyond the little line of boulders. And,
travelling that way, he had seen a lone horseman far off to the south,
a horseman riding frantically, seeking to come to the lower slopes of
Mt. Temple.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BELLS RING

"Galloway!"

It seemed almost as though some great voice had shouted it to him
through the din. Yonder, riding on his spurs, come at this late
moment, was Jim Galloway. The man responsible for all of to-night's
bloodshed, for the disappearance of Florrie, for the death of Billy
Norton.

"Coming, Jim Galloway!"

Did he say it? Or again was it a voice shouting to him, urging him on?
He looked off to the east. Flying forms everywhere with other racing
forms pursuing, firing as they ran. Horses jerking back, rearing,
breaking away from the few men guarding them. Full defeat for Jim
Galloway there. But to the west? Galloway coming on at top speed,
shouting as he came, and, upon the mountain's lower slope the others of
Galloway's men, armed and bloodthirsty. If Galloway came to them,
whipped them with his tongue, stirring them with his magnetism . . .
why, then, the fight was all to be fought over.

Now again N