olster, and
loosened up a few cartridges in his belt. Red had already taken that
precaution.

They circled the bunch without alarming it and with comparative ease
started it corralwards, the leader proving unusually tractable for the
nonce. Her roan was no novice at the business and covered his assigned
arc as gracefully as a swallow, to the great delight of the young woman
who was reveling in the pleasure of a new sensation. She wisely gave the
horse his head, and the intelligent beast repaid her good judgment by
cleverly heading off every straggler who essayed to dodge back to
liberty. She was really proving of decided assistance and Red waved her
a cordial encouragement from the left flank.

The horses were bunched closely together as they neared the corral gate,
the leader trotting easily and with apparently no concern, directly
towards the entrance. He was seemingly resigned to the inevitable and
the riders closed in sharply to urge them through. Grace was much elated
over her successful debut and gave a little exultant shout as the
massive head and shoulders of the blue stallion were momentarily framed
in the opening. She was inclined to be contemptuous of the ease with
which it had been accomplished, and in the relief of the thought dropped
her rein loosely on the roan's neck. At that exact moment the cunning
beast In the gateway whirled like a flash, lowered his head like a
snake, and darted back through the plunging throng which opened before
him as a dry pine butt splits to a stoutly driven wedge.

Owing to the dense smother of dust about the gateway, and the further
fact that the bunch, not missing their leader in its enveloping clouds,
were crowding through the opening into the corral, neither of the men
noted the maneuver of the stallion until he broke out of the press,
heading obliquely to one side, between Douglass and Miss Carter.

Then was she conscious of a hoarse cry that rang like the roar of an
anguished lion above the din of trampling feet:

"To the left! Get out of his way, for Christ's sake! To the left!"

Out of the dust blur, an animated lead-blue bullet, shot the great
stallion, his head held low, his body extended until his stomach brushed
the sagebrush beneath. The roan, taking the bit between his teeth,
turned as on a pivot, almost unseating his rider, and raced undirected
towards the exact point where the escaping animal could be best
intercepted, intent only on the well-understood w