-I give her my word I'd quit the horse game an'
start an outfit. Listen--I----"

"Who is she?" the voice of the Texan cut in like chilled steel.

"McWhorter's girl----"

"You're a damned liar!"

"D'you know her?" the words came haltingly.

"Some," answered the Texan, drily, "she an' I are goin' to be married
tomorrow." The words had been uttered with the deliberate intent of
taunting Purdy, but even the Texan was not prepared for the
manifestation of insane rage that followed.

"You lie! Damn you! Damn you! You've always beat me! Yer beatin' me now!
You son of a--, take that!" With the words he leaped from behind his
rock and emptied his gun, the bullets thudding harmlessly against the
Texan's barrier, and instantly he was behind his rock again.

Cass Grimshaw grinned at the others. "He's baitin' him--prob'ly be'n
baitin' him fer an hour till Purdy's gone plumb mad."

"De Injun she would stake um out an' build de leetle fire on hees belly.
But A'm t'ink dat hurt worse lak Tex do it."

Endicott gazed in white-lipped fascination upon the scene. "Let's make
him surrender and turn him over to the authorities," he whispered.

Grimshaw shook his head: "No--not him. If you knew him like I do, you
wouldn't say that. By God, I turned one man over to the authorities--an'
they give him a year! An' when he got out I give him what he had comin'.
Think, man what he'd of done to your wife----"

The sentence was cut short by the sound of galloping hoofs. All four
craned their necks for sight of the rider. Grimshaw and Bill Harlow drew
their guns, expecting to see the fourth man of Purdy's gang come rushing
to the aid of his leader. But not until the rider was within a hundred
feet of the two combatants did they catch sight of her. At the same
instant they saw the Texan, hat in hand, frantically wave her back.
Janet McWhorter saw him, too, and pulled the bay mare to her haunches at
the same instant a shot rang out and Purdy's bullet ripped the Texan's
hat from his hand. Almost before her horse came to a stop, the girl's
gun was in her hand and she sat--tense--expectant.

With glittering eyes fixed upon the girl, Purdy laughed a wild shrill
laugh, that echoed among the rocks like a sound from hell. The words of
the Texan burned like words of living fire. "_Goin' to be married
tomorrow!_" Deliberately he raised his gun and fired--just at the
instant the bay mare threw up her head with a nervous jerk to rid her
mouth of the f