goee!" He turned his
horse and sped across the field, deserting us basely.

We rode on, Ted and I. He was pale and still; my cheeks were burning. We
neared the bridge. The high mound of earth before us hid us from sight.
We stopped our horses and listened. The men had lighted torches, some
were preparing a rough gallows under the bridge; two were uncoiling
rope; some held the horses of the others beyond the bridge. The men were
masked now, and I could see by the lighted torches that this number was
increased. Jack was very white and sad, but he showed no fear.

"I am innocent, gentlemen," he said, slowly, "but I refuse to tell you
of whom I bought the hides."

I understood him. Could Harry White be a cattle thief? I felt as if I
were going mad.

"What shall we do?" whispered Ted, cocking his revolver?

Suddenly a bright red light illuminated the heavens, followed by clouds
of black smoke and a queer crackling noise. A yell from the men--Gil
Mead's voice above the rest. The hay-stack was on fire. It seemed to me
in the gale around it that I could see a foreign-looking human vanishing
across the plain.

The men mounted their horses, Gil Mead at the head, and set off across
the fields at a mad gallop. They must save the stack. They left Jack,
bound hand and foot, and guarded by one man.

Shep, the wonderful dog, had kept by us until now, slinking in the dark
shadows. Now, gliding sidewise and still, he reached the man on guard
whose back was to us, and with no warning growl caught him by the throat
with strong white teeth that could choak a coyote in a second. The man,
who was in a sitting posture, fell back with a groan. Ted struck him
over the head with the butt of the revolver, and pulled off the dog. I
cut Jack's bonds with a knife. He looked at us wonderingly and staggered
to his feet.

"Never mind how we came, Jack," I said; "quick, mount the horse beyond
the bridge, and ride to Denver for your life. They will not harm a woman
and child."

"Harry White," he muttered, the loyal soul that even now could think of
another's danger.

"I will tell him."

"No, no; not of this--only say, if he stole the cattle, to fly the
country. They will find out, sooner or later."

He galloped down the road. Ted and I mounted, calling off Shep, who sat
on his haunches watching the unconscious man, and then we, too, sped
down the road. The hay-stack was giving out great columns of black
smoke, but the fire was dead.

Ahe