Trevison was wide awake now, and his marksmanship as deadly as ever. He waited until the man's rifle came to a level. Then his own weapon spat viciously. The man rose to his knees, reeling. Another rifle cracked--from the recess where Levins was concealed, this time--and the man sank to the dust of the slope, rolling over and over until he reached the bottom, where he stretched out and lay prone. There was a shout of rage from a section of rock-strewn level near the foot of the slope, and Trevison's lips curled with satisfaction. The second shot had told him that a fear he had entertained momentarily was unfounded--Levins was apparently quite alive. He raised himself cautiously, backed away from the rock behind which he had been concealed, and wheeled, intending to join Levins. A faint sound reached his ears from the plains, and he faced around again, to see a group of horsemen riding toward the pueblo. They were coming fast, racing ahead of a dust cloud, and were perhaps a quarter of a mile distant. But Trevison knew them, and stepped boldly out to the edge of the stone ledge waving his hat to them, laughing full-throatedly, his voice vibrating a little as he spoke: "Good old Barkwell!" * * * * * "That's him!" Barkwell pulled his horse to a sliding halt as he saw the figure on the pueblo, outlined distinctly in the clear white light of the dawn. "He's all right!" he declared to the others as they followed his example and drew their beasts down. "Them's some of the scum that's been after him," he added as several horsemen swept around the far side of the pueblo. "It was them we heard shootin'." The outfit sat silent on their horses and watched the men ride over the plains toward another group of horsemen that the Diamond K men had observed some time before riding toward the pueblo, "Yep!" Barkwell said, now; "that other bunch is deputies, too. It's mighty plain. This bunch rounded up 'Firebrand' an' sent some one back for reinforcements." He swept the Diamond K outfit with a snarling smile. "They're goin' to need 'em, too! I reckon we'd better wait for them to play their hand. It's about a stand off in numbers. We don't stand no slack, boys. We're outlawed already, from the ruckus of last night, an' if they start anything we've got to wipe 'em out! You heard 'em shootin' at the boss, an' they ain't no pussy-kitten bunch! I'll do the gassin'--if there's any to be done--an' when I draw, you guys do your damnedest!" The outfit set itself to wait. Over on the edge of the pueblo they could see Trevison. He was bending over something, and when they saw him stoop and lift the object, heaving it to his shoulder and walking away with it, a sullen murmur ran over the outfit, and lips grew stiff and white with rage.