"You are making a mistake, sir," warned Grace. "If there is good reason why we should not go up this gorge we will go around it on the ridge." "Ah said git out! Ye kain't go up the gorge nor over the ridge. Git out o' the mountains!" "Not this evening, we won't!" shouted Lieutenant Wingate, now thoroughly angered, as he gathered up his reins. _Bang!_ A bullet from the mountaineer's rifle went through the peak of Hippy Wingate's campaign hat, lifting it from his head and depositing it on the ground. "Don't draw!" cried Grace in a warning voice as Hippy let a hand slip from the bridle-rein. "Put yer hands up! All of ye!" commanded the mountaineer, the muzzle of his rifle swinging suggestively from side to side so as to cover the entire party. CHAPTER VI HIPPY MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARS All except Nora Wingate obeyed the command to hold up their hands. "I'll not put me hands up for the likes of you!" she retorted, her eyes snapping, as she deliberately got down from her pony. "Don't do anything foolish," warned Grace Harlowe. Unheeding the warning, Nora stepped over and picked up Hippy's hat, eyed the hole in it, the color flaming higher and higher in her face. Nora then walked straight up to the mountaineer, apparently unconscious of the fact that his rifle was now pointed directly at her. The mountaineer was nearer death at that moment than he knew, for two hands had slipped to two revolver butts resting respectively in the holsters of Grace Harlowe and Lieutenant Wingate. What mad thing Nora had in mind they could not imagine, but they did not believe the fellow would dare to shoot her down in cold blood, for it must be plain to him that she was unarmed. "Look what you did!" she demanded, holding up the hat that the mountaineer might see the bullet hole in it. "You put a bullet through my husband's perfectly good hat. Aren't you ashamed of yourself? That hat cost him eight dollars, and if I thought you had eight dollars in the world, I'd make you pay for it. You're a cheap ruffian, that's what you are!" Nora's chin was thrust out belligerently. At this juncture her right hand flashed up to the nose of the mountaineer. The fingers closed over that prominent member and Nora Wingate gave it a violent tweak. The fellow's jaw sagged. He appeared actually dazed and the muzzle of his rifle, that Nora had thrust to one side as she boldly stepped up to him, had been permitted to sink slowly towards the ground. Nora Wingate did not stop there. She soundly boxed the fellow's ears, first with the right, then with the left hand, each whack giving his head a violent jolt to one side. "Jump back!" It was Grace Harlowe who, in an incisive tone of voice, gave the order to Nora.