Without warning, without a sound of explosion came a wiry whine into the still air, a little venomous ping, and a bullet sped by just over their heads. But, through the gloom, they both saw the flash of the gun as it spat fire and lead, and, as though one impulse commanded them, Judith's rifle and Bud Lee's went to their shoulders and two reverberating reports rang out in answer. "Lie down, damn it!" cried Bud Lee to the girl at his side, as again there came the flash from the cliffs off to the right and as again he answered it with his rifle. "Lie down yourself!" snapped Judith. And once more her rifle spoke with his. For one instant, framed against the darkening sky along the cliff edge five hundred yards away to the right, they saw the silhouette of a man, leaping from one boulder to another, a man who looked gigantically big in the uncertain light. They fired; he jumped again and passed out of sight. "Got his nerve," grunted Lee as he pumped lead at the running figure. As an answer there came the third flash, the bullet striking the trail in front of them. And then the fourth flash, from a point a hundred yards to the left of the other. "That's Number Two," muttered Lee. "They've got us in the open, Judith. Let's beat it back to the cabin." "I'm with you," said Judith, between shots. "It's just foolishness" . . . _bang_! . . . "sticking out here" . . . _bang_! . . . "for them to pop us off." _Bang_! _Bang_! They ran then, Bud slipping in front of her, his tall body looming darkly between her and the cliffs whence the shots came. He slid along the sharp slope to the plateau, putting out his arms toward her. And as she came down, Bud Lee grunted and cursed under his breath. For there had been another flash out of the thickening night, this one from the refuge toward which they were running. A third man was shooting from the shelter of the cabin walls. And Lee had felt a stinging pain as though a hot iron had scorched its way along the side of his leg. "Hurt much?" asked Judith quickly. Without waiting for an answer, she pumped two shots at the flash by the cabin. "No," grunted Lee. "Just scared. And now what? I want to know." XI IN THE OLD CABIN Bud Lee, in the thicker darkness lying along the edge of the plateau, sat with his back against the rocks while he gave swift first aid to his wound. He brought into requisition the knotted handkerchief from about his throat, bound it tightly around the calf of his leg, and said lightly to Judith: "Just a fool scratch, you know. But I've no hankering to dribble out a lot of blood from it." Judith made no answer. Lee took up his rifle and turned to the spot where she had been standing a moment ago. She was not there. "Gone!" he grunted, frowning into the blackness hemming him in. "Now, what do you suppose she's up to? Fainted, most likely."