Arnold rode slowly back to where that grotesque caricature of a woman still stood by the wall. She seemed immovable as the rock itself, part and parcel of the waiting world and the grey shadows. “You young hellion!” he gritted through his teeth, “you have blinded my best man!” “Have so,” said Nance, still in that dull voice, “yes—I have so.” She nodded her dishevelled head. “Oh, what’s the use to fool with her!” cried Kate Cathrew furiously, “I’m done!” With a flare of her unbridled temper she snatched her gun from its saddle-loops and flung it up. As her finger curled on the trigger Arnold plunged his horse against Bluefire. “No!” he cried as the report rang out clear and sharp in the thin air of dawn. The bullet struck with a vicious “phwit” ten feet above its mark, and a little rain of rock dust fell on Nance’s hair. From all the sides of Rainbow’s Pot that shot came back in echoes, a roaring fusillade—and Bossick, waiting in his clump of pines, straightened in his saddle. He picked up his hanging rein and spoke in a low Voice. “Ready, men?” he asked, “then let’s go.” Cattle Kate had fired her own signal of fate and her enemies heard it. Brand Fair heard it in the strange dark passage far down in the heart of Mystery Ridge. Rod Stone, climbing the stiff slopes, heard it, and so did the boy on the staggering horse a little farther over toward Sky Line. He altered his course a bit toward the west. “What do you mean?” said Arnold sharply, “would you kill her before she signs the paper? Or after—and have the finger of the law point at the new owner of the flats? Use your wits.” “I have,” said Kate sullenly, “and have gotten nowhere. And she has defied me.” “She has defied us all,” replied Arnold with reluctant admiration, “she has been charmed, it seems.” “Kill her—and the old woman will take the boy and go,” said Kate, “she’s the stubborn element. I warn you now—she must never go out of this place alive. She knows us now.” “Unless she goes down the Pipe with this morning’s drive—the boys should soon be here to start.” “She will come back.” “Not if I send Basford to take her over the Line.” “Enough!” said Kate, “I’m uneasy about the whole thing—the brushed-out tracks at the mouth of the Pipe——” “A trifle. And the boys will soon be here. Hark—they’re coming now.” There was a sound in the rock face, a shout and the rumble of horses’ feet hurrping. The man and the woman looked that way—to behold Big Basford come boiling from the narrow opening with a string of men behind him. The grey light had given place to the rose of sunrise, and the riders who came so swiftly out of the wall were plainly visible. “Hell’s fire!” whispered Cattle Kate Cathrew. Like a Nemesis, Bossick and the ranchers behind him pushed Big Basford down the sloping floor of Rainbow’s Pot. “A plant!” screamed the latter, “we’re caught! We’re caught!” A hundred feet away Bossick stopped.