held Snap as in a vise. George Naab gave Holderness's horse a sharp kick
which made the mettlesome beast jump so suddenly that his rider was
nearly unseated. Zeke ran to Hare and laid him back against the stone.

"Cool down, there!" ordered Zeke. "He's done for."

"My God--my God!" cried Dave, in a broken voice. "Not--not dead?"

"Shot through the heart!"

Dave Naab flung Snap backward, almost off his horse. "D--n you! run, or
I'll kill you. And you, Holderness! Remember! If we ever meet again--you
draw!" He tore a branch from a cedar and slashed both horses. They
plunged out of the glade, and clattering over the stones, brushing the
cedars, disappeared. Dave groped blindly back toward his brothers.

"Zeke, this's awful. Another murder by Snap! And my friend! . . .
Who's to tell father?"

Then Hare sat up, leaning against the stone, his shirt open and his bare
shoulder bloody; his face was pale, but his eyes were smiling. "Cheer
up, Dave. I'm not dead yet."

"Sure he's not," said Zeke. "He ducked none too soon, or too late, and
caught the bullet high up in the shoulder."

Dave sat down very quietly without a word, and the hand he laid on Hare's
knee shook a little.

"When I saw George go for his gun," went on Zeke, "I knew there'd be a