A second shift of the breeze had swept the smoke away.  This had saved their lives, but it had also given Snaith’s men another chance at them A bullet whistled past the head of Clanton, who was for the time a few yards from his friends.  Instantly he whipped the rifle up and fired.

“No luck” he grumbled.  “My eyes are sore from the smoke.  I can’t half see.”

Lee was not yet quite herself.  The experience through which she had just passed had shaken her nerves.

“Let’s get out of here quick!” she cried.

“Take yore time.  There’s no hurry,” Prince iterated.  “They won’t shoot again, now Jim’s close to us.”

The younger man grinned, as he had a habit of doing when the cards fell against him.  “Where’d we go?  Look, they’ve headed us off.  We can’t travel forward.  We can’t go back.  I expect we’ll have to file on the quarter-section where we are,” he drawled.

A rider had galloped forward and was dismounting close to the river.  He took shelter behind a boulder.

Billie swept with a glance the plain to their right.  A group of horsemen was approaching.  “More good citizens comin’ to be in at the finish of this man hunt.  They ought to build a grand stand an’ invite the whole town,” he said sardonically.

A water-gutted arroyo broke the line of liver-bank.  Jim, who was limping heavily, stopped and examined it.

“Let’s stay here, Billie, an’ fight it out.  No use foolin’ ourselves.  We’re trapped.  Might as well call for a showdown here as anywhere.”

Prince nodded.  “Suits me.  We’ll make our stand right at the head of the arroyo.”  He turned abruptly to the girl.  “It’s got to be good-bye here, Miss Lee.”

“That’s whatever, littlest pilgrim,” agreed Clanton promptly.  “If you get a chance send word to Webb an’ tell him how it was with us.”

Her lip trembled.  She knew that in the shadow of the immediate future red tragedy lurked.  She had done her best to avert it and had failed.  The very men she was trying to save had dismissed her.

“Must I go?” she begged.

“You must, Miss Lee.  We’re both grateful to you.  Don’t you ever doubt that!” Billie said, his earnest gaze full in hers.

The girl turned away and went up through the sand, her eyes filmed with tears so that she could not see where she was going.  The two men entered the arroyo.  Before they reached the head of it she could hear the crack of exploding rifles.  One of the men across the river was firing at them and they were throwing bullets back at him.  She wondered, shivering, whether it was her father.

It must have been a few seconds later that she heard the joyous “Eee-yip-eee!” of Prince.  Almost at the same time a rider came splashing through the shallow water of the river toward her.

The man was her father.  He swung down from the saddle and snatched her into his arms.  His haggard face showed her how anxious he had been.  She began to sob, overcome, perhaps, as much by his emotion as her own.