y." The cowboys, in great feather, were
dragging the old man with mock violence from the wagon.

Kate recovered her breath: "What's it all about?" she asked.

Van Horn put away his gun. He was in very good humor as he glanced
over at the boys crowding around Bradley: "They want tobacco," he
laughed.

"Oh."

"You know what I want."

Kate regarded his expectancy unmoved: "How should I know?" she asked,
chilling her question with indifference.

"Because," he exclaimed, sweeping back with a flourish the brim of his
hat, "I want you."

She eyed him without a tremor and responded without hesitation: "Well,
I can say you will never get me if that's all you want."

He laughed again: "Talk it over with me, Kate; talk it over."

His eyes, always bright and liquid, were a little inflamed. Still
laughing, he glanced toward the wagon. The boys were boisterous. Kate
could hear Bradley's voice in shrill protest: "What'd I be goin' to
town f'r, if I had a bottle?" he was demanding angrily. But, while she
looked and listened, Van Horn slipped quickly from his saddle and
caught her bridle rein: "Come on," he said, at her horse's head, "let's
walk down to the creek, girlie, and talk it all over."

Kate was indignant: "I won't walk anywhere----"

"I'll carry you."

She suppressed an angry word: "I'm on my way to town," she exclaimed.
"Let go my bridle!" She struck her horse. The beast jumped ahead.
Van Horn, laughing, held on. But the shock jerked him almost from his
feet. As he staggered forward, clinging to the rearing animal, the
half-muffled report of a revolver was heard. Almost like a
thunderbolt, it changed the situation. One of the Texas men had fired
in the air, but no one had seen him fire and the other Texans jumped
like longhorns. Stone, clapping his hand to his holster, whirled from
the wagon wheel. Kate, frightened more than ever, struck her horse
again; the bridle was jerked from Van Horn's hand and he turned
sharply. Quickest to grasp what he saw as his eye swept the road, he
yelled: "Look out, boys! There's Laramie!"

The words were not out of his mouth when Kate caught sight of a man
down the road leaping from a horse. As the rider touched the ground he
slapped his pony's shoulder and the beast dropped flat. The man, rifle
in hand, threw himself behind the prostrate animal and Kate heard his
brusque yell to Van Horn and the Texans: "Pitch up!"

It would have been hard to say who was mos