ange or
stop.

"Smith, reckon you've cause for temper," he said, huskily. "I'll take
half the hosses--an' buy your half."

"No! Not one damn broomtail do you get," returned Pan in a voice that
cut. "Look out, Hardman! I can prove you hatched up this deal to rob
me."

"How, I'd like to know?" blustered the rancher, relaxing again.

"Mac New can prove it."

"Who's he?"

"Hurd here. His real name is Mac New. You hired him to get in with
me--to keep you posted on my movements."

Again Hardman showed his kind of fiber under extreme provocation:

"Yes, I hired him--an' he's double-crossed you as well as me."

"Did he? Well, now _you_ prove that," flashed Pan who had read the
furious falseness of the man.

"Purcell here," replied Hardman hoarsely, "he's been camped below.
Hurd met him at night--kept him posted on your work. Then, when all
was ready for the drive Purcell sent for me. Ask him yourself."

Pan did not answer to the suggestion. "Mac, what do you say to that?"
he queried, sharply, but he never took his eyes off Purcell.

"_Hardman, you're a liar!_" roared Mac New, sonorously. If ever Pan
heard menace in a voice, it was then.

"_Take it back!_" went on the outlaw, now with a hiss. "Square me with
Panhandle Smith!"

"Mac, he doesn't have to square you. Anyone could see he's a liar,"
called Pan derisively.

"Hurd, I--I'll have you shot--I'll shoot you myself," burst out
Hardman, wrestling his arm toward his hip.

A thundering report close beside Pan almost deafened him. Hardman
uttered a loud gasp. His eyes rolled--fixed in awful stony stare.
Then like a flung sack he fell heavily.

"Thar, Jard Hardman," declared the outlaw, "I had one bullet left."
And he threw his empty gun with violence at the prostrate body.

Purcell's long taut body jerked into swift action. His gun spurted red
as it leaped out. Pan, quick as he drew and shot, was too late to save
Mac New. Both men fell without a cry, their heads almost meeting.

"Blink, grab their guns!" yelled Pan piercingly, and leaping over the
bodies he confronted the stricken group of men with leveled weapon.

"Hands up! _Quick_, damn you!" he ordered, fiercely.

His swiftness, his tremendous passion, following instantly upon
tragedy, had shocked Hardman's men. Up went their hands.

Then Blinky ran in with a gun in each hand, and his wild aspect most
powerfully supplemented Pan's furious energy and menace.

"Fork them hosses,