t, for the
legs of the bully were swept from under him, and he went to the sod on
his face with a crash that seemed to shake the earth.

Like an eagle upon its prey, Ted was on the back of the bully. The crowd
shouted like mad, eager to go to the rescue of their champion. But Ted
heard the voice of the foreman of Running Water high above the din.

"It's the boy's fight, an' any man that breaks through the line will get
a ball from my forty-four plumb through him. Stand back, you cattle!"

"Let 'em go, fellers. Shan will kill him in a minute," shouted one of
the gamblers.

Shan Rhue had been badly shaken up by the jolt that had been his when he
struck the ground. For several moments he did not stir, and Ted thought
he had been knocked out.

Many of the men in the crowd knew things about Shan Rhue which Ted did
not.

Rhue was considered the strongest man in the Southwest at that time. He
was barely forty years old, in the prime of his life, and a man who had
never dissipated. But he was a thoroughly bad man for all that, and the
number of men whom he had killed had been forgotten.

His feats of strength were the talk of barrooms and bunk houses. He had
been seen many times to break horseshoes with his hands, and as for
bending a bar of iron by striking the muscles of his forearm with it,
that was one of his ordinary tricks.

But the thing of which he was proudest was his ability to buck a man off
his back. In this feat he barred none, no matter how heavy. He would get
on his hands and knees, place a surcingle around his body under his arms
for his rider to hold on by, and then proceed to buck.

It would seem impossible for a man to stick to him under such
circumstances, and no one had been found yet who could do so.

Thus it was that those of the crowd who had witnessed this feat
sometimes in a fight, and more often in friendly contest, looked to see
Ted sailing through the air, and then the finish, for Shan Rhue was a
merciless enemy.

Ted was now straddling the prostrate bully, who was breathing heavily,
his body heaving as his lungs tried to get back into commission.

Presently he was all right again, and, feeling a weight upon him, shook
himself. This not having the effect of relieving him of his burden, he
twisted his head around and saw Ted sitting on him.

With a growl like a wounded bear he slowly lifted himself to the height
of his arms, then slowly rose to his knees.

"By golly, he's goin' ter b