one."

"Go on an' take him. I'll attend to the kid," shouted Shan Rhue.

"Get him!" "String him up!" "Lynch the old thief!"

These were the cries with which the mob advanced.

Out of the mob came several shots. Ted heard a cry of pain behind him,
and turned to see Stella reel in her saddle, pale to the lips, with her
hand pressing her head, Then she fell.

With a cry of horror and rage, Ted turned toward her, but just then he
felt himself seized and dragged from his saddle. Something struck him on
the back of the head, and all became black.

But as he was going off into unconsciousness he heard a shout. It was
the old Moon Valley yell, and he knew that Norris would be safe.

Bud was coming with reenforcements. Ted had dropped to the road under
the feet of the terrified ponies, and it was a miracle that he was not
trampled to death.

All about him the fight was going on.

Bud and Andy Bowles, and about twenty men whom they had hastily got
together, had come to the rescue, and the gamblers' gang was soon on the
run. They had not been able to get near Norris, for Kit had fought them
off with his one good arm until, finding themselves attacked in the
rear, the would-be lynchers ran for their lives.

The fight was swift and decisive, and several men lay in the dust when
it was over, for Andy Bowles and Bud and Ben had fought like tigers.

When Ted recovered consciousness again he found himself lying in the
road beside Shan Rhue, who had been knocked senseless by a blow from the
butt of Bud's pistol.

Ted staggered to his feet.

"Where's Stella?" he cried.

The other boys looked around. Just before the fight began they had seen
her, Kit, and the old man, but now she was gone.

"Stella was wounded," cried Ted. "Where is she? Scatter, men, and find
her. She cannot be far away. If anything has happened to her, some one
will suffer."

CHAPTER XXXI.

STELLA A CAPTIVE.

We will leave Ted and the broncho boys, to follow the misadventures of
Stella.

After securing Magpie, which was taken back to the cow camp by Kit, who,
much against his inclinations, was compelled to go into retirement until
his arm healed, Ted released old man Norris, who secured a pony and rode
rapidly out of town.

When Stella fell from the back of her pony to the road she became
insensible. A ball from the weapon of one of Shan Rhue's gang had
clipped a lock of hair from her forehead, creasing the skull. By a
miracle her life w