as saved, for the merest fraction of an inch lay
between her and death.

During the hurly-burly of the fight, and as Ted was grasped in the
powerful arms of Shan Rhue, one of the gang rushed up to her as she lay
in the dust and picked her up.

He was a powerful man, and carried Stella's light body as if she had
been a child. That he was not seen by some member of the Running Water
outfit was due to the fact that they were too busily engaged in fighting
to pay attention to anything else.

When Stella regained her senses she was conscious of a racking headache,
and, placing her hand to her forehead, brought it away wet and sticky.
It was quite dark, and she groaned feebly. The pain was excruciating,
and the motion of her body made her deathly sick.

She felt around her, and her hand came in contact with a cold, hard, yet
yielding substance. Then she heard the rumble of wheels, and knew that
she was in a vehicle of some sort. The motion of the couch on which she
was lying was such that she came to the conclusion that she was in one
of those old stagecoaches hung on leather springs, which were so much in
use in the West before the advent of the railroads.

As her mind grew clearer she tried to remember all that had occurred.
Suddenly it flashed upon her. The capture of old Norris, the attempt of
Shan Rhue and his gang to take him away to lynch him, and the beginning
of the fight. How it had been finished she did not know.

Neither did she know whether or not she was in the care of her friends
or in the custody of her enemies. Probably the latter, for if Ted and
the boys were taking her somewhere, surely she would have more
attention, and the blood would have been washed from the wound on her
forehead.

The curtains of the stage were down, and she did not know whether it was
day or night.

Outside she heard the voices of men.

"Hurry up them mules, Bill," a man's voice came to her gruffly.

"Can't get any more out o' them. We've come nigh twenty mile on the run.
I tell you, the mules is 'most all in," said a man, evidently the driver
of the stage.

"Well, we ain't got much farther to go," said the other. "But we got to
get there before moondown, er we'll be up against it."

"What time is the bunch goin' to be at the lone tree?"

"Ten o'clock."

"Then we've got just about an hour, eh?"

"Just about. But we're a long ways off yet. Git all y'u can out o' them
mules. Kill 'em if y'u have to get them there on t