boys," he admitted. "But we've got the ranch
back, at any rate. How are you feeling, Ed, pretty stiff and sore?"

"My Gawd, yes--awful!"

"Me, too," declared Tom Parrish, the second of the victims; and the
third man swore roundly that he would not regain the full use of his
legs before Christmas.

"Well, you're lucky at that," was Santry's dry comment. "All that saved
you from gettin' shot up some in the fight was layin' low down in that
corner where you was." He let his eyes travel around the littered,
blood-spattered room. "From the looks o' this shebang we musta stung
some of 'em pretty deep; but nobody was killed, I reckon. I hope Moran
was the worst hurt, durn him!"

"He'll keep," Wade said grimly. "We've not done with him yet, Bill.
We've only just begun."

CHAPTER X

THE SENATOR GETS BUSY

It was daylight when the routed posse, with Race Moran in the lead, his
left arm tied up in a blood-stained handkerchief, rode into Crawling
Water. A bullet had pierced the fleshy part of the agent's wrist, a
trifling wound, but one which gave him more pain than he might have
suffered from a serious injury. None of the members of the posse had
been dangerously wounded; indeed, they had suffered more in the spirit
than in the flesh; but there had been a number of minor casualties
amongst the men, which made a sufficiently bloody display to arouse the
little town to active curiosity.

Under instructions from the leader, however, the fugitives kept
grouchily silent, so that curiosity was able to feed only on
speculations as to Wade's temper, and the fact that he had brought about
Santry's release from jail. The story of that achievement had been
bruited about Crawling Water since midnight, together with the
probability that the Law would be invoked to punish the ranchman for his
defiance of it. Popular sentiment was running high over the likelihood
of such a step being taken, and the members of the posse were the
targets of many hostile glances from the townspeople. At least
two-thirds of the citizens were strongly in favor of Wade, but before
they took active steps in his behalf they waited for the return of a
horseman, who had hurried out to the ranch to learn at first hand
exactly what had happened there.

Meanwhile Moran, in an ugly mood, had awakened the Senator from the
troubled sleep which had come to him after much wakeful tossing.
Rexhill, with tousled hair, wrapped in a bathrobe, from the bottom of