d wild-cat, but
slowly and surely he was bending her to his will. Her nails were leaving
raw marks upon him, until the blood ran down his face, and presently
catching between her teeth one of the fingers of the hand which gagged
her, she bit it so fiercely that he cried out in pain.

"Curse you, you little she-devil," he grunted savagely. "I'll make you
pay twice for that!"

"Gordon! Oh, come to me! Quick! Quick!"

Quivering all over, she sank on her knees before the brute who
confronted her, a figure of distress that must have appealed to the
heart of any man above the level of a beast. But in the heat of passion
and rage, Moran had lost kinship with even the beasts themselves. Lust
burned in his eyes and twisted his features horribly as he seized her
again, exhausted by the brave struggle she had made, and all but
helpless in his grasp.

"Gordon! Mother! Barker! Save me! Oh, my God!"

CHAPTER XX

THE STORM BURSTS

The vigilantes had entered Crawling Water at about ten o'clock, when the
saloons and gambling joints were in full swing. Ribald songs and oaths
from the players, drinkers, and hangers-on floated into the street, with
now and then the bark of a six-shooter telling of drunken sport or
bravado. Few people were abroad; good citizens had retired to their
homes, and the other half was amusing itself.

So it was, at first, that few noticed the troop of horsemen which swung
in at one end of the town, to ride slowly and silently down the main
street. Each of the hundred men in the troop carried a rifle balanced
across his saddle pommel; each was dressed in the garb of the
range-rider; and the face of each, glimpsed by the light from some
window or doorway, was grimly stern. The sight was one calculated to
make Fear clutch like an ice-cold hand at the hearts of those with
guilty consciences; a spectacle which induced such respectable men as
saw it to arm themselves and fall in behind the advancing line. These
knew without being told what this noiseless band of stern-eyed riders
portended, and ever since the coming of Moran into Crawling Water
Valley, they had been waiting for just this climax.

Before the first of the dives, the troop halted as Wade raised his right
arm high in the air. Twenty of the men dismounted to enter the
glittering doorway, while the remainder of the vigilantes waited on
their horses. A few seconds after the twenty had disappeared, the music
of the piano within abruptly ceas