Lawler rode out of the gully and brought Red King to a halt. There was
no danger that the two men would discover him, for all objects in the
vicinity were rapidly being blotted out by the dancing smother of dust
that was riding the north wind. Lawler was to the north of the men,
slightly eastward, and they could not have faced the smother of dust to
look toward him.

Lawler could dimly see the herd moving toward the fence; he could see
the men plainly; and as he watched them his eyes narrowed. The big horse
leaped with the word he caught from his rider's lips, racing lightly
with the wind toward the fence where the men were working.

Lawler's approach was noiseless, for all sound was engulfed in the
steady, roaring whine of the storm. Neither of the two men, working at
the fence, heard Lawler as he brought the big horse to a halt within
half a dozen paces of them.

The taller of the two, plying a pair of wire-nippers, completed his work
at a fence post and turned to leap toward another. The movement brought
him against the muzzle of Lawler's horse. He halted jerkily, retreated a
step, and looked up, to see Lawler looking at him from behind the muzzle
of the big pistol that had leaped into his hand.

There was no word spoken--none could be heard at the moment. What
followed was grim pantomime, with tragedy lurking near.

The tall man held his position. He had tentatively extended his right
hand, the fingers spread, clawlike. Now the hand was going upward,
accompanied by the other. When the man had stepped backward to escape a
collision with Lawler's horse, the wind had whipped his hat from his
head. He now stood there, his hair waving to the vicious whims of the
gale, veiling his eyes and he not daring to lower his hands to brush it
away.

The shorter man, too, had assumed a statuesque pose. He had turned when
he had noted his companion's startled movement, and he, too, had seen an
apparition that had sent his hands swiftly upward.

The big horse stood motionless, his back to the wind. He did not move as
Lawler leaped from his back--smoothly, quickly, his eyes alert, his
muscles tensed for violent action.

The men stood rigid while Lawler jerked their pistols from their
holsters and tossed them into the dust waves that danced and swirled
around them. The short man was catapulted against the tall one with a
viciousness that staggered both; and then they heard Lawler's voice,
sharp and penetrating, above the shrie