King toward the cabin he peered vainly for sight of Antrim's horse.

Not a living thing was in sight. The buildings were silent, seemingly
deserted. And the atmosphere of the place seemed to be pregnant with a
lurking threat, a hint of hidden danger.

He grinned as he plunged Red King to the door of the cabin--a grin which
meant that he expected Antrim would be waiting for him, but which
expressed his contempt of ambuscades and traps.

As he slipped from Red King he drew his pistol and lunged forward,
bringing up against the cabin door and sending it crashing inward,
against the wall.

He halted just inside the door, his pistol rigid in his right hand,
which was pressed tightly to his side; for directly in front of him,
standing, his arms folded over his chest, was Antrim, a huge, venomous
grin on his face.

"Well, you got here, Lawler," he said, huskily. "You come a-runnin',
didn't you? Well, I had your cattle run off, an' I burned your
buildin's. What are you aimin' to do about it?"

Lawler did not move. He might have killed Antrim, for the man's weapon
was in the holster at his hip--Lawler could see the stock sticking above
the leather. He had expected Antrim would be in the cabin when he opened
the door; he anticipated that the outlaw would shoot on sight, and he
had been prepared to do the same.

But there was something in the outlaw's manner, in the cold, measured
tone of his voice, in his nonchalant disregard of the pistol in Lawler's
hand that brought a swift suspicion into Lawler's mind. It was a
presentiment that the outlaw was not alone in the cabin; that he had
carefully laid his plans, and that they did not include a gun fight in
which he would have to face Lawler upon equal terms.

Lawler did not look around. He kept his gaze unwaveringly upon the
outlaw, knowing that if other men were in the cabin with him they were
waiting for Antrim to give the word to shoot him. Otherwise they would
have shot him down when he had entered.

"Not sayin' anything, eh?" jeered Antrim. "Well, come a-shootin'. You
bust in here, seein' red, with a gun in your hand; an' then stand there,
like you was wonderin' if you was welcome." He peered close at Lawler,
his eyes narrowing with suspicion, and then, finally, with savage
amusement.

"I reckon I ketch on," he sneered. "You know there's some one here with
me, an' that they've got you covered. I know you, an' I knowed you'd
come rushin' in here, just like you did,