een when for an instant after throwing the door of the room
open she had glanced down to see the room full of men, all looking at
her.

The concentrated gazing of the men at the stairs told Shorty what he
wanted to know. He spoke to Blackburn, throwing the words back over his
shoulder:

"Hold 'em right where they are--damn 'em!"

Then with a few gigantic bounds he was at the foot of the stairs. In a
few more he had gained the top, where he pressed his huge shoulder
against the door. It gave a little--enough to further enrage the giant.
He drew back a little and literally hurled himself against it. It burst
open, Shorty keeping his feet as the wreck fell away from him. And he
saw Slade, with a hand over Ruth's mouth, standing near the foot of the
bed.

Evidently Slade had been about to release Ruth when he heard the door
crashing behind him; for at the instant Shorty emerged from the wreck he
saw that the girl's body was already falling--toward the bed--as Slade
drew away from her and reached for his guns.

They came out--both of them--streaking fire and smoke. But they never
came to the deadly level to which Slade sought to throw them; for
Shorty's guns were crashing at Slade's first movement, and the bullets
from the outlaw's weapons thudded into the board floor, harmlessly, and
Slade lurched forward--almost to Shorty's side--his guns loosening in
his hands and falling, one after the other, to the floor. He grinned,
with hideous satire, into Shorty's face as he tried, vainly, to steady
himself.

"Warden--the damned skunk--said Lawler would come--first!" he said, with
horrible pauses. He lurched again, still grinning satirically; and
slumped to the floor, where he turned slowly over on his back and lay
still.

Shorty glanced at Ruth, who was huddled on the bed; then he wheeled, and
leaped for the stairs.

Before he reached the bottom, Ruth sat up and stared dazedly about. She
had heard the crashing of the pistols, though the reports had seemed to
come from a great distance--faintly, dully. But when she reeled to her
feet and saw Slade lying on the floor, his upturned face ghastly in the
feeble light from the oil-lamp, she knew that someone had saved her, and
she yielded, momentarily, to a great joy that weakened her so that she
had to sit on the edge of the bed to steady herself.

It was not for long; and presently she got up and swayed to the door at
the top of the stairs, holding onto the jamb while she lo