turbed security of a clean conscience he wondered
anxiously what had occurred.

At the time when the sheep were half-way to the river-bank there was
another movement back at the camp where the cattle had been left. Men
there working on schedule started the cattle-drive. But this drive was not
at any diverging angle. It led straight forward to the pits and sharpened
stakes of the cowmen's defenses.

Presently the outposts of the force by the ford heard a distant rumbling
of the earth. These men on their horses--for they had not been in camp at
the time of the flashlight--rode slowly forward and waited. But not long.
Nearer and nearer came the sound until there was no more doubt that an
animal-drive was headed in their direction.

Slowly they retreated to the camp and gave the warning. Immediately the
fire was extinguished, and the punchers, still cursing over their
misfortune, loaded every available weapon, breathing a hot and complete
vengeance against the men that had outwitted them. Much to their chagrin
they now recognized that Skidmore was but a clever member of the enemy,
for if he had not been they felt that he would not have accomplished such
a speedy and well-planned escape.

Now, as the sheepmen drove their animals nearer and nearer to the pits,
they urged them faster until the unhappy creatures, besides themselves at
the weird occurrences of a night of terror, were at a headlong gallop.

Suddenly one of the punchers heard that unmistakable accompaniment of
running steers and the clashing of horns as the animals with lowered heads
charged the works.

"They're cows!" he yelled. "Don't shoot!"

But it was too late. The maddened cattle were already at the first pits,
plunging in with terrified bellows, or being transfixed on the stakes by
the onrush of those behind. The pits were not more than ten feet deep,
and only served to check the herd until they were full. Then those
following trampled over their dying companions and charged the trenches
where the cowboys lay.

"Fire!" yelled Bissell, who was in command, and the guns of nearly seventy
men poured a leaden hail of death into the forefront of the heedless
cattle.

Larkin's men by this time had drawn off to see that the havoc ran its
course, and when they heard the desperate volleys they turned and rode
southwest along the river-bank to the point where the sheep expected to
cross.

The cattle, which had been driven in a rather narrow column, continu