were done, and when yuh came
in and made sparks fly--whew!"

"Theah'll be moah spahks fly, I'm afraid," the Texan drawled. "How'd
yo' like to make some spahks fly yo'selves?"

The others showed their eagerness. The fighting fever was in their
veins, especially since the death of poor Mike Train. And now, with
Blacksnake and half the outlaw gang captured, they felt that they had a
good part of the battle won. Red tried to question Blacksnake about
his brother's death, but the outlaw was stubborn and refused to talk.
Had it not been for Kid Wolf, Red would have fallen on his enemy and
beaten him with his fists. And none of them could blame him.

It was nearly dark, and they made quick plans The stolen herd was not
far ahead, and with it were not more than seven of Gentleman John's
riders.

"We'll take those cattle away from 'em," said Red fiercely, "and head
the steers back to the Diamond D!"

It was decided that the prisoners could be left where they were for the
time being, although Lefty Warren was for stringing them up there and
then. Kid Wolf shook his head at this suggestion, however, and they
armed themselves, "borrowing" the guns of the Blacksnake gang. Then
they mounted their horses and headed south through the deepening dusk.

CHAPTER XX

BATTLE ON THE MESA

"Oh, the cowboy sings so mournful on the Rio!
To the dark night herd, so mournful and so sad,
And I'd like to be in the moonlight on the Rio,
Wheah good men are good, and bad men are bad!"

Kid Wolf sang the tune softly to the whispering wind, as the trio
climbed under a New Mexican moon to the top of a vast mesa.

"Guess yuh'll find some plenty bad ones here in Skull County, eh, Kid?"
laughed Red grimly.

The Texan, brightly outlined on his beautiful horse in the moonlight,
looked like a ghost on a moving white shadow.

"Bad men," mused Kid Wolf, "aren't so plentiful. Usually theah's some
good in the blackest. The men we're goin' to fight to-night, fo'
instance, are probably just driftahs who've drifted the wrong way. But
Gentleman John--well, he's one of the few really bad men I've met.
He's really the one we want."

The splendor of the night had a sobering effect on them. To be
thinking of possible bloodshed in all that dream beauty seemed
terrible. Yet it was necessary. It was a hard land. A man had to be
his own law. And in Kid Wolf's case, he had to be the law for others,
in a fight for the weak agai