ome of these were wounded. The white
men's fire was becoming less accurate.

The young leader of the Apaches was horrible to look at. He was naked
save for a breechcloth and boot moccasins and his face was daubed with
ocher and vermilion. Across his lean chest, too, was a smear of paint
just under the necklace of bear claws that gave him his name. He was
armed with a .50-caliber Sharps single-shot rifle and with the only
revolver in the tribe--an old-fashioned cap-and-ball six-shooter, taken
from some murdered prospector.

Bear Claw was about to raise his left hand--a signal for the final rush
that would wipe out the white men in the overturned coach--when a
terrific volley burst out like rattling thunder from all sides.
Bullets raked the brush in a deadly hail. An Indian a few paces from
Bear Claw jumped up with a weird yell and fell back again, pierced
through the body.

The young chief saw whirlwinds of dust swooping down on the scene from
every direction. In those whirlwinds, he knew, were horses. Bear Claw
had courage only when the odds were with him. How many men were in the
attacking force, he did not know. But there were too many to suit him,
and he took no chances. He gave the order for retreat, and the
startled Apaches made a rush for their ponies, hidden in an arroyo.
Bear Claw scrambled after them, with lead kicking up dust all about him.

But it did not take Bear Claw long to see that his band outnumbered the
white posse, more than four to one. Throwing himself on his horse, he
decided to set his renegade warriors an example. Giving the Apache war
whoop, he kicked his heels in his pony's flanks and led the charge.
Picking out the foremost of the posse--a bronzed rider on a snow-white
horse--he went at him with leveled revolver.

What happened then unnerved the Apaches at Bear Claw's back. The man
Bear Claw had charged was Kid Wolf! The Texan did not return the
Indian's blaze of revolver fire. He merely ducked low in his saddle
and swung his big white horse into Bear Claw's pony! At the same time,
he swung out his left hand sharply. It caught Bear Claw's jaw with a
terrific jolt. The weight of both speeding horses was behind the
impact. Something snapped. Bear Claw went off his pony's back like a
bag of meal and landed on the sand, his head at a queer angle. His
neck was broken!

Then Kid Wolf's guns began to talk. Fire burst from the level of both
his hips as he put spurs to Bli