ouse was in flames they would be driven down upon the bunk house
and fire it in turn. She knew Waddles would come out when it grew too
hot. The raiders might let him go. It was Harris they waited for.

The girl ran across and pounded on the bunkhouse door.

"Run for it," she begged. "Make a run for the brush! I'll keep
between you and them. They won't shoot me. You can get to the brush.
There's a chance that way."

"All right, old girl," Harris said. "In a minute now. But you go
back, Billie. Get back to the little house. As soon as it gets hot
I'll run for it. I've got ten minutes yet before I'm roasted out.
I'll start as soon as you're inside the house."

"No. Start now!" she implored. The flames were sliding along one side
of the house and even now she could feel the heat of them fanned down
upon the bunk house by the wind. "Run, Cal," she entreated. "Run
while you've got a chance." She leaned upon the door and beat on it
with her fists.

"All right, Billie," he said. "I'll go. You stay right where you are
as if you're talking to me."

She heard him cross the floor. He dropped from the window on the far
side from the men. When he came in sight of them he was running in
long leaps for the brush, zigzagging in his flight. Their gaze had
been riveted on the girl and he gained a flying start of thirty yards
before a shot was fired. Then half a dozen rifles spurted from two
hundred yards up the slope, the balls passing him with nasty snaps. He
reached the edge of the sage and plunged headlong between two rocks.
Bullets reached for him, ripping through the tips of the sage above
him, tossing up spurts of gravel on all sides and singing in ricochets
from the rocks.

One raider, in his eagerness to secure a better view, incautiously
exposed his head. He went down with a hole through his mask as a shot
sounded from the main house. From the window, his big face red and
dripping from the heat, Waddles pumped a rifle and covered Harris's
flight as best he could, drilling the center of every sage that shook
or quivered back of the house.

Two men turned their attention to the one who handicapped their chances
of locating the crawling man and poured their fire through the window.
A soft-nose splintered the butt of the cook's rifle and tore a strip of
meat from his arm as another fanned his cheek. He dropped to the floor
and peered from a crack. The firing had suddenly ceased. He saw a hat
mov