e of the boys to ride guard on you till
it's over with."

She knew that the other men would back Harris and Alden in their
verdict. She nodded and watched them turn back toward the horses. She
wanted to lead her men down in a wild charge on the stockade, shooting
into it as she rode, avenging the sack of the Three Bar in a smashing
fight.

But there was nothing spectacular in the attack of Harris and the
sheriff. They went about it as if hunting vermin, cautiously and
systematically, taking every possible advantage of the enemy with the
least possible risk to their men.

An hour after the two men had left her she saw a figure off to the
right. She trained the glasses on it and saw that it was Alden moving
toward the buildings. She swept the glasses round the edge of the
circular basin. From all sides, from the mouth of every coulee that
opened into it, dark specks were converging upon the stockade. Some of
them stood erect, others crouched, while a few sprawled flat and
crawled for short distances before rising and moving on.

From her point of vantage it seemed that those round the buildings must
see them as clearly as she did herself; but she knew they were keeping
well out of sight, taking advantage of every concealing wave of ground
and all inequalities of surface. The advance was slower as they closed
in on the stockade. There was a sudden commotion among the men at the
buildings. They were moving swiftly under cover. Some of the
attacking force had been seen. The majority of the rustlers took to
the stockade. Four ran into the main cabin.

It was as if she gazed upon the activities of battling ants, the whole
game spread out in the field of her glasses. There came a lull in the
action and she knew that the sheriff had raised his voice to summon
them to come out without their guns and go back as prisoners to stand
trial for every crime under the sun.

Not a shot had been fired. One after another she picked up the men
with her glasses. Occasionally one moved, hitching himself forward to
some point which afforded a better view. One or two knelt in the
bottom of shallow draws, peering from behind some sheltering bush.
Inside the stockade she could see Lang's men kneeling or flattened on
the ground as they gazed through cracks in the walls.

She made out Harris, crouching in a draw. A thin haze of smoke spurted
from his position. Three similar puffs showed along the face of the
stockade. Th