r. Sneed, nervously pacing up and
down. "We men must organize and protect the ladies. I think we had
better get inside the station and try to hold it against the savages.
Pop, you have some guns in the baggage; have you not?"

"Yep!" answered the property man; "but they ain't loaded, and before we
could git 'em out those fellers will be here."

"Well, we must protect the ladies at any cost!" insisted Mr. Sneed.
"Come with us, we will protect you!" he shouted as he hurried inside the
little shed that answered for the station. Probably he wanted to go
first to prepare the place for the others. At any rate he was first
inside.

"Whoop-ee!"

"Ki-yi!"

"Rah!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

That is the way it sounded. The noise grew louder. The dust-cloud was at
the station now. And then, with a fusillade of shots that was well-nigh
deafening, the cause of it all came to a sudden stop.

The dust settled and blew away. The cloud parted to reveal several
wagons drawn by small but muscular horses. Surrounding the vehicles were
half a score of cowboys of the regulation type, save that they did not
wear the "chaps," or sheepskin breeches, so often seen in moving picture
depictions of the "wild west." Probably the weather was too hot for
them, or these cowboys may have gotten rid of them because the garments
figured so often in the "movies."

"Cowboys!" cried Russ, with a laugh. "And we thought they were going to
attack us!"

"It's one on us, all right," spoke Paul.

"But I have often read of cowboys going on a--on a rampage, I believe it
is called--or is it stampede?" asked Miss Dixon, as she stood behind
Paul.

"Rampage is right," he informed her.

"Well, maybe that's what they're on now, and they will shoot us after
all," she resumed. "Oh, there's one looking right at me!" and she
covered her face with her be-ringed hands.

"Probably he hasn't seen a pretty girl in a long time," said Paul, for
Miss Dixon was pretty, in a way.

"Oh!" she exclaimed again--and took down her hands.

"And one of them is loading his pistol!" cried Miss Pennington. "Oh,
dear!"

"I guess they'll have to load up all around after the shots they fired,"
laughed Russ. "I wonder what in the world it's all about, anyhow?"

He learned a moment later.

One of the cowboys, evidently the leader, rode his fiery little horse up
to the station platform, and taking off his broad-brimmed hat with a
flourish and a bow, asked:

"Is this the moving pi