ot at a human being unless vital
necessity required it.

"And I'd rather lose all my cattle than kill anyone," Bud said
afterward. "Unless I had to do it to save my life."

It was for this reason that he had fired high, and his example was
followed by his cousins.

But that this consideration on the part of our friends was not
appreciated, was made plain, a moment later, when Old Billee exclaimed:

"That was a close one!"

His words followed the whining song of a bullet as it zipped through
the air, too close to the heads of himself and the boy ranchers to be
comfortable.

"I'm goin' t' give 'em some of th' same medicine!" shouted Yellin' Kid,
and his gun spat fire, but straight out, and not at a high angle.

Following it, almost instantly, was a yell of pain from one of the
rustlers--which one could not be told because of the mix-up and the
darkness, but it was a yell nevertheless.

"You winged one!" cried Snake Purdee.

"I meant to!" was the Kid's grim answer.

"Fire high, boys!" cried Bud. "If we can scare 'em off, so much the
better!"

"Don't reckon they're th' kind that scares easy," objected Old Billee.
"But we've got 'em on the run!" he exclaimed, a moment or two later,
when Bud and his party had ridden around some intervening bunches of
cattle, and were headed straight for the night attackers.

This seemed to describe the situation. So promptly had the boys of
Flume Valley ridden out to repell the raid that the rustlers had no
time to stampede the cattle, and cut out some to drive away. Now it
seemed there must be a clash--a coming together of the two forces.

But the rustlers, unscrupulous as they were, evidently knew when
discretion was the better part of valor. They fired several more
shots, one of which scratched Old Billee while another gave an ugly
wound to Snake Purdee.

Then, with yells of defiance, and before our boys could come close
enough to recognize any of the raiders, the rustlers galloped off, not
having succeeded in driving away any cattle.

But their attack had not been without damage to Flume Valley stock.
For two valuable steers had been shot, and so wounded that they had to
be killed, while several calves were trampled on and crushed into
shapeless masses.

This, together with two wounded men, Old Billee and Snake, made up the
sum total of the casualties on the part of the Diamond X Second outfit.

"But they're marked!" shouted Yellin' Kid as he and the others rode