ht one
shot would get me. Missed his reckonin'. Must be a mite peeved by
this time."

His gaze became intent again, but this time it was directed to some
underbrush about two hundred yards distant, back of the rocks. With
some difficulty he could make out the shape of a horse standing well
back in the brush, and again he grinned.

"That's why he took that side," he said. "There's no place on this
side where he could hide his horse. It's plumb simple."

From where he kneeled began another slope that descended to the Lazy Y
valley. It dipped gently down into the wood in front of the house,
where he had hitched his horse on the night of his home-coming, and
between the trees he could see a light flickering. The light came from
the kitchen window of the ranch-house; Betty had left it burning for
him, expecting him to return shortly after dusk. The house was not
more than a mile distant and he wondered at the hardihood of his enemy
in planning to ambush him so close to his home. He reflected, though,
that it was not likely that the shots could be heard from the house,
for the spot on which the wagon stood was several hundred feet above
the level of the valley, and then there was the intervening wood, which
would dull whatever sound might float in that direction.

Who could his assailant be? Why, it was Taggart, of course. Taggart
had left town hours before him, he was a coward, and shooting from
ambush is a coward's game.

Calumet's blood leaped a little faster in his veins. He would settle
for good with Neal Taggart. But he did not move except to draw one of
his six-shooters and push its muzzle over the edge of the gully. He
shoved his arm slowly forward so that it lay extended along the ground
the barrel of the pistol resting on the felloes of the wheel.

In this position he remained for half an hour. No sound broke the
strained stillness of the place. The horses had sagged forward, their
heads hanging, their legs braced. There was no cloud in the sky and
the clear light of the moon poured down in a yellow flood. Calumet's
task would have been easier if he could have told which of the four
rocks concealed his enemy. As it was he was compelled to watch them
all.

But presently, at the edge of one of the two larger rocks, the one
nearest the slope, he detected movement. A round object a foot in
diameter, came slowly into view from behind the rock, propelled by an
unseen force. It was shoved out