tfit for whom he
had conceived a liking. Two of Williams' men were lying there, too,
and Sanderson's lips grimmed as he looked at them.

Thoroughly aroused now, Sanderson replaced the empty cartridges in the
rifle with loaded ones, and, finding a spot between two small boulders,
he shoved the muzzle of the rifle through.

He had no fear of being shot at from the rear, for the men had
permitted him to go far enough through the defile to allow the others
following him to come into range before they opened fire.

Thus Sanderson was between the Dale outfit and the Double A ranchhouse,
and he had only to look back in the direction from which he and
Williams had come. None of the Dale men could cross the fissure.

Cautiously Sanderson raised his head above the rocky edge of the
fissure. He kept his head concealed behind the two small boulders and
he had an uninterrupted view of the entire side of the defile.

He saw a number of men crouching behind rocks and boulders
that were scattered over the steep slope, and he counted them
deliberately--sixteen. He could see their faces plainly, and he
recognized many of them as Dale's men. They were of the vicious type
that are to be found in all lawless communities.

Sanderson's grin as he sighted along the barrel of his rifle was full
of sardonic satisfaction, tempered with a slight disappointment. For
he did not see Dale among the others. Dale, he supposed, had stayed
behind.

The thought of what Dale might be doing at the Double A ranchhouse
maddened Sanderson, and taking quick sight at a man crouching behind a
rock, he pulled the trigger.

Looking only in front of him, at the other side of the defile where
Sanderson's men were concealed, the man did not expect attack from a
new quarter, and as Sanderson's bullet struck him he leaped up, howling
with pain and astonishment, clutching at his breast.

He had hardly exposed himself when several reports from the other side
of the defile greeted him. The man staggered and fell behind his rock,
his feet projecting from one side and his head from the other.

Instantly the battle took on a new aspect. It was a flank attack,
which Dale's men had not anticipated, and it confused them. Several of
them shifted their positions, and in doing so they brought parts of
their bodies into view of the men on the opposite wall.

There rose from the opposite wall a succession of reports, followed by
hoarse cries of pain from Dale's