across the intervening space as if it had been
fired by an arrow.

The sound was similar to that which he had noticed many times that
evening, but the impression came to him that it possessed a significance
which belonged to none of the others. It was a single horse, and he was
going at a moderate speed, which, however, was the case with most of
those he had heard.

All at once the sound broke upon his ear again, but this time it was
accompanied by the noise of many other hoofs.

"They are cattle," was his conclusion; "a part of the herd has been
stampeded, and one of the men is trying to round them up: it was his
mustang that I heard--ah! there it goes again!"

It was the crack of a rifle and the screech of a mortally struck person
that startled him this time.

"I believe that was a Comanche who has gone down before the rifle of one
of our men."

As the reader is aware, the Texan was correct in every particular, for
it was the report of Gleeson's Winchester, which ended the career of the
warrior pressing Avon Burnet so hard, that reached the captain as he lay
on the roof of his own dwelling.

The whimsical nature of the wind, that had been blowing all the night,
excluded further sounds. The stillness that succeeded seemed so
unnatural in its way that it might have alarmed a more superstitious
person. Once the faintest possible rumbling of the cattle's hoofs was
detected, but it quickly subsided, and nothing more of the kind was
noticeable.

It was clear that the Comanches in the immediate vicinity of the cabin
must have noted all that interested the Texan. Whatever the issue of the
remarkable meeting on the prairie, there could be no doubt that one of
the red men had been laid low. Another had been shot by the captain a
short time before, not to mention the other one or two that he believed
had fallen.

Thus far, no one of the inmates had been harmed, unless perchance his
nephew was overtaken by disaster. Consequently, the game the Comanches
were playing, though they did their part with rare skill, was a losing
one up to this point.

As the minutes passed, the Texan found himself more hopeful than he had
been through the entire evening. He was strong in the belief that Avon
had succeeded in reaching the camp of the cattlemen, and that the latter
would soon appear on the scene with an emphasis that would scatter his
assailants like so much chaff.

The only vulnerable point for fire was on the roof, but th