ich appalled the lady; the muzzle of
a gun was slowly gliding through the window.

Captain Shirril had been discovered, and the Comanche was fixing his
weapon in position to fire a fatal shot. He might have stood back a
couple of paces and discharged it without revealing his presence, but a
better aim could be secured by thrusting a few inches of the barrel into
the room.

At the instant the dark muzzle showed itself and the gleam of the
firelight was reflected from it, Avon leaned his own rifle against the
door at his side, quickly drew his revolver from the holster at his hip,
sprang forward like a cat, and seizing the muzzle of the gun threw it
upward toward the ceiling.

It was done in the nick of time, for the Comanche pressed the trigger
just then, and the bullet which, had Avon's action been delayed a single
moment, would have killed Captain Shirril, was buried in the timbers
overhead.

The daring act brought the youth directly in front of the window, where
for the instant he was exposed to any shot from the outside.

As he made the leap he saw the face of the warrior, agleam with paint
and distorted with passion, but slightly flustered by the unaccountable
occurrence. Before he could recover, and at the same instant, Avon
darted his revolver through the shattered window pane and let fly with
two chambers in quick succession. An ear-splitting screech and a heavy
fall left little doubt of the success of the daring act. The Comanche
had not only been hit, but hit hard.

Although startled by the noise and flurry, Captain Shirril was too much
of a veteran to be taken at fault. His big right hand closed around the
two weapons for which he had run all this risk, and partly straightening
up, he bounded to the rear of the little room with three rifles secure
in his grasp, and with not a hair of his head harmed.

Avon was as much on the alert as he, and reached the shelter at the same
moment.

"It was confoundedly more risky than I supposed," remarked the captain,
with a smile and a shake of his head, "but all's well that ends well; I
guess you dropped him, my boy."

"I shouldn't wonder, for I couldn't have had a better chance," was the
modest reply of the youth.

"It was one of the neatest things I ever saw, and I'm proud of you,"
exclaimed his relative, slapping him affectionately on the shoulder. "I
said you would count as a full hand on the trip to Kansas, but at this
rate you'll add up double."

Avon b