his hand," she cried.

Without turning his head her husband answered, "So have I."

She glanced down at his cocked revolver; its muzzle was moving, to
follow the enshadowed figure in the saddle less than ten feet away.
She raised her eyes; the horseman had lowered his weapon and was
wheeling his pony off into the night.

"Knew his bronco as soon as I saw that blazed face show," John
Slaughter said in explanation of his quick draw.

That same vigilance, which had grown to be second nature with him,
combined with an almost uncanny swiftness in putting two and two
together, which latter had come to him during the years when guarding
his life was a part of his trade, kept the cow-man a step ahead of his
enemies on every occasion. These things were instinctive from long
habit; he prepared himself to meet a situation just as an expert
gunman draws his forty-five--just as a scientific boxer blocks a
blow--without wasting an instant in thinking.

It was thus with him when Ed Lyle and Cap Stilwell waylaid him on the
road to the Empire ranch over near Port Huachuca. These two, who had
endured humiliation under the muzzle of the Texan's pistol on the
Pecos trail, brought four others along with them and planned to do
the murder in the night. Three took their stations on one side of the
wagon track and three on the other, all well armed. They had spotted
the victim's buckboard several miles back.

Now when it came on to the spot which they had selected, the two trios
galloped up to do the killing--and found John Slaughter leveling a
double-barreled shotgun while his wife held the reins. One glimpse of
that weapon at the cattle-buyer's shoulder was enough; they did not
wait for him to pull the trigger but fled.

John Slaughter was wearying of this sort of thing. Lyle and Stilwell
were men of parts; good men of whom to make examples. He sought the
former out in Charleston. They met in front of a saloon on the main
street. John Slaughter drew and, as he threw down--

"I've got no gun," Lyle cried.

"If you were armed," the cow-man said, "I'd kill you now. But if I
ever see you in this country again, I'll kill you anyhow."

Lyle left and Cap Stilwell, receiving his sentence of banishment in
the same manner, departed within a week. From that time the bad men
let John Slaughter alone; he was too big for them. He took his family
to his new San Bernardino ranch and it was beginning to seem as if the
days of constant warfare wer