the Winchesters worked loose from its lashings and started to slide
toward the ground. He quickly grasped it and made it secure, smiling at
the number of rifles he had had and lost during the past three weeks.

"Funny how this country has been shedding Winchesters lately," he mused.
"There was the five I got by the big bowlder, which I lost playing tag
with that d----d Cross Bar-8 gang, and here's two more, and I just left
three what I didn't want. Well, they're real handy for stopping a rush,
and I reckons that's what I'm up against this time. If I can find a
likely spot for a scrap before dark I may stop that gang in bang-up
style, d----n them."

Half an hour later he caught sight of a moving body of horsemen to the
southeast of him and his glasses enabled him to make them out.

"'Paches!" he exclaimed, and then he smiled grimly and continued on his
way toward them, taking care to keep himself screened from their sight
by rises and chaparrals. His first thought had been of danger, but now
he laughed at the cards fate had put in his hand, for he would use the
Indians to great advantage later on.

He counted them and made their number to be twenty-two, which accounted
for the five warriors who had pursued the stage coach. The odds were fine
and he laughed joyously, recklessly: "All is fair in love and war," he
muttered savagely.

Before the Indians had come upon the scene he had been alone to face
five angry and vengeful men, and whom he had every reason to believe
were at least fair fighters. Had the positions been reversed they would
not have hesitated to make use of any stratagem to save themselves--and
here were two contingents, both of which would take his life at the first
opportunity. He felt no distaste at the game he was about to play; on
the other hand, it pleased him immensely to know that he was superior
in intellect to his enemies. They both wanted blood, and they should
have it. If they found too much, well and good--that was their lookout.
And no less pleasing was the knowledge that he had sent them north and
that now he could make use of them. He wondered what they had been doing
for the last three weeks and why they were still in that part of the
country, but he did not care, for they were where he wanted them to be.

"Twenty-two mad Apaches on the warpath against five cow-wrastlers!"
he exulted. "More than four to one, and just aching to get square on
somebody! That Cross Bar-8 gang will have som