is life battling against the hardest
kinds of odds, and his brain had foresworn long methods of thinking
and had adopted short cuts to conclusions. His mental processes were
sharp, quick and acted instantly on his nerves, often completing an action
before he became clearly conscious of its need. He forgot the pleasant
sheriff and the unpleasant, blundering cowboys who, very probably, were
now engaged in wondering where their companion had gone; and he forgot
his determination to return and free that puncher. He asked himself no
questions as to why or how, but simply sunk his spurs half an inch into a
horse that had peculiar and fixed ideas about their use, and that now
bucked, pitched and galloped forward because its rider had suddenly
decided to save those gray and brown and blue dresses.

The Apaches had passed the point immediately south of him and were now
more to the west, going at right angles to the course he took. They
were so intent upon gaining yard upon yard that they did not look to
the side--their thoughts were centered on the tall, lanky man who stood
up against the sky and cursed them, and whose hat they had passed miles
back. As he turned and stole the look at them which had so pleased him,
they only waved guns and wasted cartridges more recklessly, yelling
savagely.

Down from the north charged a brown, a dirty brown horse, and it was
comparatively fresh. It gained steadily, silently, and its gains were
measured in yards to each minute it ran, since it was coming at a sharp
angle. Astride of it and lying along its neck was a man whose spurs and
quirt urged it to its uttermost effort. Soon the man straightened up in
his saddle, the horse braced its legs and slid to a stand as a rifle
arose to the rider's shoulder, and at the shot the animal leaped forward
at its top speed. A puff of smoke flashed past the marksman's head to
mingle with the dust cloud in his wake, and the nearest brave, who was
the last in the crescent, dropped sprawlingly to the ground and rolled
rapidly several times. His horse, freed of its burden, ran off at an
angle and was soon left behind. The excitement of the chase and the noise
of the hoofbeats of their own horses and of the reports of their own
rifles effectually lost the report of the shot and soon another, and
nearest, Apache also plunged to the plain. This time the freed horse shot
ahead and ranged alongside the wearer of the head-dress, who turned in
his saddle and looked