on each side, extended
the village common. In front of the store ran the road. Jean's
position was such that he could not command sight of this road down
toward Meeker's house, a fact that disturbed him. Not satisfied with
this stand, he studied his surroundings in the hope of espying a
better. And he discovered what he thought would be a more favorable
position, although he could not see much farther down the road. Jean
went back around the cabin and, coming out into the open to the right,
he got the corner of Greaves's barn between him and the window of the
store. Then he boldly hurried into the open, and soon reached an old
wagon, from behind which he proposed to watch. He could not see either
window or door of the store, but if any of the Jorth contingent came
out the back way they would be within reach of his rifle. Jean took
the risk of being shot at from either side.

So sharp and roving was his sight that he soon espied Colmor slipping
along behind the trees some hundred yards to the left. All his efforts
to catch a glimpse of Bill, however, were fruitless. And this appeared
strange to Jean, for there were several good places on the right from
which Bill could have commanded the front of Greaves's store and the
whole west side.

Colmor disappeared among some shrubbery, and Jean seemed left alone to
watch a deserted, silent village. Watching and listening, he felt that
the time dragged. Yet the shadows cast by the sun showed him that, no
matter how tense he felt and how the moments seemed hours, they were
really flying.

Suddenly Jean's ears rang with the vibrant shock of a rifle report. He
jerked up, strung and thrilling. It came from in front of the store.
It was followed by revolver shots, heavy, booming. Three he counted,
and the rest were too close together to enumerate. A single hoarse
yell pealed out, somehow trenchant and triumphant. Other yells, not so
wild and strange, muffled the first one. Then silence clapped down on
the store and the open square.

Jean was deadly certain that some of the Jorth clan would show
themselves. He strained to still the trembling those sudden shots and
that significant yell had caused him. No man appeared. No more sounds
caught Jean's ears. The suspense, then, grew unbearable. It was not
that he could not wait for an enemy to appear, but that he could not
wait to learn what had happened. Every moment that he stayed there,
with hands like steel on