rl, and getting rid of them. Think what's at stake. We
must get away from here soon."

"Don't talk nonsense," growled Burk, in reply.

"I'm getting tired of it, I tell you. Three of our men are wounded now,
and that red-headed beggar is going to die, and he was such a good
cook."

The speaker laughed unpleasantly at his gruesome joke.

"Well, we can't do it now, because we don't know how they're situated.
We'd have had them when they all rushed out a few minutes ago if you
hadn't shot at them so soon, and driven them indoors again. Why didn't
you let them get into the open, where we could have shot them down?"

Stella shuddered at the cold-blooded tone in which these men discussed
the killing of the boys, but Ted only smiled, for he knew that Burk was
at heart a coward, and that he did not care to rush, nor would he stand
a rush should one come.

He wished he was back in the house and knew the enemy's situation as
well as he did now. He would not give them time to run very far.

If he could communicate to the boys in some manner the exact situation,
he felt confident that the thing would be over in a very short time.

"I say, Strong, I've a proposition to make to you," said Burk, after a
silence.

"Well, out with it," said Ted coldly.

"There's no use of any more of us being hurt or killed," said Burk,
looking at Ted out of the corner of his eye.

"Then why don't you quit shooting and vamose?"

"That's not for me to do," said Burk hotly.

"Oh, I see. You want us to quit, eh?"

"Sure. You're the fellows who broke in there over our guard. But if
you'll call your fellows off and get out of the house, I'll agree to
turn you and the young lady loose. But nothing must be taken from the
house."

"That seems right generous of you," said Ted, with a sarcastic smile,
which Burk didn't see because his head was turned the other way.

"It's a darned more than you deserve, but I don't want any more of my
fellows shot up."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Just step out there and holler to your boys to quit firing, and tell
them that you're going to quit, and then----"

Ted just laughed, and Burk turned upon him with a scowl.

At that moment there was a cheer from the direction of the house; then a
few scattering shots from the men in the shrubbery.

Ted heard the doors of the house open, and the swift patter of running
feet. The old Moon Valley yell was in his ears. All the men in the
shrubbery had sprung to