ad
caused the sudden alarm of the Mexican. What he had seen had caused
his amazed exclamation.

"What's that?" came the bull-throated roar of Hickey, "two men in that
brick pile?"

"That's whatsoever. One on 'em is a big, long, rangy cuss, like a
yearlin' colt, by gosh, and ther other's the dead spit of the school
teacher at ther Four Corners, back er hum."

"We must see into this."

It was Ramon who spoke. As he did so, he advanced in his agile,
cat-like way upon the altar. In his hand he held his revolver. But,
as he reached the edge of the pit and raised himself to peep over,
something--which something was Coyote Pete's fist--caught him full
between the eyes, and sent him toppling backward into the arms of
Rafter. Together the lanky New Englander and the Mexican crashed to
the ground, while Pete set up a defiant yell.

"Come on!" he cried. "Any of your outfit thet's jes' pinin' fer a
facial massage, hed better step this way, an' be accommodated."

Ill-advised as Pete's hasty action was, it at least created a brief
spell in which he had time to leap over the edge of the altar, and,
before Ramon or any of the rest could recover from their astonishment,
the cow-puncher had seized the Mexican's pistol and was standing at
bay, his back against the altar.

"Now, then, any gent desirous uv heving his system ventilated free of
charge, will kin'ly step this way," he mocked. "Ah----" as Hickey's
hand slid to his waist, "don't touch thet gun, mister, or yer friends
will be sendin' you flowers."

"Waal, by Juniper!" drawled Rafter, as he gathered his spidery form
together and scrambled to his feet. "You seem ter hev ther drop on us,
stranger."

"Thet's what," retorted the cow-puncher, "and I mean to keep it till we
can come to terms. That Mexican gent yonder knows me of old--don't
you, Ramon?--and he knows thet what I say I'll do, I'll do."

"So you are spying upon me again, are you?" grated out Ramon viciously.
"Not content with driving me out of the Hachetas, you must even
interfere with my political activities."

"Waal, if yer gitting perlitically active with machine guns and
shootin' irons, I reckon Mister Diaz ull interfere with yer 'bout as
much as I will," grunted Pete, keeping the men before him covered with
the Mexican's pistol. The part of this speech referring to the machine
guns was a mere guess of the shrewd cow-puncher. But, as the reader
knows, he had struck the nail on the head. "But s