she was within ten feet of him. "Don't resist;
you are surrounded!"

The woman stopped like one shot, glared ahead as if she saw him for the
first time, and then uttered a frightful shriek of rage. Dashing the
lantern to the ground, she raised her arm and fired a revolver point
blank at Bonner, despite the fact that his pistol was covering her. He
heard the bullet crash into the rotten timbers near his ear. Contrary to
her design, the lantern was not extinguished. Instead, it lay sputtering
but effective upon the floor.

Before Bonner could make up his mind to shoot at the woman she was upon
him, firing again as she came. He did not have time to retaliate. The
huge frame crushed down upon him and his pistol flew from his hand. As
luck would have it, his free hand clutched her revolver, and she was
prevented from blowing his brains out with the succeeding shots, all of
which went wild.

Then came a desperate struggle. Bonner, a trained athlete, realised that
she was even stronger than he, more desperate in her frenzy, and with
murder in her heart. As they lunged to and fro, her curses and shrieks
in his ear, he began to feel the despair of defeat. She was beating him
down with one mighty arm, crushing blows, every one of them. Then came
the sound which turned the tide of battle, for it filled him with a
frenzy equal to her own. The scream of a woman came down through the
passage, piteous, terror-stricken.

He knew the fate of that poor girl if his adversary overcame him. The
thought sent his blood hot and cold at once. Infuriatedly, he exerted
his fine strength, and the tide turned. Panting and snarling, the big
woman was battered down. He flung her heavily to the ground and then
leaped back to pick up his revolver, expecting a renewal of the attack.
For the first time he was conscious of intense pain in his left leg. The
woman made a violent effort to rise, and then fell back, groaning and
cursing.

"You've done it! You've got me!" she yelled. "My leg's broke!" Then she
shrieked for Davy and Bill and Sam, raining curses upon the law and upon
the traitor who had been their undoing.

Bonner, his own leg wobbling and covered with blood, tried to quiet her,
but without success. He saw that she was utterly helpless, her leg
twisted under her heavy body. Her screams of pain as he turned her over
proved conclusively that she was not shamming. Her hip was dislocated.
The young man had sense enough left to return to Davy