r's arms to his side.

"Boys--" began Fan in appeal, but she got no further.

Lester, wrenching his right arm loose, began to shoot. What happened
after that no one ever clearly knew, but the team sprang wildly forward,
and Compton's pony reared and fell backward, and the bride and groom
were thrown violently to the ground.

* * * * *

When Fan opened her eyes she saw the big stars above her and felt a
sinewy arm beneath her head. Compton was fanning her with his hat and
calling upon her to speak, his voice agonized with fear and remorse.

Slowly it all came back to her, and, struggling to a sitting position,
she called piteously: "Dell, where are you? Dell!" Her voice rose in
fear, a tone no man had ever heard in it before. She staggered to her
feet and dazedly looked about her. A group of awed, silenced, dismounted
men stood not far away, and on the ground, lying in a crumpled,
distorted heap, was her husband. With a shriek of agony she fell on her
knees beside him, calling upon him to open his eyes, to speak to her.

Then at last, as the conviction of his death came to her, she lifted her
head and with a voice of level, hoarse-throated hate, she imprecated her
murderers. "I'll kill you, every one of you! I'll kill you for this--you
cowardly wolves--I'll kill--"

V

They lifted them both up for dead, and Compton, taking Fan in his strong
arms, held her like a child as they drove slowly back to the ranch. All
believed Lester dead; but Compton, who held his ear to Fan's lips,
insisted that she was breathing, and indeed she recovered from her swoon
before they reached the house.

Blondell, more powerfully moved than ever before in his life, after a
swift curse upon the culprits took his girl to his bosom and carried her
to her bed.

As her brain cleared, Fan rose and, staggering across the room, took her
husband's head in her arms. "Bring some water. Dell is hurt. Don't you
see he is hurt? Be quick!"

"Has somebody gone for the doctor?" asked the mother, to whom this was
the raving of dementia. "Somebody go."

No one had, for all believed the man to be dead; but Compton exclaimed,
"I'll go!" turning to vault his horse, glad of something to do, eager to
escape the sight of Fan's agonized face.

The dash of cold water on his bruised face brought a flutter of life to
Lester's eyelids, and in triumph the bride cried out:

"I told you so! He is alive! Oh, Dell, can't you speak