do--what th' law
means."

Courtrey glanced again at Kenset.

"Got some imported knowledge, I take it."

"Take it or leave it! Show us them guns!" cried Tharon harshly.

"I--don't--think--so," said Courtrey, nodding.

Like a pair of snakes gliding forward, Wylackie Bob and the Arizona
stranger were suddenly in the foreground, hands hanging apparently
loose and careless, in reality tense as strung wires, ready to snap
with fire and lead.

The moment was pregnant. The very air seemed charged with danger and
death.

Then, with a strange cry, Tharon Last swung sidewise from her saddle,
for all the world as if she were breaking under the strain, leaned far
over El Rey's shoulder, and the next moment there came a shot,
snapping in the stillness.

With an oath and a lurch Courtrey flung backward, tossed up his right
arm, and fired with his left. His ball went high in the air, wild. The
blood from that tossed right hand spurted over Wylackie Bob beside
him, the gun it had held went hurtling away along the earth.

There was a movement, a surge, the flash of guns and one of the
settlers tumbled from his saddle, poor Thomas of the doubting heart.
Courtrey's men flashed together as one, thundered backward to the wide
doorstep, pressed together, waited. The voice of Kenset rang like a
clarion.

"Stop!" he cried, "don't shoot!"

And he swung off his horse to leap for that gun.

But another was before him.

With a scream of anguish that rang heaven-high, Ellen shot forward and
snatched it from the spot where it had fallen.

Tall, white as a ghost in the rose-pink light that was tinged with
purple, she stood, swaying on her feet, and faced them.

And she put the gun to her temple!

"I ain't got nothin' t' live for," she said clearly and pitifully,
"but Courtrey's life is worth what I got to me. If you don't clear out
I'll pull th' trigger."

She was tragic as death itself. The big blue wells of her eyes were
black with the spreading pupils. Dark circles lay beneath them.

Her blue-veined hands were so thin the light seemed to shine through
them.

Her long white dress clung to her slim form. From far back by the
corral fence Cleve Whitmore watched her silently, his hands clenched
hard.

Tharon Last looked at her with wide eyes. She had forgotten all about
this woman in the passionate hatred of Courtrey and the desire to pin
his crimes upon him. Now she wet her lips and looked at Ellen long and
silently. The