hen scaling the stockade wall. These seven were from the
Three Triangle and the Double Arrow, and they were positive that any
such attempt would not be a success from the view-point of the rustlers.

Two of those who awaited the pleasure of Mr. Trendley crept forward, and
a rope swished through the air and settled over the stump which lay most
convenient on the other side of the cabin door. Then the slack moved
toward the woods, raised from the ground as it grew taut and, with
the stump for its axis, swung toward the door, where it rubbed gently
against the rough logs. It was made of braided horsehair, was half an
inch in diameter and was stretched eight inches above the ground.

As it touched the door, Lanky Smith, Hopalong and Red stepped out of the
shelter of the woods and took up their positions behind the cabin, Lanky
behind the northeast corner where he would be permitted to swing his
right arm. In his gloved right hand he held the carefully arranged coils
of a fifty-foot lariat, and should the chief of the rustlers escape
tripping he would have to avoid the cast of the best roper in the
southwest.

The two others took the northwest corner and one of them leaned slightly
forward and gently twitched the tripping-rope. The man at the other end
felt the signal and whispered to a companion, who quietly disappeared in
the direction of the river and shortly afterward the mournful cry of a
whip-poor-will dirged out on the early morning air. It had hardly died
away when the quiet was broken by one terrific crash of rifles, and the
two camp guards asleep at the fire awoke in another world.

Mr. Trendley, sleeping unusually well for the unjust, leaped from his
bed to the middle of the floor and alighted on his feet and wide
awake. Fearing that a plot was being consummated to deprive him of his
leadership, he grasped the Winchester which leaned at the head of his
bed and, tearing open the door, crashed headlong to the earth. As he
touched the ground, two shadows sped out from the shelter of the cabin
wall and pounced upon him. Men who can rope, throw and tie a wild steer
in thirty seconds flat do not waste time in trussing operations, and
before a minute had elapsed he was being carried into the woods,
bound and helpless. Lanky sighed, threw the rope over one shoulder and
departed after his friends.

When Mr. Trendley came to his senses he found himself bound to a tree in
the grove near the horses. A man sat on a stump n