osed again as the riders swung round,
bunched, and launched at the mass from the rear. Those who had turned to
face the second charge were crowded back as the cowboys, with guns
going, ate into the yelling crowd. The mob turned, and like a great,
black wave swept down the street and into the court-house square.

The cowboys raced past, and reined in a block below the court-house. As
they paused to reload, a riderless horse, badly wounded, plunged among
them. A cowboy caught the horse and shot it. Another rider, gripping his
shirt above his abdomen, writhed and groaned, begging piteously for some
one to kill him. Before they could get him off his horse he spurred out,
and, pulling his carbine from the scabbard, charged into the mob, in the
square. With the lever going like lightning, he bored into the mob,
fired his last shot in the face of a man that had caught his horse's
bridle, and sank to the ground. Shattered and torn he lay, a red pulp
that the mob trampled into the dust.

The upper windows of the court-house filled with figures. An irregular
fire drove the cowboys to the shelter of a side street. In the wide
doorway of the court-house several men crouched behind a blue-steel
tripod. Those still in the square crowded past and into the building.
Behind the stone pillars of the entrance, guarded by a machine gun, the
crazy mob cheered drunkenly and defied the guards to dislodge them.

From a building opposite came a single shot, and the group round the
machine gun lifted one of their fellows and carried him back into the
building. Again came the peremptory snarl of a carbine, and another
figure sank in the doorway. The machine gun was dragged back. Its muzzle
still commanded the square, but its operators were now shielded by an
angle of the entrance.

Back on the side street, the old ex-Ranger had difficulty in
restraining his men. They knew by the number of shots fired that some of
their companions had gone down.

The sheriff was about to call for volunteers to capture the machine gun
when a white handkerchief fluttered from an upper window of the
court-house. Almost immediately a man appeared on the court-house steps,
alone and indicating by his gestures that he wished to parley with the
guard. The sheriff dismounted and stepped forward.

One of his men checked him. "That's a trap, John. They want to get you,
special. Don't you try it."

"It's up to me," said the sheriff, and shaking off the other's hand he