d and eyes stared at
the figure of a man hanging from a rope fastened to the center of a high
bridge span under which the engine was about to pass.

The figure swayed in the wind. It turned half-way round, disclosing a
ghastly, distorted face, and a huge printed placard on the breast, then
it turned back again. Slowly the engine drew one car-load after another
past the suspended body of the dead man. There were no more cries. All
were silent in that slow-moving train. All faces were pale, all eyes
transfixed.

The placard on the hanged man's breast bore in glaring red a strange
message: _Last warning_. 3-7-77.

The figures were the ones used in the frontier days by vigilantes.

CHAPTER XXII

A dusty motor-car climbed the long road leading up to the Neuman ranch.
It was not far from Wade, a small hamlet of the wheat-growing section,
and the slopes of the hills, bare and yellow with waving grain, bore
some semblance to the Bend country. Four men--a driver and three
cowboys--were in the automobile.

A big stone gate marked the entrance to Neuman's ranch. Cars and
vehicles lined the roadside. Men were passing in and out. Neuman's home
was unpretentious, but his barns and granaries and stock-houses were
built on a large scale.

"Bill, are you goin' in with me after this pard of the Kaiser's?"
inquired Jake, leisurely stretching himself as the car halted. He opened
the door and stiffly got out. "Gimme a hoss any day fer gittin' places!"

"Jake, my regard fer your rep as Anderson's foreman makes me want to hug
the background," replied Bill. "I've done a hell of a lot these last
forty-eight hours."

"Wal, I reckon you have, Bill, an' no mistake.... But I was figgerin' on
you wantin' to see the fun."

"Fun!... Jake, it 'll be fun enough fer me to sit hyar an' smoke in the
shade, an' watch fer you to come a-runnin' from thet big German
devil.... Pard, they say he's a bad man!"

"Sure. I know thet. All them Germans is bad."

"If the boss hadn't been so dog-gone strict about gun-play I'd love to
go with you," responded Bill. "But he didn't give me no orders. You're
the whole outfit this round-up."

"Bill, you'd have to take orders from me," said Jake, coolly.

"Sure. Thet's why I come with Andy."

The other cowboy, called Andy, manifested uneasiness, and he said: "Aw,
now, Jake, you ain't a-goin' to ask me to go in there?... An' me hatin'
Germans the way I do!"

"Nope. I guess I'll order Bill to go in an'