iss Radford's gaze shifted
again to the plains below her. Fascinated, her fear succumbing to the
intense interest of the moment, she followed the movements of the trio.

From around the corner of the break the third man had ridden. He was
not over a hundred feet from the man who had caught the rustler and he
was walking his horse now. The watchers on the edge of the plateau
could see that he had taken in the situation and was stealing upon the
captor, who sat in his saddle, his back to the advancing rider.

Drawing a little closer, the third man stealthily dropped from his pony
and crept forward. The significance of this movement dawned upon Miss
Radford in a flash, and she again seized Ferguson's arm, tugging at it
fiercely.

"Why, he's going to kill that man!" she cried. "Can't you do
something? For mercy's sake do! Shout, or shoot off your pistol--do
something to warn him!"

Ferguson flashed a swift glance at her, and she saw that his face wore
a queer pallor. His expression had grown grimmer, but he smiled--a
little sadly, she thought.

"It ain't a bit of use tryin' to do anything," he returned, his gaze
again on the men. "We're two miles from them men an' a thousand feet
above them. There ain't any pistol report goin' to stop what's goin'
on down there. All we can do is to watch. Mebbe we can recognize one
of them. . . . Shucks!"

The exclamation was called from him by a sudden movement on the part of
the captor. The third man must have made a noise, for the captor
turned sharply. At the instant he did so the rustler's pistol flashed
in the sunlight.

The watchers on the plateau did not hear the report at once, and when
they did it came to them only faintly--a slight sound which was barely
distinguishable. But they saw a sudden spurt of flame and smoke. The
captor reeled drunkenly in his saddle, caught blindly at the pommel,
and then slid slowly down into the grass of the plains.

Ferguson drew a deep breath and, turning, looked sharply at Miss
Radford. She had covered her face with her hands and was swaying
dizzily. He was up from the rock in a flash and was supporting her,
leading her away from the edge of the plateau. She went unresisting,
her slender figure shuddering spasmodically, her hands still covering
her face.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, as the horror of the scene rose in her mind. "The
brutes! The brutes!"

Feeling that if he kept quiet she would recover from the shock of th