CHAPTER XIII—Continued
wt Gm
Hobaxt looked back. In the distance
he could see his five men following
him, He waved his hat and one of
them waved In return; so without
further ado he rode down to join Ro-
berta.
The girl held up ber hand, enjoining
silence, as Hobart reined in beside
her. “Listen!” she commanded.
He bent his head. Faintly to him
came the report of rifles,
“There were twenty herders with
the band an hour ago,” the girl re
ported. “Don Jaime counted them.
There doesn't appear to be that many
now."
Hobart swept the scene with his
binoculars. “Ten! Half the gang
went ahead to preempt the water, and
Don Jaime has waiked into them.
He's alive and kicking, though. If he
were not, there wouldn't be any shoot-
ing. And Julio hasn't got there yet.
Well, he'll be careful. He'll probably
come in from the rear and help the
boss out. I wish I knew whether
Jaime is In the old corral or at the
water-hole. Smokeless powder, you
see. One cannot tell. But the sheep
move forward! That indicates confi
dence. Yes, Dingle has the water!”
“Then Don Jaime's fighting ten of
them.”
“Looks that way. He
the old corral, because he wouldn't
last a minute in the open. The cor-
ral 18 boarded close and the light is
failing. If he keeps moving he will
not be too easy to hit.”
Julio rode out into the open a quar-
ter of a mile south of them. Instantly
Hobart pulled his rifle, sighted care
fully and threw up the dirt in front of
the boy to attract his attention. When
Julio pulled up and looked around to
see where the attack came from, Ho-
bart waved his hat at him and moved
out from the sheltering fringe of
bushes onto the grassy floor of the
valley, Roberta by his side. Instantly
Julio recognized them.
“You stay where you are, girl,” Ken
Hobart commanded, “My other five
men will be riding down the hill pretty
soon. You tell them my orders are to
charge the men with the sheep imme-
diately.”
“What are you going to do, Mr. Ho
bart?
“I'm going to join Jullo, and the
two of us will advance along the south
side of this valley toward the water
hole. The range will be too long for
the herders with the sheep to stop us
I think. Jimmy's in a jackpot and
needs help mighty bad, so Julio and
I will furnish what we can. Adios!"
He galloped away diagonally across
the valley, motioning for Julio to join
him. The boy did not hesitate. Ro-
berta watched them in an
apprehension,
The herders with the sheep were
firing at Hobart and Julio, gallopin
across their front. Ken had
that the range would be too long for
eifective fire by men not versed in the
science of accurate shooting at ex-
treme ranges, but nevertheless the girl
saw Julio's pinto go down, saw the boy
shoot out over the animal's neck. He
was up instantly and back beside the
horse,
“Getting his rifle,” Roberta thought.
Ken Hobart had pulled up and was
riding back to Julio, who, in turn, was
running to meet him, There was not
an instant's pause in the stride of the
horse, yet Jullo mounted double be
hind Hobart, the horse whirled, and
the daring pair were on their way
again,
There, alone at the foot of the hill
watching this drama, Roberta prayed
for those men as she had never prayed
before; she cried out in agony when
Ken Hobart's horse went to its knees,
rose again—and stood still. Even one
so unversed in warfare as Roberta
could realize that the poor brute had
been hit and crippled. She saw Ho
bart and Jullo dismount and, kneeling
some twenty feet apart, open fire on
the distant herders as calmly as if
shooting at a mark!
And then, over the crest behind her,
eame the five men detailed to follow
Ken Hobart. They came down the
slope at a fast gallop, spurred on by
the sounds of conflict in the valley be.
low, but slackened speed as they
sighted the girl, holding up her hand
in a signal to halt,
She trembled so she could, with dif.
culty, speak coherently. “Don Jaime
engaged at the water-hole with ten
men-—Ken Hobart and Jullo over south
~ghooting at the herders—Ken says—
rear attack)”
The three American riders gazed at
her, not quite comprehending, desirons,
perhaps, of receiving more explicit in-
structions in such an emergency.
“What are you standing there for?”
Roberta cried hysterically, “Follow
me. I'll show you” With a savage
little dig of her dull dress spurs she
was off, the five men streaming behind
her. Across the northern flank of the
valiey they raced, the patter of rifle
fire from the herders probably drown-
ing the sound of their thudding ap-
proach, for they were within a hun-
dred yards of the nearest men before
the latter saw them. One of them fired
at Roberta. . . . She thrilled with a
cold fear and a wild exaltation as the
bullet whispered past her head , ,
4
must be in
agony of
g
1
in
stated
afterward she had a faint recollection
of a dark, frightened, but deflant face
that loomed for an instant in front of
her before she rode the man down.
Pistol shots . , . then a backward
look. Behind her the five rode with
upraised pistols, flourishing them at
her, yelling a flerce approbation of
her leadership.
The sheep, in panic, fled wildly, leap-
ing over each other, bleating, leaving
a cloud of grayish white dust behind
them. Roberta rode into the cloud -—
rode through the fringe of stragglers,
knocking them down, leaping over and
among them. Her horse, plunging and
swerving, was striving, with common
sense rather uncommon in a horse, to
avold the woolly bodies under his feet,
and Roberta was forced to ride as she
had never ridden before. Pistols
popped behind her. , , . She was clear
of the sheep. . Her dull little rid-
ing academy spurs prodded her mount's
flanks: the quirt rose and fell, , . .
She caught the gleam of sunshine as
the last level rays of the dying day
were reflected on a pool. Among some
rocks beyond the pool three figures
moved, the crackle of fire grew loud-
er; she could discern the sharp, spite
ful reverberation of It now. Where
was the corral? Don Jaime was there,
wounded, dying perhaps. . . .
She saw {t—a circle of weather
beaten boards, nalled so close together
that the fence appeared like a wall,
Straight at it she drove her mount,
realizing vaguely as she did so that it
was a hurdle at least a foot higher
than she had ever faced In sport,
fhe saw her horse's ears flicker.
felt his stride slacken a little: then his
head shot forward and his ears came
up straight. Good horse! He was not
going to refuse the jump! She felt
him gather himself for the leap, and
took a firm geip on the reins,
“Alley oop !™ she cried
While in midair she saw Don Jaime
off on the right flank, standing in the
bed of a wagon, firing over the fence;
then she was over and inside the cor.
ral with him.
“Jimmy I" she shouted.
He turned, staring at her amazed.
Then he jerked the bolt of his Spring-
fleld and yelled:
“Down! Flat!"
She rode up to the wagon, slipped
off, pulled the rifle from the scabbard
and untied the cartridge belt from her
pommel. ‘hen, with a slap on her
horse's rump, sent him trotting
across the corral
And then Don Jaime acted. He
sped down at her, his powerful arm
ept her backward and off balance;
r gently to the
beside
she
ground and he threw himself
her,
“Oh, my G-—d, sweetheart, why did
you come?" he almost moaned.
“Because I love you, Jaime Miguel
Higuenes. You are in danger and I
couldn't stay away, I'll help you, Jim-
my. If you have to die [want you to
know before that happens-—that life
without you-—will be desolate—"
He crvoned to her in Spanish, his
hot eyes devouring her, his grimy per-
ng hands caressing her cheek. “I
knew you were a thorough
bred.” he gulped finally. “Lie here and
do not move, This Is a private fight
and you haven't been Invited, I've
got to keep moving. I've run miles
from one side of this corral to the
other, firing through knotholes and
gaps In the boards. If I stay still
they'll locate me and I can't afford
that—now I"
He rolled away like a tumbleweed.
A bullet crashed through the fence
and struck where he had been lying
a second before, And then Roberta
proved herself a woman, She fainted.
always
CHAPTER XIV
She came to lying in Don Jalme's
arms in the dry grass beside the wa-
ter-hole. She looked up at him without
understanding, then closed her eyes
again,
“Well, Jimmy,” she murmured pres-
ently.
“We're back In the sheep business
again” he assured her solemnly.
A silence. Then: “Any casualties,
Jimmy
“Yes, Three dead horses and two
wounded and about a dozen sheep with
broken backs and legs. It seems you
rode over them. Ken Hobart’s pinked,
but nothing worse than what he's been
used to. Adolfo de Haro, one of my
riders, is dead, and Lambert, O'Grady,
and Martinez Trujillo are badly hit,
but I do not think they will dle. Julio
Ortiz has lost a little finger. Dingle
and nine of his men are dead to date
and the final returns from the river
shotild make the affair unanimous,
Fraser, Juan Espinosa, and Julio Ortiz
are following them. They took our
mounts and now I'll have to get busy,
load our wounded on Dingle's chuck
wagon and go home”
“Was that his chuck wagon in the
corral?”
“Well, It used to be your Uncle
Tom's, so 1 presume it's yours now,
Dingle got here first, ran his chuck
outfit into the old branding corral to
camp for the night and turned his
mules loose there. Then he occupied
the rocks beyond this water-hole and
waited to see what might turn up be.
fore dark. I turned up—unexpectedly
—rode wide around the herders, ap-
proached the corral from the rear and
had opened the gate and entered be-
fore either side discovered 1 was
trapped. They couldn't see me clearly,
but through the chinks in the corral
boarding they could see something
moving against the light, At that they
couldn't be sure that something was
me, my horse, or their mules, and they
didn't want to hit the mules, so they
were careful,
“It was close work and after I'd
moved around a lot and had located
all the knot-holes and wide chinks in
the boards I made them keep their
heads down, Then when the firing
started out on the flat, and they saw
Ken's men, led by you, making a pis-
tol charge on the men with the sheep,
Dingle got cold feet. You rode through
quite a barrage, sweetheart, but once
you'd topped the corral they figured 1
had reinforcements, so they ran for
their horses and rode south, That is,
some of them did. I climbed upon the
wagon seat and fanned thelr rear; as
they fled down the south side of the
valley they bumped Into Ken and
Julio, who emptied two saddles each.
Do you know, darling, that you have
a pistol bullet through the muscles of
your back, rather well on the right
side? Nothing fatal, but you'll sleep
on your left side for a month!”
“I'm a little fool,” Roberta
mured weakly.
“Yes, but a gallant little fool. You
have some of your late Uncle Tom's
ferocity and courage in you, Bobby.
Oh yes, old Tom always preferred odds
and good shelter in combat, but he
would stand up to it when he had to.
He couldn't be bluffed off this range
and he forced me to make good.”
“Are you hurt, Jimmy?
“Not a scratch”
She raised her left arm and curled
it around his neck: he lowered his
face until his cheek touched hers
“You're such a terrible man,” she whis-
pered. “Oh, such a terrible man!"
“But you love me, just the same?”
“Yes, but I wouldn't have told you
I'd have died It's all due to
Ken Hobart, He told me
“Hush, sweetheart, He's confessed
He told you a few of the most wonder-
ful lies on record, and when he found
you'd been hit he cried like a baby.
that if you died he'd commit
sulcide—~provided 1 didn't kill him
first I" He lifted her to a sitting posi
tion. “There's old Cupid Hobart sit
ting over yonder. Look at him. He's
still blubbering.”
“Ken!” Roberta called weakly,
The gx-ranger got up and limped
painfully over to her, knelt and took
her hand, “You're a grand liar,” she
murmured, “and a grand fighter, and a
grand and now I'm going to
decorate you, Ken Hobart—on the field
of battle”
“Kiss her, fool,” Don Jaime roared
“And you can kiss her again the day
we're married, That's the privilege
of the best man, but after that, believe
you me, partner, she's not
give away any more samples to hard.
boiler old waddies like you."
“Oh, my God, forgive me” Ken
sobbed childishly, and brushed her
pale cheek with his tobacco-stained
lips,
“On the lips, man” Don Jaime com-
manded. “You don't know good kiss
ing when It's offered to you.”
“I been chewin' tobacco,” the victim
protested.
“1 don't care,” Roberta assured him.
“Jimmy chews it, too”
80 the embarrassed wretch obeyed
orders, and Roberta fainted again.
mur
el 4
first.
Swore
friend
going to
“Alley Oopl” She Cried.
“Don Jaime, this time it's your fault,”
Hobart almost moaned,
“Fan her and mop her face with this
wet bandanna,” Don Jaime command
el. He went to the corral and
searched In the chuck wagon for the
tin box containing the small fleld first.
ald kit he suspected might be there,
It was, so he returned to the girl, cut
her clothing away from the wound and
applied first ald in a singularly work.
manlike manner, Thereafter he at:
tended to his wounded men and when
that task was done he caught the
chuck wagon mules in the corral, har-
w
nessed and hitched them, spread out
on the floor of the wagon box the bed-
ding rolls he found there and loaded
Lis casualties into the wagon.
“Home, James,” he called cheerlly
to an imaginary chauffeur, climbed up
onto the seat and gathered the reins.
He peered down between his legs at
Roberta's face upturned to him from
the wagon bed.
“You'd have to live a few lifetimes
in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester county,
New York, before you'd get your teeth
into life as deeply as you have in the
past hour and a half,” he assured her
cheerfully, **Whose spunky old sweet-
heart are you?"
“Youse,” sald Roberta wearily.
“Gliddap,” yelled Don Jaime, and
flicked the rumps of the leaders with
his long whip. Gently he eased the
mules Into thelr collars and rolled
away up the valley into a long draw
that wound between the hills and
eventually led them out to where the
deserted motorcar waited. Here he
transferred his wounded — Lambert
O'Grady, and Martinez Trujillo on the
rear seat, with Ken Hobart on the
front seat. Lastly he lifted Roberta
up into Hobart's arms, after which
he braked the chuck wagon, unhitched
the mules and tethered them to the
wheels,
“Guess they can stand a night of
watchful waiting” he declared, and
climbed In back of the wheel “And
maybe 1 wasn't a smart boy when 1
put Mrs. Ganby on the payroll
manently, Nothing like having a good
trained nurse around In an emergency
like this. Hold on, everybody!”
He switched on the lights and tooled
the car carefully down through the
sage to the Los Algodones road, after
which they made fast time to the
ranch, Here one of the hands took
the ear and departed for Los Algo
dones to bring back the only two doc
tors there, while Don Jaime alded Mrs
Ganby to make her patients comfort
able,
About the next day Jaime
Miguel Higuenes came into Roberta's
room and sat down on her bed.
“Caraveo and his men have just got
back safely.” he informed her. “Not
a man of that bandit gang got back
across the river, so I venture to say
thiz has been a lesson to them, 1 im-
agine the Rancho Valle Verde will be
regarded In
ner-
per
noon
beyond-the-Border circles
as a good place to keep away from
hereafter. How's the future Mrs. Hig.
uenes feeling now.”
“Not very chipper, Jimmy. How do
you feel?™
“Gullty as a sheep-killing dog.
every cloud has a silver lining
gle's dead and 1 imagine he died in
testate. At any rate I have a sus.
picion nobody is going to come around
and claim a ten per cent interest in
my lambs, And I have a telegram
from your Uncle Bill. It seems that
when the news of the battle got to Los
Algodones Inst night, via the man 1
after the doctors, the editor of
the local paliadinm of
Algodones Herald, considered it of suf
ficfent importance to put on the wire
to the El Paso office of the United
So It was In the El Paso pa-
pers this morning, and your Uncle Bill
read it there™
“Uncle Bill?
ing in El Paso?
“En route to Valle Verde, my dear.
I'd wired the old gentleman a hearty
invitation to come down and visit us,
and he has accepted and was on his
way." Thus Jaime Miguel Higuenes
-—the Har! However, he comforted
himself with the thought that it was
only a white lie and was to be pre
ferred to violating his word of honor
to Crooked Bill not to reveal to his
niece the news that only two days pre
vious he had been In Los Algodones,
plotting against their peace and hap-
piness,
“You're such a dear, Jimmy. So
thoughtful. Dear Uncle Bill. I know
he's missed me. Does he know I'm
hurt?”
“Yes, the papers carried the story.
I've wired him on the train to save
his tears until our wedding day.”
“Are we engaged, Jimmy? I can't
remember that you've ever asked me
to marry you."
“Oh, didn't I, sweetheart?"
“Never.”
He rubbed his tanned chin and his
lazy eyes roved over her whimsically.
“1 suppose I was afraid I might speak
out of my turn, but of course when
you came stampeding Into that corral
yesterday and broke the glad news to
sent
liberty. the Los
Press,
Why, what was he do-
.
me, I couldn't, as a man of honor, pre
tend I didn't understand you, So I
rather took it for granted.”
He bent low over her and swept
her cheeks with his eager lips, “Still
interested In those bummer lambs,
boll-weevil and f{rrigation, brown
babies and cholo men and women,
heat, dust and purple lights on the
buttes at dawn and sunset, darling 7”
She nodded. *I can be a good part-
ner, Jimmy. I never had any respon-
sibilitles—and now 1 want so badly
to share yours—always. How are
your wounded men?”
“Taking an Interest in life. I sent
them over a quart of thirty-year-old
lourbon whisky a friend gave me re-
cently, Mrs, Ganby is still weeping
-—
“Are
with joy over our engagement,
lobble is jealous as a collie dog.
We Engaged, Jimmy?”
and
He
has an idea that when we're married
he'll have to the ranch”
“1 wouldn't even have a ground
irrel leave that ranch, Jimmy
“Then keep and his
ma on the payroil”™
leave
san
i
we'll Robbie
“Does Uncle of our en
gagement™
Don
and read:
Jaime
produced
ired on you tak!
“1 never fin
my princi
that you
a tip from one who knows stop Ix
did that long
You are as welcome in our fi
{ly as the silence that follows a con-
p responsibility but
insist on bel reckless 1
spoil her stop 1
stop
gressional oration
“Sheepishiy yours
“UNCLE BILL"
“Why does he sign himself ‘sheep-
ishly yours,’ Jimmy dear?”
far-fetched allusion to
here, Bobby.
humor, 1
“Some the
brought
sheep that
Just
imagine”
* She
you
gome of his gringo
was silent, turning
1g. useful hands,
Hands that
known toil and would always know
the hands that build empires,
that, when folded at last in the p
that would mean their parting, would
be kissed by lowly people and soprin-
kled with their tears,
“It will be forever and ever, Jim-
my.” she whispered, “an I'm so happy
and grateful”
“The Higuenes men keep their
women,” he assured her gravely.
She thought of Glenn Hackett,
“Poor dear,” she murmured absently.
“He never had a chance.” Don Jaime
assured her, with a flash of {hat
prescience, that eclairvoyancy, that
would always make him, for Roberta,
a new, puzzling, yet wholly under
standable human being and a Joy for.
ever. Yes, he would be the same al
ways, yet always new, always chal
lenging her interest, always holding
ft. Of him (the girl thought) It might
be sald that age could not wither nor
custom stale his infinite variety,
“I'll get my guitar and sing you a
little Spanish love song my grand
mother taught me.” he suggested. “It's
very old. It came Into Peru with
Pizarro and worked north. Oh, by the
way, 1 forgot something! Let's get
this on record officially. Miss Antrim,
will you do me the great honor to
marry me?”
“You outrageous Celt,” she laughed,
“You're the last of the troubadours
Of course I will.”
[THE END.]
counting
uses on them
The dog piles up his knowledge al
most wholly by association of ideas,
especially pleasurable associations;
and this comes very near to a percep
tion of cause and effect, Sir W. Beach
Thomas writes, in the Atlantic
Monthly,
He ean learn up to about 100 words.
He can acquire a strong artistic sense
that is, can tell fine shades of black
and gray, and distinguish a very
round ellipse from a circle. He can
distinguish both separate notes and
ranges of notes,
His brain matter behaves very much
as a child's, especially in shutting off
attention from things that bore him
by their unintelligibility, and can so
concentrate on things that Interest
him that all the rest of his mind, and
indeed, his other senses, are shut
down,
The study of the dog's actual brain
has given concrete evidence of how
like it is to the mind of the child
Though soon the human mind ¢limbs
to heights that tower over the dog's
attainment, its loss Is permanent if is
misses the perceptions proper to its
doglike Infancy.
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freezing point and wind and sleet
whistle around the client's ears, must
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Still, most of these boys, who earn
a very meager living, treat thelr cli-
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