"We're a posse of deputy sheriffs and you're wanted for horse-stealing. Come out!" thundered Meshackatee, "or we'll kill ye!"
"You'll kill us anyway!" answered one of the men, and they went to work on their loop-holes.
"I'll fix 'em," announced Meshackatee, and, slipping in another explosive bullet, he fired it through the hole in the door. There was a smash inside and a loud yell of protest and then, very reluctantly, the shattered door was thrown open and the Texans stepped out with hands up.
"Come up here!" ordered Meshackatee, over the top of a rock. "Is there anybody else in there?"
"Nope, the other boys are gone," answered the trembling prisoners, who were both barely out of their teens, and Hall quickly searched them for concealed guns.
"All right," he said, "you can put down your hands. Come on, we'll go back to camp."
They returned to the horses, where Bill had a fire going and a pot of coffee on the coals, and Grimes and Winchester joined them.
"You sure ruined that cabin," observed Winchester to Meshackatee, but Grimes strode over to the prisoners.
"Oho!" he said, "so you're the young bucks that have been raising all this deviltry. Well, we'll just make you an example for the rest of 'em to look at when they come over to steal our stock."