“They’re coming!” yelled Starbuck; and once again the big man from the East took the command.
“Down behind the sand-bags!” he shouted. “If Jennings gets near enough to strike a match on this hill-side, we’ll all go to glory!”
Sprague had predicted that if Jennings suspected trouble he would not return to the dam alone. The prediction was verified when a squad of mounted men came in view at the turn in the road leading around the hill shoulder. The moon, declining to its setting behind the Timanyonis, flung ghostly shadows across the valley, and the watchers behind the sand-bag breastwork saw only the dark blot of blacker shadow sweeping up the road.
“Give ’em a volley over their heads!” Sprague ordered, and the three sawed-off Winchesters barked spitefully.
“That means war,” said the colonel, when the charging cavalcade stopped abruptly and a dropping fusillade of revolver-shots spatted into the sand breastwork and whined overhead. “We’re strictly in for it, now.”
“If those fool cowpunch’s only knew what they’re fightin’ for, they’d turn their artillery the other way,” growled Starbuck. “I reckon they’re the ‘Lazy X’ outfit, and Cummings, their owner, is one of the High Line directors.”
“It’s a pity we can’t get word to them some way,” said Smith. “We’re not out to kill anybody if we can help it.”
“No, but they’re out to kill us,” grunted Williams, as a second shower of bullets thudded into the breastwork and tore up the gravel on either hand. Then: “What are they doing now?”
The defenders of the breastwork were not left long in doubt as to what was doing. The horsemen in front were deploying in a thin line which rapidly bent itself into a semi-circle across the hill slope. To let any one of these skilled marksmen gain the rear meant death for somebody, and again Sprague gave the word of command.
“Better kill horses than men,” he said. “We’ve got to stop that manœuvre,” and again the Winchesters spoke, this time to deadlier purpose. At the third volley two of the horses were down, and the scattering line was drawing together again and galloping out of range.