As the outlaws charged across the open, a bullet caught Ricker in the side and he reeled, his gun in the air.
Bud and Trent Burton were in the fight and the latter had cut loose with his deadly automatics!
Sorely wounded, the counterfeiter turned and bringing his gun down, emptied it point blank at his hated foe. Trent Burton’s guns were trained on him and were spitting a steady stream of lead.
The counterfeiter’s knees began to sag and his shots went wild. Josephine and Ethel stood at the cabin door, their faces white with fear.
Overhead, Roy’s airplane motor was humming in harmony with the cracking of the guns. Mason stood up from behind the rock as he saw the halfbreed Mexican start with a yell toward the girls’ cabin.
Mason shouted a warning to the girls and turned his smoking gun on the halfbreed. At the third shot the Mexican fell, and Mason rushed over and clasped his sister in his arms.
When the fight was over, Percy was found tied securely in the outlaws’ cabin.
Ricker was dying and Jim Haley and Nick Cover were severely wounded. The Mexican was brought into the outlaws’ cabin and breathed his last while Trent Burton was examining his wound.
The Marshal arranged to have Mason and Bud leave at once with the girls, and when they arrived at the Ricker ranch, Mason was to take the Marshal’s automobile and drive them to Bar X ranch.
“Some round-up,” the Marshal observed to Bud as they parted. “I wanted to take Ricker alive, but he was trying to get me, so it was his life or mine.”