"Why did you come, Flame?" he asked in the moment that was left them before the siege would begin.
"Day before yesterday, out on the range, Murdock played all his trumps, demanding that I run away with him," she returned, leaning close to him, as if the contact assured protection. "Roper and Rust helped me save myself. They're on the level, those busters, despite what they once tried to do to you. From them I learned that Murdock knew that in some way you were allied with the law. I feared that he was coming here when he shook the ranch with a small herd of dad's blacks. I was—was afraid for you and came to warn you. Found you'd ridden south and stumbled into Murdock before I could take the back track."
"Gamest little pal a man ever had—especially an undeserving, ungainly old roughneck like me," he murmured.
"You're not any of that, Jack," she whispered back. There were none near enough to hear, so the only excuse for the whisper must have been that it seemed more appropriate to the sentiment of the moment.
"We're in a tight hole, Flame," he said with more emotion than his voice usually carried. "Likely we'll get out. Luck ought to be with us. But if worst comes, I want you to know that I love you and that you're the first woman I ever said that to, you dearest of firebrands!"
Then came the first shot of the offence, a rifle bullet that flattened itself against the stout door. Childress threw the blankets from his bunk.
"The base logs of the cabin are thicker," he said. "Lay down as close to the wall as possible and be, out of the way of stray bullets. This cabin was built for defence, even if not for our sort of defenders. If we can stave them off until dark, we'll make a run for it."
"But I want to help," she protested.
"You can help best by keeping out of danger. There's just one rifle and our revolvers are good only for close quarters. Let me try my best——"
A patter of shots thudding into the walls of the cabin interrupted with the word that the fight was on in earnest. One stray bullet found a loophole and crashed against the opposite wall.