"Reckon I have plenty. They know better'n to cross my trail, though."
"It strikes me, Hi, old man, that one of them crossed your trail this evening," chuckled Hippy Wingate.
The guide made no reply then, and for some moments thereafter occupied himself with his own thoughts.
"You asked me just now if I had any enemies. I'll say this, Lieu—"
BANG! BANG!
Two quick shots were fired from behind Hippy and the guide. One bullet passed between the two men, the other clipped the crown, of Lieutenant Wingate's sombrero.
The answer came, it seemed, within a second after the two shots. Hippy and the guide leaped to their feet, drawing their revolvers as they did so, and emptying them into the bushes, firing low and trying to cover all the ground where a man might be lurking.
"As you were about to say," drawled Hippy, slipping another clip of ammunition into his revolver.
"That there is one man who might and would get me if he thought he could get away with it. But why should he wish to shoot a woman? Crawl out to the left and then go in and let the folks know everything is all right now. I'm going to hang around a bit and try to tease that cayuse into shooting at me again."
"They're at it again," complained Grace Harlowe in her tent. "Go out, Elfreda, am see if any one is hit."