Belle hesitated. Grace uttered another warning, a more insistent one, whereupon the mountain woman called to Emma Dean to come to her.
“Drop thet gun, an’ do it quick!” came the sharp command in a man’s voice behind Grace Harlowe.
The Overton girl’s heart seemed to leap into her throat. She felt a suffocating sensation there, her breath coming only with great effort, and she could feel herself going cold all over.
CHAPTER XIII
A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
“OH, Grace, what is it?” cried Emma, who at this juncture arrived on the scene.
Grace Harlowe’s reaction came with Emma’s words. Whirling in a flash, Grace dropped to her knees just as the revolver of the bandit was fired at her. How the fellow had managed to get behind her without her knowing it, Grace was at a loss to understand.
A cry behind her now told Grace that the bullet intended for her had hit Belle Bates instead. It was now a question of fight or be killed, or both, so far as Grace was concerned, and, coming close on the discharge of the bandit’s revolver, she took a quick shot at the fellow, following it up with a second shot, as the bandit again fired.
The man staggered under the Overton girl’s second shot, and collapsed on the ground.
“Run!” cried Grace. “Run, Emma!”