With a last look along the slope, Dick was about to turn, when he saw the dim outline of something just ahead. Straining his eyes, one hand shielding his face from the driving snow, he made out, at length, what was unmistakably the figure of a man. Could it be Toma? The man was afoot. Quickly, Dick started back, overcome by sudden fear. It was the half-breed—and he carried a rifle!
Springing forward down the slope, Dick pulled Sandy after him. Just ahead, a thick screen of bushes—now weighted down with snow—would hide them from view. Yet here it would still be possible to watch the movements of the figure proceeding toward them on the level ground above the slope.
Sandy removed his parka and glared back toward the spot Dick had indicated.
“The half-breed!” he whispered hoarsely. “The same man who shot Constable Pearly. What do you suppose has happened to Toma?”
Rifle in hand, the half-breed came on, looking furtively to the right and left. He seemed oblivious to the storm. In a few moments he had approached to within fifty feet of the place where the boys lay concealed.
Instinctively, Dick and Sandy reached for their revolvers. But before they could be drawn from their holsters, the half-breed accomplished an incredible and surprising movement. His head went back with a jerk—so suddenly that he nearly lost his balance. For a moment he stood stock still, then leaped for the protecting trunk of a poplar. Above the roaring of the wind and storm, the boys heard distinctly the sound of a muffled report.
The boys rose to their feet with a cry of joy. Well they knew the meaning of the half-breed’s actions and the sound they had heard. Toma was still alive! Not only that—he was carrying on a sort of running fight with the outlaw. Sandy flourished his own gun, and, had Dick not prevented it, would have fired point-blank at the figure, which, though sheltered from Toma’s fire by the poplar, offered a splendid target for the boys.
“Here, Sandy!” remonstrated Dick. “Don’t do that. Stop!”
“I haven’t forgotten Constable Pearly,” Sandy retorted angrily. “The fellow deserves it.”
“Possibly he does. But it’s not your place to retaliate. Toma is well able to look after himself. If I’m not mistaken the outlaw will be ready and willing to take to his heels before long.”