Then, like a bombshell, a voice came from the woods back of the H-P men:
“Stand where you are! If another shot is fired at that cabin, or if you fellows carry this lawless game any further, I’ll riddle the lot of you! I’m here with twenty-five men, and they’re armed with rifles. I’ve done a lot to make war on the Brazos, and now I’ll do just as much to make peace. You hear me!”
There followed a breathless silence, during which a man in black rode out of the timber and pulled his horse to a halt.
“My men are back there,” he went on, waving his hand in the direction of the woods, “and each one of them has his rifle leveled.” He laughed. “I reckon that, between us, Buffalo Bill and I have a cinch on this lay-out.”
“Er-waugh!” muttered old Nomad dazedly. “I’m er Piegan ef et ain’t Lige Benner! An’ he fightin’ fer us an’ not ag’in us! Hev I got ther blind staggers?”
CHAPTER XXVII.
BENNER’S CHANGE OF HEART.
“What’s back of this?” breathed Dick Perry suspiciously. “What’s Lige Benner’s real purpose in acting this way?”
The rancher had for so long been the victim of Benner’s plots, that even now he could not take his show of friendship at face value.
“Benner,” answered the scout, “has undergone a change of heart. There’s nothing back of this move of his except a desire to establish peace on the river. He’s tired of the squabbling. For once in his life, at least, Lige Benner is showing that there’s some good in him. Watch—watch and listen! Let’s see how he handles the affair.”
All eyes in the cabin peered from the loopholes. Horseman after horseman had ridden from the woods into plain view—all Circle-B men, and numbering fully a score and five. Each of Benner’s men had a rifle, and each held it trained on a hostile cowboy.