He made a run for it, zigzagging through the sage-brush so swiftly as to offer the least certain mark possible for a sharpshooter. Yet twice the rifle spoke before he reached the cottonwood.
Meanwhile Mac had fastened the handkerchief of his mistress on the end of a switch he had picked up and was edging out of range. His tense, narrowed gaze never left the bush-clump from which the shots were being pumped, and he was careful during their retreat to remain on the danger side of the road, in order to cover Helen.
“I guess Bannister’s right. He don’t want us, whoever he is.”
And even as he murmured it, the wind of a bullet lifted his hat from his head. He picked it up and examined it. The course of the bullet was marked by a hole in the wide brim, and two more in the side and crown.
“He ce’tainly ventilated it proper. I reckon, ma’am, we’ll make a run for it. Lie low on the pinto’s neck, with your haid on the off side. That’s right. Let him out.”
A mile and a half farther up the road Mac reined in, and made the Indian peace-sign. Two dejected figures came over the hill and resolved themselves into punchers of the Lazy D. Each of them trailed a rifle by his side.
“You’re a fine pair of ring-tailed snorters, ain’t y’u?” jeered the foreman. “Got to get gay and go projectin’ round on the shoot after y’u got your orders to stay hitched. Anything to say for yo’selves?”
If they had it was said very silently.
“Now, Miss Messiter is going to pass it up this time, but from now on y’u don’t go off on any private massacrees while y’u punch at the Lazy D. Git that? This hyer is the last call for supper in the dining-cah. If y’u miss it, y’u’ll feed at some other chuckhouse.” Suddenly the drawl of his sarcasm vanished. His voice carried the ring of peremptory command. “Jim, y’u go back to the ranch with Miss Messiter, and keep your eyes open. Missou, I need y’u. We’re going back. I reckon y’u better hang on to the stirrup, for we got to travel some. Adios, señorita!”
He was off at a slow lope on the road he had just come, the other man running beside the horse. Presently he stopped, as if the arrangement were not satisfactory; and the second man swung behind him on the pony. Later, when she turned in her saddle, she saw that they had left the road and were cutting across the plain, as if to take the sharpshooter in the rear.