More rattling shots disturbed the noonday quiet. She heard a sliding of weathered rock, a hoarse shout of warning, a yell of alarm, again the clear, sharp crack of the rifle, and another cry that was a cry of death. Then rifle reports pierced a dull volley of revolver shots. Bullets whizzed over Jane’s hiding-place; one struck a stone and whined away in the air. After that, for a time, succeeded desultory shots; and then they ceased under long, thundering fire from heavier guns.
Sooner or later, then, Jane heard the cracking of horses’ hoofs on the stones, and the sound came nearer and nearer. Silence intervened until Lassiter’s soft, jingling step assured her of his approach. When he appeared he was covered with blood.
“All right, Jane,” he said. “I come back. An’ don’t worry.”
With water from a canteen he washed the blood from his face and hands.
“Jane, hurry now. Tear my scarf in two, en’ tie up these places. That hole through my hand is some inconvenient, worse’n this at over my ear. There—you’re doin’ fine! Not a bit nervous—no tremblin’. I reckon I ain’t done your courage justice. I’m glad you’re brave jest now—you’ll need to be. Well, I was hid pretty good, enough to keep them from shootin’ me deep, but they was slingin’ lead close all the time. I used up all the rifle shells, an’ en I went after them. Mebbe you heard. It was then I got hit. Had to use up every shell in my own gun, an’ they did, too, as I seen. Rustlers an’ Mormons, Jane! An’ now I’m packin’ five bullet holes in my carcass, an’ guns without shells. Hurry, now.”
He unstrapped the saddle-bags from the burros, slipped the saddles and let them lie, turned the burros loose, and, calling the dogs, led the way through stones and cedars to an open where two horses stood.
“Jane, are you strong?” he asked.
“I think so. I’m not tired,” Jane replied.
“I don’t mean that way. Can you bear up?”
“I think I can bear anything.”