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Jean reached hiuns were tied to his hands Jean started violently as the whole direction of his lance showed that Queen had been propped against the tree--another showed boot tracks in the dust

"By Heaven, they've fooled me!" hissed Jean, and quickly as he leaped behind the pine he was not quick enough to escape the cunning rustlers who had waylaid him thus He felt the shock, the bite and burn of lead before he heard a rifle crack A bullet had ripped through his left forear the face of the bluff--the very spot his keen and glooilance had descried as one ofreports betrayed the ambush of the tricksters Bullets barked the pine and whistled by Jean saw aover, run for another Jean's swift shot stopped hiot up, and floundered behind a bush scarcely large enough to conceal hiain He had no pain in his wounded ar in his consciousness, and this, with the tre-daazine of his Winchester in a terrible haste to kill the man he had hit

These were all the loads he had for his rifle Blood passion had made him blunder Jean cursed hione The sheath had been loose He had tied the gun fast But the strings had been torn apart The rustlers were shooting again Bullets thudded into the pine and whistled by Bending carefully, Jean reached one of Queen's guns and jerked it frouns were eet the line in which the bullets were co a course from his position to the cover of the forest, he ran with all his ained the shelter Shrill yells behind warned hiuessed Looking back, he sao or three htened horse pealed out

Jean discarded his useless rifle, and headed down the ridge slope, keeping to the thickest line of pines and sheering around the cluhts of escape, of his necessity to find the camp where Gordon and Fredericks were buried, there to procure another rifle and a down his arood cover He dared not run uphill His only course was ahead, and that soon ended in an abrupt declivity too precipitous to descend As he halted, panting for breath, he heard the ring of hoofs on stone, then the thudding beat of running horses on soft ground The rustlers had sighted the direction he had taken Jean did not waste ti the cliff to the right a rifle cracked and a bullet whizzed over his head It lent wings to his feet Like a deer he sped along, leaping cracks and logs and rocks, his ears filled by the rush of wind, until his quick eye caught sight of thick-growing spruce foliage close to the precipice He sprang down into the green h the upper branches But lower down his spread ar, swaying lirasped another and a stiffer one that held his weight Hand over hand he worked toward the trunk of this spruce and, gaining it, he found other branches close together dohich he hastened, hold by hold and step by step, until all above hie, and beneath hi unseen frolided noiselessly down under the trees, slowly regaining freedom from that constriction of his breast