Redskin and Cow-Boy: A Tale of the Western Plains. Henty George Alfred

down the street. They had gone but a short distance when the sound of a horse's hoofs was heard.

      "Here is one of them!" a voice shouted from an upper window. "Run round to the back of the house, the door is open there. I have heard two or three pistol shots, and he will shoot you down to a certainty."

      "Come on, Hugh," Luscombe said.

      "You go round, Luscombe, you are unarmed. I am not going to run away from anyone," Hugh said doggedly. "Go on, man, it is no use your staying here, you have no pistol."

      "I sha'n't leave you by yourself," Luscombe said quietly; "besides, here he comes."

      Hugh's hand had already slipped round to his back, and he now had his pistol in his hand in the pocket of his coat. The horseman threw up his arm as he came along, and Hugh saw the glitter of the moonlight on a pistol barrel. Another instant the pistol cracked; but Hugh, the moment he saw it bear on him, dropped on to one knee, and the ball struck the wall just above his head. He lifted his arm and fired, while two other shots rang out from the window. The man threw up his hands and fell back over the crupper of his horse to the ground, and the well-trained animal stopped instantaneously in his gallop, and turning stood still by his side.

      "Come on, Luscombe," Hugh said; "the sooner we are out of this the better."

      Before, however, they had gone twenty yards they heard the sound of two horses coming up behind them.

      "Let us get round the corner of that house, Luscombe. I don't suppose they will pass those men at the windows; if they do, they will be thinking of their own safety as they gallop past and won't notice us."

      They had scarcely got round the corner when there was a discharge of firearms, and the reports of the rifles were followed by the quick sharp cracks of revolvers. Then a man dashed past them at a gallop. One of his arms hung by his side, and the reins were loose on the horse's neck.

      "I suppose they have killed the other," Hugh said, "and this fellow is evidently hit. Well, let us go on to bed."

      Luscombe did not speak until they reached their room. Hugh struck a match and lighted a candle.

      "Well, you are a nice lad, Hugh," Luscombe said. "I thought you were always against quarrels, and wanted nothing but to go on with your work peaceably, and here you are throwing yourself into this and standing the chance of being shot, as if you had been fighting ruffians all your life."