"You didn't expect to see me, I reckon?" said Bradley, dryly.

 

Mosely still stared at him, uncertain what to say or what to do.

 

"I take it very kind of you to bring back the hosses you borrowed a few weeks since. You took 'em rather sudden, without askin' leave; it was a kind of oversight on your part."

 

"I don't know what you mean," answered Mosely, determined to brazen it out and keep the horses if possible, for he was lazy and a pedestrian tramp would not have suited him very well.

 

"You know what I mean well enough, Bill Mosely. If you don't, them mustangs outside may refresh your recollection. They look kinder fagged out. You've worked 'em too hard, Mosely."

 

"Those mustangs are ours. We bought 'em," said Mosely, boldly.--"Didn't we, Tom?"

 

"I should say so," remarked Hadley, with striking originality.

 

"That's a lie, Tom," remarked Bradley, calmly, "and you know it as well as I do."

 

"Are we goin' to stand that, Tom?" blustered Mosely, whose courage was beginning to revive, as he had thus far only seen Bradley, and considered that the odds were two to one in his favor. Of course the Chinaman counted for nothing.

 

Tom Hadley looked a little doubtful, for he could see that the enemy, though apparently single-handed, was a man of powerful frame and apparently fearless even to recklessness. He had a strong suspicion that Bill Mosely was a coward and would afford him very little assistance in the event of a scrimmage.

 

"If you can't stand it," said Bradley, "sit down, if you want to."

 

Thus far, Richard Dewey had remained silent, but he wished to participate in the defence of their property if there should be need, and of course must be released first.

 

"Jake," said he, "these fellows have tied me hand and foot. They couldn't have done it if I had not been partially disabled. Send in Ki Sing to cut the cords."

 

"They dared to tie you?" said Bradley, sternly.--"Mosely, what was that for?"

 

"To remove one obstacle in the way of plunder," Dewey answered for them.

 

"They're not only hoss-thieves, but thieves through and through. Since they tied you, they must untie you.--Mosely, go and cut the cords."

 

"I am not a slave to be ordered round," returned Mosely, haughtily.

 

"What are you, then?"

 

"A gentleman."

 

"Then you'll be a dead gentleman in less than a minute if you don't do as I tell you."

 

As he spoke he drew out his revolver and levelled it at Mosely.

 

The latter turned pale. "Don't handle that we'pon so careless, stranger," he said. "It might go off."

 

"So it might--as like as not," answered Bradley, calmly.

 

"Put it up," said Mosely, nervously.--"Tom, just cut them cords."

 

"Tom, you needn't do it.--Mosely, you're the man for that duty. Do you hear?"

 

Bill Mosely hesitated. He didn't like to yield and be humiliated before the man over whom he had retained so long an ascendency.

 

"You'd better be quick about it," said Bradley, warningly. "This here we'pon goes off terrible easily. I don't want to shoot you, but there might be an accident. I've killed twenty-one men with it already. You'll be the twenty-second."

 

That was hint enough. Pride gave way, and Bill Mosely knelt down and cut the cords which confined Dewey, and the invalid, with a sense of relief, sat up on his pallet and watched the conference.

 

"There! are you satisfied?" asked Mosely, sullenly.

 

"It'll do as far as it goes, Mosely," said Bradley. "I wouldn't advise you to try any more of them tricks."

 

He lowered his weapon, and was about to replace it, when Mosely, who had made a secret sign to his companion, sprang forward simultaneously with Tom Hadley and seized the intrepid Bradley.

 

The attack was sudden, and also unexpected, for Bradley had such a contempt for the prow............