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HOW MARY MET THE PUNCHERS.
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MARY AND SIR PERCY DEFENDING THEMSELVES.
legs, but his sight was fairly true and his hand did not falter when he fired the shot which whizzed past Mary's ear, as her horse plunged forward and the mad race began. Lucky for Mary that she knew how to ride across country, and that her pony was clever at avoiding badger holes. Sir Percy's horse kept in the lead, however, and both horse and rider soon disappeared behind a small rise which marked the site of a deserted sheep herders7 camp. By the time Mary had reached the shelter, her escort had already found some old wool sacks, with which he was contriving a sort of barricade, but with a nervousness and excitement that was far from reassuring to the frightened girl.
Suddenly, the gentleman had an inspiration. "A dummy!" he panted. "We'll put it on one of the ponies. The redskins will think it's one of us."
With frantic haste he seized the fallen sacks and commenced tying them together. The Indians had now come
quite close, and were posting sentinels. Mary was sobbing disconsolately, but she meekly surrendered her cap when Sir Percy demanded it to add to the dummy. But anything more she stubbornly refused to contribute, until a whoop and a rifle shot from the Indians unnerved her; then, suppressing a little scream, she rushed behind a rock and presently threw her skirt over for the completion of the dummy. A moment later and the horse galloped forth, its dumb rider looking quite enough like Ranchman Lewis' niece to deceive, at a distance, even Aunt Katie herself. Away went the Indians in hot pursuit of the horse and its queer rider, just as Bill, looking thru his field glasses off to the southward, descried the chase.
"There she goes, boys : gosh dang those red devils — ride like h — 1," he shouted as the four punchers dashed madly to the rescue. Long before the Indians were overtaken, the lariats were whirling in ever widening circles un