It was not long before they discerned the dark bodies galloping off in alarm.  Almost at the same moment the ranchers saw the outlines of two horsemen riding from right to left, and goading the cattle to an injuriously high pace.  Grizzly Weber, who was slightly in advance, turned his head and said, in excitement: 

“Budd, they’re not rustlers; they’re Injins!”

CHAPTER XV.

The “Dog Indians.”

Weber was right in his declaration that the parties who were stampeding a part of the herd were Indians.  They were two in number, both superbly mounted, and dashing back and forth with great swiftness, as they urged the animals to a frantic flight.  They knew the danger of pursuit and the value of time.

The rancher, who shouted to his companion, was a few paces in advance at the exciting moment he made the discovery.  The sight so angered him that he stopped abruptly and brought his rifle to his shoulder, with the intention of shooting the marauder from his horse.

This would have been done the next instant but for the exclamation of Grizzly Weber.  Despite the noise and confusion, the Indian heard him and saw his danger.  Before the rancher could sight his weapon the thief seemed to plunge headlong over the further side of his steed; but instead of doing so he resorted to the common trick of his people, all of whom are unsurpassable horsemen.  He flung himself so far over that nothing of his body remained visible.  The horse himself became the shield between him and the white man.  The redskin was in the saddle, but he would have been just as expert had he been riding bareback.

Weber muttered his disappointment, but held his rifle ready to fire the instant he caught sight of any part of the fellow’s person.  At any rate, a recourse was open to him; he could shoot the horse, and thus place his enemy on the same footing with himself.  He decided to do so.

The hurly-burly was bewildering.  The cattle were bellowing in affright, galloping frenziedly before the two horsemen, dashing back and forth among them at the rear like two lunatics, and goading them to desperate haste.

At the instant the Indian whom Grizzly Weber selected as his man eluded his fatal aim, his horse was running diagonally.  This could not be continued without the abandonment of the herd.  He must wheel, to come back behind the fleeing cattle.  The rancher waited for that moment, prepared to fire the instant any tangible part of the body of the rogue was revealed by the moonlight.

But an astonishing exploit prevented the shot.  The savage wheeled, just as was anticipated, but, in the act of doing so, threw himself for a second time over the side of his horse, so as to interpose his body.  He did it with such inimitable dexterity that the rancher was baffled.

All this took place in a twinkling, as may be said; but, brief as was the time, it caused Weber to lose valuable ground.  The horse was growing dimmer in the gloom, and, unless checked, would quickly be beyond reach of the Winchester still levelled at him.  Nothing was easier than to drive a bullet through his brain and then have it out with the Indian.  Possibly the single bullet would end the career of both.