Then over the position of the rangers came a hail of steel bullets.  Those that struck the lava hissed away into the crater; those that came biting through the choyas made a sound which resembled a sharp ripping of silk.  Bits of cactus stung Gale’s face, and he dreaded the flying thorns more than he did the flying bullets.

“Hold on, boys,” called Ladd, as he crouched down to reload his rifle.  “Save your shells.  The greasers are spreadin’ on us, some goin’ down below Yaqui, others movin’ up for that high ridge.  When they get up there I’m damned if it won’t be hot for us.  There ain’t room for all of us to hide here.”

Ladd raised himself to peep over the rim.  Shots were now scattering, and all appeared to come from below.  Emboldened by this he rose higher.  A shot from in front, a rip of bullet through the choya, a spat of something hitting Ladd’s face, a steel missle hissing onward—­these inseparably blended sounds were all registered by Gale’s sensitive ear.

With a curse Ladd tumbled down into the hole.  His face showed a great gray blotch, and starting blood.  Gale felt a sickening assurance of desperate injury to the ranger.  He ran to him calling:  “Laddy!  Laddy!”

“Shore I ain’t plugged.  It’s a damn choya burr.  The bullet knocked it in my face.  Pull it out!”

The oval, long-spiked cone was firmly imbedded in Ladd’s cheek.  Blood streamed down his face and neck.  Carefully, yet with no thought of pain to himself, Gale tried to pull the cactus joint away.  It was as firm as if it had been nailed there.  That was the damnable feature of the barbed thorns:  once set, they held on as that strange plant held to its desert life.  Ladd began to writhe, and sweat mingled with the blood on his face.  He cursed and raved, and his movements made it almost impossible for Gale to do anything.

“Put your knife-blade under an’ tear it out!” shouted Ladd, hoarsely.

Thus ordered, Gale slipped a long blade in between the imbedded thorns, and with a powerful jerk literally tore the choya out of Ladd’s quivering flesh.  Then, where the ranger’s face was not red and raw, it certainly was white.

A volley of shots from a different angle was followed by the quick ring of steel bullets striking the lava all around Gale.  His first idea, as he heard the projectiles sing and hum and whine away into the air, was that they were coming from above him.  He looked up to see a number of low, white and dark knobs upon the high point of lava.  They had not been there before.  Then he saw little, pale, leaping tongues of fire.  As he dodged down he distinctly heard a bullet strike Ladd.  At the same instant he seemed to hear Thorne cry out and fall, and Lash’s boots scrape rapidly away.