A few
yards farther on Law fancied that he could detect the smell of a
wood fire. Almost without a signal from him the mare halted in her
tracks until he had satisfied himself. Still farther along they
came to a place where the brush was low, and there, rising through
the tree-tops beyond, they saw a wavering plume of blue smoke.
The Ranger rode into sight of the branding-fire with his
Winchester across his saddle-horn and his thumb upon the hammer;
what followed came with almost the blinding suddenness of a
lightning crash, though afterward the events of that crowded
moment lingered as a clear-cut memory. First there was the picture
of a sandy glade in the center of which burned a fire with
branding-irons in it, and a spotted calf tied to a tree, but
otherwise no sign of life. Then, without warning, Bessie Belle
threw up her head in that characteristic trick of hers, and
simultaneously Dave saw a figure rise out of the grass at his left
with rifle leveled. The Ranger remembered afterward the odd
foreshortening of the weapon and the crooked twist of the face
behind it. With the first jerk of his horse's head his own gun had
leaped to his shoulder--he was not conscious of having willed it
to do so--and even as he pressed the trigger he beheld a jet of
smoke spurt from the muzzle aimed at him.
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