From all the sides of Rainbow’s Pot that shot came back in echoes, a roaring fusillade—and Bossick, waiting in his clump of pines, straightened in his saddle. He picked up his hanging rein and spoke in a low Voice.
“Ready, men?” he asked, “then let’s go.”
Cattle Kate had fired her own signal of fate and her enemies heard it.
Brand Fair heard it in the strange dark passage far down in the heart of Mystery Ridge. Rod Stone, climbing the stiff slopes, heard it, and so did the boy on the staggering horse a little farther over toward Sky Line. He altered his course a bit toward the west.
“What do you mean?” said Arnold sharply, “would you kill her before she signs the paper? Or after—and have the finger of the law point at the new owner of the flats? Use your wits.”
“I have,” said Kate sullenly, “and have gotten nowhere. And she has defied me.”
“She has defied us all,” replied Arnold with reluctant admiration, “she has been charmed, it seems.”
“Kill her—and the old woman will take the boy and go,” said Kate, “she’s the stubborn element. I warn you now—she must never go out of this place alive. She knows us now.”
“Unless she goes down the Pipe with this morning’s drive—the boys should soon be here to start.”
“She will come back.”