Bud stooped and yanked off the mask and looked into the glaring eyes of one whom he had never before seen.
"Well, how d'yuh like it, far as you've got ?" Bud asked curiously.
"Think you were holding up a pilgrim, or what ?" Just then, BING-GG sang a rifle bullet from the ridge above the cave.
Bud looked that way and spied a man standing half revealed against the rosy clouds that were already dulling as dusk crept up from the low ground.

It was a long shot for a six-shooter, but Buddy used to shoot antelope almost that far, so Bud lifted his arm and straightened it, just as if he were pointing a finger at the man, and fired.

He had the satisfaction of seeing the figure jerk backward and go off over the ridge in a stooping kind of run.
"He'd better hurry back if he wants another shot at me," Bud grinned.
"It'll be so dark down here in a minute he couldn't pick me up with his front sight if I was--as big a fool as you are.

How about it?
I'll just lead you into camp, I think--but you sure as hell couldn't get a job roping gateposts, on the strength of this little exhibition." He went over to Stopper and untied his own rope, giving an approving pat to that business-like animal.

"Hope your leg isn't broken or anything," he said to the man when he returned and passed the loop over the fellow's head and shoulders, drawing it rather snugly around his body and pinning his arms at the elbows.