As the stone hit him, the man uttered a grunt, but the Overland girl was too shocked to utter a sound.
The fellow leaped to one side, threw a hand to his head and knocked off his hat in his effort to find out what had hit him, then quickly looked up.
Nora Wingate found herself gazing down, not into the face of Hippy, but into the scowling, rage-contorted features of Lum Bangs.

At that moment, Nora, of her own volition, could not have moved to save her life, but Lum speedily furnished the incentive for her to do so.

Without an instant's hesitation he fired his rifle from the hip.

The bullet from it cut the leaves not many inches from Nora's head.
"Hippy! Oh, Hippy!" she screamed and ran, bullets clipping the leaves close by, which served to lend speed to her flying feet.
Nora, as she ran, kept on shouting for Hippy.

He heard her faintly and started at a run to meet her.
"They are shooting at me.