Flopped into a mare's nest, you hev!"
"That shell was fired to-day," said the 'Piker,' authoritatively. "The
powder ain't dry in it. Boys,"--he glanced round at the circle of grim
faces--"let's take the San Lorenzy road."
* * * * *
The squatters, reinforced by half a dozen men who had not entered the
adobe, escorted their prisoners down the hill till they came to a
large live oak, a conspicuous feature of the meadow beyond the creek.
The moon shone at the full as she rose majestically above the pines
which fringed the eastern horizon. In the air was a smell of tar-weed,
deliciously aromatic; and the only sounds audible were the whispering
of the tremulous leaves of the cottonwoods and the tinkle of the creek
on its way to the Pacific.
Smoky inhaled the fragrance of the tar-weed, and turned his blue eyes
to the left, where, in the far distance, a tall pine indicated the
north-west corner of his ranch. Neither he nor Ransom expected to
reach San Lorenzo that night. They were setting out on a much longer
journey.
Under the live oak Judge Lynch opened his court.
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