Page:Clarence Mulford - Man from Bar-20.djvu/220

 The Man from Bar-20 "I'm waitin'," replied Johnny, and ducked. Fleming was getting good again, and Johnny was glad that he could not see where his bullets were landing, for as it was he was shooting by guess.

"He'll get you yet," encouraged Sanford.

"Think I'm goin' to wait for it?" indignantly demanded Johnny.

"Gimme a look at you," urged Sanford genially.

"Stand up an' take it," retorted Johnny.

"Reckon I'm scared to?"

There was no reply, for Johnny had slipped away and was running at top speed along a gully, where he was out of sight of the hard-working Fleming. A few minutes later he had reached his rifle and was cuddling it against his cheek; and he was causing Sanford a great amount of mental anguish and wriggling progress.

"Some people calls this strategy," muttered Johnny, "but I calls it common sense."

Raising his head cautiously he looked across the valley but saw no sign of Fleming; and he figured that it would be an hour before that interesting person could cross the valley and get close enough to be a menace. What concerned him most were the two rustlers' friends, who must certainly have heard the shooting. Out of deference to the curiosity of those individuals he crawled into a partly filled-in crevice, whose sides 208