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 sun touched the bright octagonal barrel I saw the dead man's brother lift his shot-gun, and the next moment a full charge of shot hit the murderer under his left breast and lifted him down from the saddle. The horse wheeled round and galloped as his rider fell clear of him into the piled soft dust of the beaten road. And Tom stood with the barrel smoking and with his face as hard as the face of Justice throned upon immemorial law.

And Northrop cried out: "You all saw him pull his gun on my partner?"

And I said: "I saw it."

The other men said they saw it too.

But Northrop said in a low voice to Tom, "You won't need the horse. We'll walk down with you to the City Marshal's." And I helped to carry the Colonel's body in out of the sun.