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 at least fall upon him and his men in the first moment of their fancied security.

A big contract! Rumor credited Zang Whistler with having between thirty and forty men behind his back, all of them former cow-punchers who had been black-balled by the foremen of the Big Country for known or suspected dexterity with the running iron. Some had taken a flyer at holding up Union Pacific trains and had beaten pursuing posses in a race for the Spout. All were men who would fight desperately against any menace of prison bars. Once before Original had attempted to fight his way into the Spout at the head of a picked company of range riders and had been beaten back, but on that occasion he had gained a fair conception of the lay of the land which he had broadened subsequently by many unsuspected reconnoitering expeditions to high places and hours spent peering through his glass.

The range inspector swiftly conned over available material to put at his back. Of the men in town that night there were five or six whose fiber of bravery he had seen put to the test beforetime, and he knew its quality to be high. These men would form the nucleus of