Chapter 1 A
Kiss and an EscapeOnly one shot had been fired. It had gone wide of its mark,—the
ringleader of the Vigilantes,—and had left Red Pete, who had fired
it, covered by their rifles and at their mercy. For his hand had
been cramped by hard riding, and his eye distracted by their sudden
onset, and so the inevitable end had come. He submitted sullenly to
his captors; his companion fugitive and horse-thief gave up the
protracted struggle with a feeling not unlike relief. Even the hot
and revengeful victors were content. They had taken their men
alive. At any time during the long chase they could have
brought them down by a rifle-shot, but it would have been
unsportsmanlike, and have ended in a free fight, instead of an
example. And, for the matter of that, their doom was al
