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Updated: May 12, 2025
The weapons were of the repeating kind, and among the best that money could buy in San Antonio. The two guns belonging to Mrs. Shirril and their servant rested together on the deer's prongs over the mantel, and, to reach them, one must expose himself to another shot from the outside. Following the rifle report, the sound of horses' hoofs were heard galloping rapidly around the cabin.
"Hurrah!" he exclaimed the next moment, "yonder come the boys!" He had caught sight of their friends approaching over the ridge, their animals on a dead run. "They will be too late," said Captain Shirril, whose horse at that moment received another shot and renewed his frantic struggles to regain his feet.
Zach Collis took the opposite view, maintaining that the only result of the plan would be that the Comanches would secure twenty valuable ponies without benefiting Captain Shirril in the least. They were so villainous by nature that they would shoot him down, after he had left their lines, and more than likely would bring Gleeson himself from the saddle.
He sprang upon the bare back, and the pony started through the bush for the cabin. Arriving there, matters were found in a satisfactory shape. Ballyhoo Gleeson was the only cowboy that had remained behind with Captain Shirril. The rest had started to look after the cattle.
At the moment he arrived there, he saw that the horseman had slipped from his mustang, and he and the other warrior approached close to the door, where, as it will be remembered, Captain Shirril heard them talking together in low tones. This was altogether too near for comfort, and Avon, with the same noiseless movement, slipped beyond the corner of the house.
This was putting a new face on matters, and the ranchmen realized that more serious work was required of them than rounding up the strayed cattle. Captain Shirril was too brave a man to feel needless alarm, and the fact that he had sent for help was proof that there was urgent need of it. Two of the party were gone and might not be back for several hours.
His appearance on the crest of the ridge, with the string of horses, would be the signal for Wygwind and Richita to bring forward Captain Shirril and to release him simultaneously with the driving forward of the animals. The exchange, therefore, could be effected without either party gaining the upper hand.
Oscar Gleeson, the Texan, was correct in his suspicion of the purpose of the Comanches in making Captain Shirril their prisoner; having secured possession of him, they intended to force a liberal ransom on the part of his friends, as a condition of his restoration to liberty.
Captain Shirril discovered that a bunch of thirty cattle were missing, and believed they had joined his friend's herd a mile to the southward, from which it would be necessary to separate or cut them out.
That which is clear at first grows dim and perhaps vanishes altogether from sight. Something of the kind is noticeable when we try to count the seven stars of the Pleiades. It is easy enough to fix upon six, but if we gaze too intently, the seventh modestly withdraws from view. This was the case for a minute or two with Captain Shirril.
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