giving way to one of his rages.

"You'd better not," snarled the convict. "Not if you want to live."

As they stood facing each other in a panting fury the door opened, to
let in Siegfried and the ranger.

Jed's rage against Struve died on the spot. He saw his enemy, the
ranger, before him, and leaped to the conclusion that he had come to
this hidden retreat to run him down for the Squaw Creek murders.
Instantly, his hand swept to the hilt of his revolver.

That motion sealed his doom. For Struve knew that Siegfried had
brought the ranger to capture him, and suspected in the same flash
that Briscoe was in on the betrayal. Had not the man as good as told
him so, not thirty seconds before? He supposed that Jed was drawing to
kill or cover him, and, like a flash of lightning, unscabbarded and
fired.

"You infernal Judas, I'll get you anyhow," he cried.

Jed dropped his weapon, and reeled back against the wall, where he
hung for a moment, while the convict pumped a second and a third
bullet into his body. Briscoe was dead before Fraser could leap
forward and throw his arms round the man who had killed him.

Between them, they flung Struve to the ground, and disarmed him. The
convict's head had struck as he went down, and it was not for some
little time that he recovered fully from his daze. When he did his
hands were tied behind him.