noon
There are times when the mind works like lightning , flashes its messages on the wings of an electric current . For Bannister this was one of them . The whole situation lighted for him plainly as if it had been explained for an hour . His cousin had been out with a band of his cut-throats on some errand , and while returning to the fastnesses of the Shoshone Mountains had stopped to noon at a cow spring three or four miles from the Lazy D. Judd Morgan , whom he knew to be a lieutenant of the notorious bandit , had ridden toward the ranch in the hope of getting an opportunity to vent his anger against its mistress or some of her men . While pursuing the renegade Bannister had stumbled into a hornet 's nest , and was in imminent danger of being stung to death . Even now the last speaker was scrambling up the bank toward him . The sheepman had to choose between leaving his rifle and immediate flight .