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OLDRING'S KNELL.
Some forty hours or more later Venters created a commotion in Cottonwoods by riding down the main street on Black Star and leading Bells and Night.

He had come upon Bells grazing near the body of a dead rustler, the only incident of his quick ride into the village.
Nothing was farther from Venters's mind than bravado.

No thought came to him of the defiance and boldness of riding Jane Withersteen's racers straight into the arch-plotter's stronghold.

He wanted men to see the famous Arabians; he wanted men to see them dirty and dusty, bearing all the signs of having been driven to their limit; he wanted men to see and to know that the thieves who had ridden them out into the sage had not ridden them back.