| Show A w w w anici ly v jerf lAIx Jl allaix r 1 0 t 1 1 T A by XENO W PUTNAM aw if stif if 1 v y hardly seemed a chance at all but we were forced to cat it one so ion as there was nothing better of course avras tarpons work choso whoso murderous hand ay iy stout friend had and 1 arho had done this other just to brine an avenging down oa ack in a humor that would render few and explanations use ts 1 bill brought the word it c teemed a strange unbending of tho spirit perhaps hs own tinted life led him to pity in ate xin bouth io uth way a victim run to earth with lut or pocol bly ho had boma personal ers onal TO bonoris noris to ba any ay h told us just beloro daybreak ol 01 lc cowardly crime diat had been te bened so BO unjustly apon jack and of pursuers pur euers alose upon our brou trou before us waro the mountains and tull of dandero for the but to athla of relentless hoina miles be tand lay and safety ft aalf her leading tho caay fo aay of bis fair t have to jack at a bannac t eivan in oui lonor at the verr the murder grafl atlea tawsy adt bot brein pus camp and rod t I 1 toe with A to Alter abo out ccok was aoth ao vh for poor tack it anaed atod I 1 wa not con that too wag ar pona acy saves liw tong canoe was to be on anny ace at fraai mth abo heart A atoo or v aomar Is ri balli d conrace or or when anly a rungie ourie 3 pos sMale ine can think what to da iv fathi ired la creaco loach to ted rom and throwing the over er b u so tightly that she flinched and snapped at me then flipping the other saddle on jacks horse we headed her of across the countey toward her old home alone As she luneed and looked back at pawing impatiently at the restraint a sharp crack of the whip encouraged the eagerness of her departure soon she disappeared from view in the dim leht leaving a plain but bootless trail behind for our pur to presently follow a few miles in tofa quest for jack then after a silent that said more than words my went dodging in fa fadd gd it JUB IF aws kraw THE FOR HASTE tho heavy shadows of tha oa nyona me alone my cohenca Co renca speed wa matchless and whose temper ans the deella own it h could evade capture watlo I 1 rode to or helal forty odd miles would have to bo covered and the hope was allent but cohenca was a wonderful foundation upon which to build U if the foo should lose even a little time on the false trail of the other horse and jack got a few extra hours just a few where each moment gained was glinted with gold my thoroughbred mare chaing and tugging at the bit as we swept out into our long hard trip set me to wondering whether I 1 spared her most behold I 1 ins her in or letting her have her head I 1 tried to compromise but she willed it otherwise and the ground slipped away und her feet like a smooth run belt from the flywheel of bome ponderous machine it seemed as if she knew the need or haste and scorned a suggestion of her own limitations the only notice my hand received was an impatient toss of her shapely head and a jerk at the reins in less than an hour only an hour behind poor jack I 1 thought with a heart I 1 saw our ealm pursuers in abo road before me but all that I 1 feared from them was delay they knew I 1 was not the man they wanted and were themselves there to uphold their idea of the law and human justice in thear clerca crude way they attempt to take me back with them the one thing that 1 really dreaded but of personal violence I 1 had w fear my government g position would tyann protect me and whatever time they hindered me jack would also caan caln from them As we approached I 1 sot the halting but he little maro rushed ahead alike unmindful of their shouting and my hand two men dismounted hurriedly and made a ruah tor my bridle as we passed in a flash coren cas fighting blood was up and with gnashing teeth and eyes like a dras dra s ons so was upon and over them and dashed ahead A dozen mounted men spurred actor us with the act they might as well have chased the wind for dust from the little mares feet fell short of their leadar they dare not shoot lest uncle sam should hear the echo presently andr only wasted a little time for jack to profit by onoe clear of pursuit cohenca fell off a little in her speed but not in her independence as I 1 learned in my first attempt to juggle with the reins after all why should I 1 not let her have her way now that no special cause or speed bursts lay ahead she was a willful child 0 the plains let her sweep them roslia her fancy she would lose no time and perhaps better than I 1 of her own endur arice so we left the dubious miles behind us in pursuit of the miles abed that she rapidly found and conquered one by one sometimes the pace was a moderate canter sometimes swift as the wind but I 1 watched the flanks beneath mein vain for a labored breath sho seemed to temper her speed to the limit of what sho could endure without drawing upon that wonderful reserve forpe that made her at the pride and tho terror of the plains so thirty odd hides lay behind us presently and the game little beast had drawn up only once for a drink as she RUSHING AHEAD AT A SPEED THAT WAS TERRIFIC corded forded a stream stall more than one sign now told me that she had made her run at an awful expense to herself onoe she began to show fatigue it seemed ag if her dissolution was to be as rapid aa her flight had beani the willful hart of her head bhe had left miles behind and sh stumbled a little aa she still galloped faithfully on each breath TV as a heave and a grasp now and the whit foam that fell from her mouth was occasionally casio nally colored with red should I 1 dismount and feed her or try to crowd her through back among the mountain canyons I 1 bould see a kindly rugged face now stern and resolute at bay before me only a few miles ahead lay and rescue already I 1 could almost see the stately mayor and a few chosen friends rushing away on their errand of mercy and justice nor bohy caulto forset the sweet faced girl in whose eye a tear had stood so close behind fhe laugh she had given jack at parting and it all tempted me forward it would be a foolish thing to ruin all ao near my journeys end by letting my now suf fering horse go off from her feet for want of a few minutes rest Cor erica stood quiet enough now with head down ad sides but with the fire still unquenched in her flashing eyes reluctantly I 1 dismounted and loosened the saddle girth a little then a sight met my eyes that stayed my hand at the fastenings while I 1 looked again to bring me a moment later back into my seat for the first time that day I 1 urged beyond the limit of her chosen speed and right nobly did ahe struggle to respond but the heaving sides told their own story of a conquered body still reeling forward under the impetus of an unyielding will poor faithful servant it was then to be a race to the death of my horse or my friend and in that choice of course tho dumb brute had to lose now that the decision had been forced upon me I 1 spar edthe use of neither whip nor spur upon cohenca Co renca to whom no one had ever before dared to teach the use of either no more thought of trying to save her juat to get the last ounce out of her before she fell far ahead just leaving halsey valle I 1 could see a red spot rushing toward us which I 1 realized to be the mayors au bearing him rapidly away to a neighboring town for a few hla bouto lay straight toward me but presently tho road forked and the red spot would bear put of reach the one man whose presence would awe jacks pursuers into at a word jf I 1 could reach those forks in time it would save mo a smart little ride to tho town if I 1 failed I 1 feared me much that all my efforts were doomed to failure that the game was up well it would never be Coren cas cault As I 1 noted her trembling and unsteady gait I 1 could not but hope that when she did go down ahe would be out of her misery soon again and ag aln I 1 urged her on heartsick as I 1 felt the futile struggle ahe was making andor me it was a losing race ethl she loaf it by eo narrow a margin that she won for me already the electric steed was about to awing around tho curve and leave me such a few rods behind when co renca as though tle obedient to her unconquered will plunged wildly into the air and sank dying to the earth her race was over but aho had been grit to the very end A pair of sharp ayea not the mayors saw the accident and gave in quick report so it happened that instead of leaving me helpless they presently drew up by my el do and looked down on me crouching by the dumb brutes head it the mayor who arst com pretended ended the story 1 I toie them of jack an alt aan his voice diat ordered mo cat iw i nor his hands that suddenly took control of the machine and gave it motion I 1 cast one bitter look back at my dying horse stretched there alone upon her side but I 1 the time to end her misery with a pistol shot as 1 was minded to do now at last was hal jackl CAME A FEMININE SCREAM behind me and ahead the mountains and jack I 1 stole a glance at the alight egure whose ine hands now seemed like steel but over whose face had como something that was neither a smile nor a tear how the wind came up and rushed in our faces as the auto gathered speed it a but a away of objects things were and then were not the belt over which we had gal g al leopod cohenca and I 1 now changed to a smooth zone of marble flanked on each side by a ribbon of we gray seem to advance ed and tilted while the green array ribbons on either side of us rolled into a danyle of just ahead into which we were constantly trying to plunge one could not determine where the real joined forces with the imagination somewhere between the two the real became invisible and tho invisible seemed almost real there a thought of fear but a halt forcad wish that something would happen to add variety to this throbbing undulating sensation without particular motion and nothing to see where we were or what wo were doing of not one our senses could acil we only ethereal spots in the ofaf nowhere at oris end of which lay my dying horse and at tahe other the friend I 1 was trying to save X knew in a half daood hayw a wor rushing ahead at a speed that was ter rifle but felt impatient that it ws not greater still the brea the whirl wind might have been tamo to m quivering overwrought nerves shut out 0 the material world by this cloud wall I 1 longed for a thrill of expectant danger to break up the d sense of isolation it the call for haste so much as the call of impatience a mind taken entirely oua of its realm of accustomed comparisons and clamoring for sensation rather than accomplishment such were some of my chaotic impressions pres when I 1 suddenly became con of objects about me and reallie ze that we were down the crean gray ribbons took on a spotted aspect which gradually expanded into natures own pattern and X was con bolous of a sudden relief to get back into the world again the gray marble pavement out into the swift flying belt of the morning then grad bally came to a stop in the midst 0 mountains trees and human forms anaf a few other ti lings jack P came a scream aror seat 0 our vehicle then f noticed for the first time my friend ill the of men still on his feet but with 9 telltale rope dan glang from a limb directly ovar head we carried him back with us presently seated considerately on the ba fix seat beside the voice the mayor and I 1 as cil rank rode in front thus we proceed ed back toward attendee on either aide for acme distance not by the green gray ribbons of a hal hour before nor even by the shapes 0 my morning fancy but by a goo stout guard of armed and penitent men now anxious to do homage to tho roni they meant to have slain in tha name of the law in a little real haste and c good bit of spite we hit quite briskly era they finally company with us after wish and shake of tacks hand ithe away like the wind for faster and faster the croaa taftt C brenca had yapped so wen ribbons swung up to their old again and out oft our view of th plains on past where the that morning had thought they woul mr and while getting their lessor m thoroughbred tamper lost juat th small margin of time abat saved ack until our return on through the ford chero my horae slaked hc death thirst just before rushing on ty h on poat where I 1 held up to epst and to feed her a brief rest it brov and the last she was ever to have ott past where she roll aad doub tle nt ade up her part in the ard ribbon which unrolled beside us then w rolled into and foual some unusual excitement ahead yia a group of rough men were attempt to corral a game little mare when they declared WAS w swift the wind and who st the deal wn |
