San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-02-12

by. My old suspicion of Murker ana
Larrap had revived from their mutter.
ings thought that, after their great
winnings of tonight, they would feel
that they could make nothing more of
the mail party and might seize the
chance to stampede or steal some of the
Mormon horses or ours. 1t was capital
chance in the sleepy hours after the
revel. Horse stealing, since the bad ex-
ample of Diomed, has never gone out of
fashion. FulanO and Pumps We're great
prizes. l knew that Larrap hated Brent
for his undiSguiSed adherence and the
ugly words and collision of today. The
pair bore good will to neither of us.
Their brutality had Jared with Us from
the beginning. knew they would take
personal pleasure in serving us a shabby
trick OK Of their dictionary. On the
whole determined to watch all night.
Easy to purpose; hard to perform. l
leaned against my saddle and thought
over the day. How l pitied poor Brent.
Pitied him the more thoroughly, since
was hardly less lover than he. |
drowsed little. A perturbed slumber
overcame me. The roaring night wind
aroused Inc at intervals with blast
more furious, and | woke to perceive
ominous and turbulent dreams fitting
from my brain-dreams of violence,
tyranny and infamous outrage.
Suddenly another sensation went creep
ing along my nerves. | sat bolt up
right. There was a feeling of human
Presence, of stealthy approach coming
up against the night wind and crushing
its roar with sound more penetrating.
Brent, too, was on the alert.
''Some one at our horses" he whis-
pered.
We dashed forward. There was a
rustic of fight through the bushes. We
each fired shot. The noise ceased.
Stop said my friend, as | was giving
chase. 1--WE must not leave the horses.
They will stampede them while we are
off,"
"They? Perhaps it was only coyote
or wolf Why, Fulano, old fellowm
Fulano trotted up neighing and licked
my hand His lariat had been cut-a
clean cut with knife. We were only
just in time.
''We must keep watch till morning."
said l. 81 nave been browsing. l will
take the first hours
Brent, with moan of WEAKNESS,
threw himself down again on the grass.
| sat watchful.
The night wind went roaring on. 1t
loves those sweeps and surges of unten-
anted plain, as it loves the lifts and
levels of the barren sea. The fitful gale
rushed down as if it had boiled over the
edge of some great hollow in the noun
tains, and thon staid to gather force
for another overflow. In its pauses l
could hear the stir and murmur of the
Mormon cattle, thousand and more.
But once there came larger pause; the
air grew silent, as if it had never known
a breeze, or as if all life and motion be-
tween earth and sky were utterly and
forever quelled.
In that one instant of dead stiffness,
when the noise of the cattle was hushed
and our horses ceased chalnping to listen,
l seemed to hear the clang of galloping
hoofs not far away to the southwark.
Galloping hoofs, surely heard them.
Or was it only the charge of fresh
blast down the mountain side, uproot-
ing ancient pines and fiinging great
rocks from crag to chasm?
And that strange, terrible, human, in
human sound, outringing the noise of
the hoofs and making the silence a
CHASTITY horror-was it a woman's
scream?
No; it could only be my fevered i'm
agination that found familiar sounds in
the inarticulate voices of the wilderness.
/ listened long and intently. The wind
sighed and raved and threatened again.
l. heard the dismal bowling of wolves
far away in he darkness.
kept a double watch of two hours,
and then calling Brent to do his share,
threw myself on the grass and slept