The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19
THE WESTERNERS
BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE
Copyrighted by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.

the hills. and a bullet splashed white
against the brake bar.
Billy dropped the reins to the floor
of the blackboard, and planted his foot
on them. He steadied his knee against
the seat. and threw own and back
the lever of his Winchester for a shot
! The beautiful trotting horse was pull
ing back in an ecstasy of terror al
the end of his long lariat, shaking his
head and planting his fOrefeet. Billy
cursed savagely but jerked loose the
/ knot, and the beautiful trotting horse,
! with a final snort of terror. turned tail
( and disappeared in the direction of
the mine.
Bang! Bang! Bang! went other
| shots from behind puffs of white smoke.
! The hills caught up the sound and
rolled it back, and then back again,
until it was quite impossible to count
the discharges.
men with rifles and a dozen or so
with six-shooters, all pumping away at
1t as fast as they could. The buck
board was struck many times. One
horse was hit. but only slightly-not
enough to interfere with, but rather
to encourage his speed Billy fastened
his eyes on the spot whence the first
bullet had sped. Suddenly he threw
his rife TO his shoulder.
Crack! it spoke, strangely fiat out
there in the open against the fuller
reports of the other pieces
The bullets which undershot kicked
up little puffs of dust, like grasshop-
pers jumping, while those that passed
above ricchetted finally from rocks and
went singing away into the distance
II was wonder, with so large mark
that neither the man nor the horses
were hit 1t must be remembered,
however, that the marksmen were more
or less drunk and that Billy's speed
was now something tremendous.
Crack! went his Winchester. again.
At the end of the straight road was,
as has perhaps been mentioned, a turn
of considerable sharpness. thanked by
bold cliff-like rocks. In the best of
circumstances, this bit of road re-
quires careful driving. With a run
away four and a light blackboard, a
smash-up was inevitable. The hidden
assailants and spectators of the strange
duel realized this suddenly In the
interest of the approaching catastro-
phe, the fusilade ceased as abrupt
ly as it had begun. Billy maintained
his first attitude, one knee on the seat.
the other foot braced against the floor,
keenly expectant. The silence became
GREATNESS, and one or two men leaned
forward the better to see.
Crack" spoke Billys rifle for the
third time. The man who had fired
the first shot pitched suddenly forward
from behind his sheltering corner, and
lay still.
With one swift motion the scout
dropped his Winchester in the seat,
grasped the four reins, and threw his
enormous weight against the bits. The
grays had been ranch-bred. They
punched their feet, hunched their
backs, and in three heavy buck jumps
had slowed down from a breAkneck
run to a numbering gallop. Billy
Knapp gave vent to the wild shrill war
cry of his foster parents, the Oglallah
Sioux, and logged calmly out of sight
around the bend of the road.
A great crowd pressed about Tony
Houston, prone on the ground. They
discovered that the ball had passed
through the point of the shoulder, not
dangerous place in itself. but re-
sulting in a serious wound because Of
the smashing power of the express
rife
D fine shooting" they said. look
ing at each other with admiration.
D fine"
They began to feel little more kind
ly toward Billy, on account of this ev-
idence of his skill. They set about
bandaging the wounded man.