Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-11-02
CHAPTER XII.

OF rage, the Pole dragged out MS re- |
volver and fired. AS he did so, the sharp |
hum of a bullet, like the buzz of an
angry bee, fed over us. l ducked my |
head at the sound; but l give myself the
credit of saying that l poked it up again
the next moment.
MAY the fend grip him, but he has
a Mauser pistolp' cried Reski, and | saw
that the weapon in his own hand was
of the common bulldog make. "At this
range l can do nothing against him."
He lashed his horses, and they plunged
CALAMITY forward. l could see that Mar
nae had stopped his sleigh and was cud-
ding his weapon with a perfect cool
ness. Even at that. distance | seemed
to feel the goggling murder in his eyes.
Zip! zip! He had missed again!
Thung! l saw one of the galloping
horses stagger, and then his head and
shoulders seemed to fall away, as if he
had dropped forward into a hole. There
was a humping and a twisting wrench,
the snow by the roadside seemed to
spring up at me, and the next instant
was struggling in cold, binding darkness.
| wriggled out from the drift, gasp
Ing, with the flakes in my mouth and
eyes. The sleigh was twisted across the
road, half covering the dead horse The
other two had scrambled to their feet
and now stood shivering, with dropping
heads. The fall had knocked the heart
clean out of them. Reski lay beside
them, huddled where he had fallen.
Eighty yards away Marnac had stopped
and was watching us. He seemed salts
fed with what he saw, for presently he
turned and lashing his team, trotted on
down the road.
/ don't suppose it was more than
couple of minutes before Reski came
round, though it seemed long enough to
me. He had got a nasty thump on the
head, but as a matter of fact his wrist
turned out to be the more serious busi-
ness, being very badly sprained indeed.
] made a sling out of a neck wrap and
fixed him up as well as | was able The
man had a remarkable vitality, besides
brute courage, for, the moment l had
finished, he walked over and examined
the sleigh.
1t looked hopeless enough. One of the
runners had been torn almost clean away,
and the central part was badly cracked.
The body of the poor lad Ivan lay on its
back in the roadway, staring up at the
sky. / threw rug over it.
'Well, we can't go on that's certain, "
said.
''Not in the sleigh, mein Herr" he
answered calmly.
"And how else?"
"There are the horses, one for each
When you have freed them of their har.
ness, will ask you to assist me to
mount"
There was no good arguing with him
and | was ashamed to seem less eager
than a man in his crippled condition
With his clasp knife l cut the twisted
traces away and freed them of theil
collars. At his direction l dragged tht
body of Ivan into the sleigh and left hin
there decently covered.
Reski mounted from the stump of s
tree to which l led the stronger of the
pair. l was a fairly good rider, but
was excessively stiff from my long drive
and not little shaken by my fall My
beast seemed to have the sharpest knife
bone of back that Nature ever CAV,
to horsefesh. But, after all, there wa
nothing to be gained by grumbling. Per
haps | was growing wiser by painful ex
perience.
A curious pair we must have looked
that morning. Reski with his arm in
sling, and the butt of his revolver peep
ing from his waist belt, would have mad
as good a stage brigand as need be. Fo
myself, was in too much of immedat
pain from the jolting trot of the brut
/ rode to carry a formidable appearance
] could never have imagined that
horse lived with such adamantine fet
locks as mine seemed to possess.
have no exact record of the time
but | should imagine that it was abou
half an hour later that we sighted Mar
nae again. He was then a good three
quarters of a mile ahead, but travelling
leisurely. Also, l was very glad to nc
tice that we were free of the waste lands
and that the spire of a church was pok
Ing out amongst some poplars ahead o
him. He would never dare to use hi
revolver a second time when men wer
about. Also, we might procure anothe
sleigh and team.
Resli sent his heels into his horse an
we ouickened our pace, though the poo
brutes were getting very done and drov
heavily along with hanging heads.
was about then that l noticed man bt
hind us.
We were topping a slight rise when
Looked round. He was then some dis
tance In our rear, but coming up fast A
far as | could make out, be was in Sol
of uniform and we'll mounted. The poi
sibility of official help was very plea'
ant.
We were gaining on Marnac, who ha
not yet noticed u.s.
With kicks and curses from Reski, an
+be application of hazel branch frol
mvself. we had squeezed a lumberin
GALLON out of our horses. The sleigh wa
n,oro than one hundred yards ava,