The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1906-11-16
CHAPTER XII.


We drew up swiftIy-four hundred
yards, three hundred yards, one hundred
$500 And then, with short, fierce bark
Of rage, the Pole dragged out his re-
volver and fred As he did 20. the sharp
hum OF bullet, like the buzz Of AMI
angry bee, fed over US. / ducked nay
head at the sound; but give myself the
credit Of saying that peked It up again
the next moment.
May the fend grip him, but he has
Mauser pistolv' cried Reski, and saw
that the weapon In his own hand was
Of the common bulldog make AT this
range caA do nothing against him."
He lashed his horses, and they plunged
CALAMITY forward. / could see that Mar
mae had stepped his sleigh and was cud-
ding his weapon with q perfect cool
ness. Even at that distance seemed
- feed the gcggling murder In his eyes.
Npi sipi Heshad missed again!
ThungI saw enc Of the sallopiag
horses stagger, and then his head and
shoulders seemed to fall away, a. II he
haA dropped forward Into hole. There
was q bunping and q twisting wrench,
the snow By the roadside seemed to
ppring up at me, and the next instant !
was struggling In cold, binding darkness
wriggled sut from the drift, gasp
ms, with the fakes 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, flashing his team. trotted on
down the road.
I don't suppose 1t was more than a
couple Of minutes before Reski came
round, though 1t seemed long enough to
me. He had got a nasty thump on the
head, but as matter Of fact his wrist
turned out to be the more serious bust
ness, being very badly sprained indeed.
j made a sling out of neck wrap and
fxed 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.
It 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 a rug ever 1t.
"Weh, we can't 60 on, that's certain,
! said.
''Not In the sleigh, mein Herr" ht
answered calmly.
.And how else?"
'There are the horses, one for each
When you have freed them of their har
ness, win ask you to assist me t.
mount"
There was no good arguing with him
and l was ashamed to seem less cage
than a man in his crippled condition
With his clasp knife cut the twisted
traces away and freed them of thei
collars. At his direction dragged tn,
body Of Ivan into the sleigh and left hin
there decently covered.
Reski mounted from the stump Of
tree, to which l led the stronger of tn
pair. / was fairly good rider, but
was excessively stiff from my long drive
and not little shaken by my fall. NJ,
beast seemed TO have the sharpest knife
bene Of q back that Nature ever CAV
to horsehesh. But. after all. there wa
nothing to be gained by grumbling. Per
haps l was growing wiser by painful ex
perience.
A curious pair we must have locke
that morning. Reski, with his arm in
sling, and the butt of his revolver peer
ing from his waist belt would have mad
as good stage brigand as need be. Flo
myself. was In too much of immediat
pain from the jolting trot of the brut
/ rode to carry formidable appearance,
could never have imagined that
horse lived with such adamantine fe
locks as mine seemed to possess.
have no exact record of the tim
but l should imagine that It was abor
half an hour later that we sighted Ma
nae again. He was then good tire
quarters Of mile ahead, but travelin
leisurely. Also, was very glad to n
tice that we were free Of the waste land
and that the spire of church was POI
ing out amongst some poplars ahead
him. He would never dare to use h
revolver a second time when men we
about. Also, we might procure anoth
sleigh and team.
Resh sent his heels into his horse, al
we quickened our pace, though the po
brutes were getting very done and dro'
heavily along with hanging heads.
was about then that l noticed a man b
hind us.
We were topping a slight rise when
looked round. He was then some d.
lance In our rear, but coming up fast. !
far as / could make out, he was in SO
of uniform and well mounted. The DC
sibility of oficial help was very ples
ant.
We were gaining on Marnac, who h
not yet noticed US.
With kicks and curses from Reski, a
the application Of hazel branch fro
myself, We had squeezed lumberi
gallop sut Of our horses. The sleigh W
not more than one hundred yards ava
Resh gripped his reins In his teeth q
drew his revolver.
"Stop, therel Stop, say. In the nal
Of the lawr'
It was the man from behind who hi
cd rs, but we rode on.
ssGkNx AHApo