The Greenville times., 1908-03-15
CONTINUED from last Sunday

CONTINUED from last Sunday
They had been gone perhaps a half
hour when another horse plunged furi-
ously out OF the darkness and halted
before the roadhouse door. It's rider.
mud stained and dlsheveled, flung
himself in mad haste to the ground
and bolted in through the door. lie
saw the signs Of confusion in the out
er room, chairs upset and broken, the
table wedged against the stove and be-
fore the counter shattered lamp III
q pool Of oil. He called loudly. but,
receiving no answer. snatched a light
which ne found burning and ran 10
the door ar his left. Nothing greeted
linn but the empty tiers Of bunks.
Turning. he crossed to the other side
and burst through. Another lamp vas
lighted beside the couch where StrUve
lay breathing heavily his lids half
closed over his staring c-e: Roy
noted the pool Of b!goI {; his feet and
The broken window; t...-. setting down
his lamp, he leaned over the man and
spoke TO him.
When he received no answer he
spoke again loudly. Then, in a frenzy.
G]enister shook the wounded man
cruelty, so that he cried out i'll terror:
I'm dyiug-oh. I'm diving" Roy
raised the sick man up ana thrust his
own face before lis eyes
This is Glen.sIcr I've come for
Helen where is she*" A spark of
recognition ficlleral into the dull stare.
You're too Iate-rm dying and I'm
afraid"
His questioner shook Strive again.
where is she:' he repeated. time
after time, till by very force OF his
own lnsistence he compelled realiZa-
tion in the sufferer.
The Eid took her away. The Kid
shot me-" and then his voice rose til!
1t flooded the room with terror The
Kid shot me, and Tms dying" He
coughed blood to his lips. sat which
Roy laid him back and stood up. So
there was 10 mistake. after all. and he
had arrived too late. This was the
Kids revenge. This was how he
struck. Lacking courage to face q
mans level eyes, he possessed the foul
ness TO prey upon a woman. Roy felt
weakening physical sickness sweep
over him till his eye fell upon a sodden
garment which Helen had removed
from her brothers shoulders and re-
placed with dry one. He suatched
it from the floor and in sudden fury
felt it come apart in his hands like
wet tissue paper.
He found himself out in the rain.
scanning the trampled soil by light Of
his lamp. and discerned tracks which
the driZzle had not yet erased. He
reasoned mechanically that the two
riders could have no great start of him.
so strobe out beyond the house to see
If they had gone farther into the hills.
There were no tracks here, therefore
they must have doubled back toward
town 1t did not occur TO him that
they might have left the beaten path
and followed down the little creek to
the river; but, replacing the light
where he had found il, he renounted
and laShed his horse into a stiff canter
up toward the divide that lay between
him and the city. The story was grow
ing palmer TO him. though as vet he
could not piece ii all together. Its
possibilities stabbed him with such
horror that he cried out aloud and beat
his Steed into faster time with both
hands and feet To think of those two
ruf1ians fighting over this girl as though
she We're the spoils of pilage. He
must oyertake the kid-he would The
possibility that he might not threw
him into such ungovernable mental
chaos that he was forced TO calm HIM
self. Men went mad that way He
could not think Of it. That gasping
creature in the roadhouse spoke all too
we'll Of the Bronco's determination
And yet who of those who had known
the Kid in the past would dream that
his vildneSS was SO utter as this?
Away TO the right, hidden among the
shadowed hills, his friends rested
themselves for the coming battle, wait
Ing impatiently his return and timing
1t to the rising sun. Down in the val
ley TO his left were the two he follow
ed, while he, obSesSed and unreason-
ing, now cursing like madman, now
grim and silent, spurred southwark to-
ward town and into the ranks of his
enemies