The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1916-11-02

while his mind was cluttered and
clogged with whirling thoughts, from
which, like a flashing scroll, unrolled
the long, battling order of action. The
game was now in his hands. He must
cross Mount Ord at night. The feat
was improbable, but it might be done.
He must ride into Bradford, forty
miles from the foothills, before eight
o'clock next morning. He must tele-
graph MacNelly to be in Val Verde
on the twenty-fifth. He must ride
back to Ord to intercept Knell, face
him, and while the iron was hot strike
hard to win Poggin's half-wOn interest
as he had wholly won Fletcher's.
Failing that last, he must let the out
laws alone to bide their time in Ord,
to be free to ride to their new job
in Val Verde. In the meantime he
must plan to arrest LOngstreth. 1t
was a magnificent outline, incredible,
alluring, unfathomable in it's namelesS
certainty. He felt like fate. He
seemed to be the iron consequences
falling upon these doomed outlaws.
Under the wall the shadows were
black, only the tips of trees and crags
showing, yet he went straight to the
trail. 1t was merely grayness be-
tween borders of black. He climbed
and never stopped. 1t did not seem
steep. His feet might have had eyes.
He surmounted the wall, and, looking
down into the ebony gulf pierced by
one point of light, he lifted a menac-
ing arm and shook it. Then he strobe
on, and did not falter till he reached
the huge shelving cliffs. Here he lost
the trail; there was none; but he re-
membered the shapes, the points, the
nOtcheS Of rock above. Before he
reached the ruins of splintered ram
parts and jumbles Of broken walls the
moon topped the eastern slope of the
mountain, and the mystifying black
ness he had dreaded changed to magic
silver light. 1t seemed as light as day,
only soft, mellow, and the air held
transparent sheen. He ran up the bare
ridges and down the smooth slopes,
and, like goat, jumped from rock to
rock. In this light he knew his way,
and lost no time looking for a trail.
He crossed the divide, and then had
all downhill before him. Swiftly he
descended, almost always sure of his
memory of the landmarks. He did not
remember having studied them in the
ascent, yet here they were, even in
changed light, familiar to his sight.
What he had once seen was pictured
on his mind. And, true as a deer
striking for home, he reached the can
yOn where he had left his horse. Bull
let was quickly and easily found.
Duane threw on the saddle and pack,
cinched them tight, and resumed the
descent.
Hours passed as moments. Duane
was equal to his great opportunity.
But he could not quell that self in
him which reached back over the
lapse Of lonely, soaring years and
found the boy in him. Duane knew
he was not just right in part Of his
mind. Small wonder that he was not
luSduG, 1C Lie ldlAPCO Oh
downward. = his marvellous faculty
for covering rough ground and
holding to the true course
never before even in flight so
keen and acute. Yet all the time a
spirit was keeping step with him.
Thought Of Ray Longstreth as he
had left her made him weak. He
saw her white face, with it's sweet
sad lips and the dark eyes so tender
and tragic.
The moon sloped to the west. Shad-
ows of trees and crags now crossed
to the other side of him. The stars
dimmed. Then he was out of the rocks,
with the dim trail pale at his feet.
Mounting Bullet, he made short work
of the long slope and the foothills and