The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-09-14


fast to suit him. Dimly he realized
that they were moved by an upper
current Of air, faster than that below.
But vague Impotence seized him and
he kept urging his pony onward even
though instinct told him to spare the
brute.
Several times he had glanced behind
him. AS he expected, no one appeared
on the plain over which he could look
in the clear atmosphere as if it were no
larger than an ordinary field. He
had smiled to see how long the group
OF frightened girls had remained standing
on the porch Of the dance hall, and had
even noticed the flutter which ensued
when one, after a journey to the saloon,
had rushed hurriedly back with the
news. Then there had been disap-
pearance of gaudily colored skirts in that
direction.
"They can hev all the excitement
they wants SO long as no one leaves
town the other way" he had reflected
to himself, realizing how long it would
take to get the pursuit started. That
had been his object in killing Pitts
pony. Even that aged animal might
have been ridden to the camp in quick
enough time to get posse after him
on fresh horses. AS it was, he felt no
fear Of capture Here he was with a
twenty-mile start and q knowledge Of
the passes of the range. He knew that
the usual habit OF the camp outfit
was to come swarming into town, as
soon as relieved, on the same ponies
they had ridden all day. He had no
idea they could catch him, fresh mount
ed as he was, with such jaded brutes.
Yes the vague uneasiness within prompt
ed him to go faster in spite of the
security of which he tried to assure
himself. And when he finally compelled
himself to pull up at the top of the
second bridge and glanced back for
one last look down his trail, he scowled
as he saw figure, visible even at that
distance, leave the saloon at such a
crawling gait that he knew he must
be mounted on one Of the pack burros.
OTIS like Mexican" he tried to
say to himself with some sense of
humor, "startin' out like this after
takin' some hours to think it out"
1t had been scarcely two weeks since
Welleston had been able to crawl around
the shabbily furnished room above
lJJ 3 bdlOOI' nG Idll WHICH Atl
broken his leg had come about one
evening, when, made exuberant by
liquor, he had endeavored to detain
one of the departing guards at the
nearby sheep range by playfully gallop-
ing after and throwing his rope at
him. One of the guards companions,
who had drunk enough to see three
Wellestons galloping down the street,
had entered into the spirit Of the thing
and tried to rope the middle one.
He had succeeded, and the senseless
Wellston was laid up with fractured
thigh. 1t was bad enough TO be laid
up on ones back at time when employ
ment was open from either sheep or
cowmen; but his confinement was still
worse on account Of the facetious
remarks of the sheep outfit, who were
accustomed to come tramping up to
his room for jocular word or two Of
an evening, always refusing, with out
bursts of laughter, to give the name
Of the man who had thrown him.
His weeks spent there had been a
time of utmost misery-of physical
pain and of mental wrath because
Pitt, secure in his weakness, had fol-
lowed the advice given to him by the
range doctor, who had come over the
next day to set the limb, and had told
the saloonkeeper not to give Welleston
any whiskey.
But when he had become convalescent
fortnight before and had been able
to feel his way downstairs, he made
r = L.. A..