The Parma herald. (Parma, Idaho) 1903-1917, 1917-01-11
THE LONE STAR RANGER
ba story the Texas Plains People By ZANE GREY

while his mind was cuttered 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 II 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-ffth. He must ride
back TO ord TO Intercept Knelll 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 blde their time In Ord,
to be free to ride to their new job
In Val Verde In the meantime he
| must plan 10 arrest Longstreth. II
was a magnificent outline, incredible,
alluring, unfathomable in it's nameless
certainty. He felt like fate. He
seemed 10 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. II was merely grayness be-
tween borders Of black He climbed
and never stopped II did not seem
steep. His feet might have had eyes.
lie 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 jumbIes 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 a |
transparent sheen. He ran up the bare |
ridges and down the smooth slopes, |
and, like a 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
Of the landmarks. He did not |
having studied them in the
ascent, yet here they were, even in
light, familiar to his sight.
What he had once seen was pictured
on his mind And, true as n 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,
clnched 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
apse 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
nsnne he thought He tramped on
downward. his marvellous faculty
or covering rough ground and
holding to the true course
never before even In flight so
leen and acute Yet all the time a
spirit was keeping step with him.
Thought of Ray Longstreth as he
lad left her made him weak. He
Jaw her white face, with its sweet
ad lips and the dark eyes so tender
Ind tragic.
The moon sloped to the west Shad- {
rvs of trees and crags now crossed
o the other side of him. The stars
immed. Then he was out of the rocks,
With the dim trail pale at his feet.
Iouuting Bullet he made short work
( the long slope and the foothills and