Evening star., 1925-10-25

| that any other car had passed that
way before him. He worked his way
up the waterless river bed until queer,
! square lodges showed ahead. He
mounted a slight incline.
Then ahead in the corridor of open
sand appeared the PROSTATE body of
a man!
| Bob halted-sat staring. Legs and
| feet thrust out from the cacti. Srue
some boots upturned. torso and head
out of sight in the nettles. No way of
circling him was apparent. Bob must
| stop and remove him or crush him.
In one of his suit cases the tourist
| had an automatic. The first week in
! this desert country he had worn it
beneath his shirt. Then he had car
! ried it stuffed in the crack of his cuSh-
| ions, finally packing it away alto
! gether But the sight of those mute
! les so startled him that no thought
/ of the weapon entered his head. Some
| desert rat had toppled or fallen
| down the butte, landing dead or un
conscious at it's base.
! Bob fumbled with the handle and got
the door open. Out on the running
| board he stepped and down on the
sand. Leaving his throttled engine
turning over softly. he approached
that grisly figure. He got abreast of
| ii and stared blankly.
No man Law there-only a pair of old
trousers stuffed with straw. Boots had
been added to supply grim realism.
body think
Then an acrid voice sliced the ST
! lence:
Reach for star, stranger, Any
starll do, But reach for it quick. And
don't make the least fumble"'
* x * =
IN reflex action Big Bob raised his
L eyes. Twenty feet from him, atop
the low butte, stood a woman. She
had one arm through the bride rein
of a nervous calico pinto. Yet Bob
saw more than girl and horse. He
looked up into the ugly black holes of
a revolver muZzle resembling twin
tunnels opening into disaster.
Did you hear what 1 said? Get
your hands toward heaven and get
doin' it quick,'
-young-lady-
You needn't dear-young-lady me,
| You hoist those hands,
No such command had ever before
been addressed to Robert Hobart of
Paris. VT. His obedience was, there
fore, slow and clumsy. a lady road
agent,
Now. then. turn round"
Still feeling foolish and not a little
! nettled, Bob did that also. Then a
woman and horse slid down the butte
Cold steel punched in the small of his
back. a busnesslike hand patted
around his belt. the pockets on his
hips, the bulge Of his khaki shirt be.
meath the arms.
"Whar's your gun. You got one.
| GriggS said So"
I'm the car I've got a gun. But
what's the large idea? Movie camera
hid around somewhere?'
You'll wish it was that. Whar you
got Grgigs' boodle?"
'Griggs' what?''
You needn't try to act innocent.
like. Reckon I've met your kind befo'.
Wharever you got it, you can shove
1t out quick"
May | turn around now?" Bobs up
lifted arms made agony in his tired
shoulders.
'Yaas. you can turn round. But
don't try no fumididdles
Hobart faced about. A girl in her
middle twenties-about Bobs age
in short brown riding skirt opened or
| a sunburned throat, On the horn of
her saddle she had hooked her big
cow-hat. Bare of head in consequence
her hair was d flood of molten gold.
Comely she looked. yet her shapely
body had the resiliency of rawhide
and steel. The man asked whimsically:
How did you ever get away off
here-so far from the 'Follies'?"
so far from what?"
The 'Follies.' You never heard of
the 'Follies'? It's a Broadway show
Never you mind any Broadway
shows Keep your hands lifted,
stranger. I could drill you dead right
this minute and get the reward just
the same. So you remember it and
| be CAREFUL
Reward for what. for pity sake?"
For you-if you don't know it yet. "
There's a reward out for me? For
doing what?"
Keep up those hands! I'm not an
infant
NO, 1 wouldn't call you an infant.
But you're not exactly a lady, either
making me hold my arms up SO
with my shoulders afire from driving
so far. Is this the way you treat
visitors down here in Arizona?"
when they've acted like you have,
yes?"
She was an amazing girl. There VIZ;
| no doubt about it. Half a head shorter
than Bob she stood-and the Vernon
ter was foot built like Juno and
tempered like a valkyr. Her eyes We're
browh-topaZ, her features ample, her