White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-03-22

sbe wondered which one Of her men
hat. gone down. A knot of horSemen
were turning up an opening gulch on
the far side Of the valley. A ha't-
dozen Three Bar riders veered their
horses for the spot. Harris turned In
his saddle and his voice reached her
above the tumult.
"Let 'em gol" he shouted. LET 'em
go! Hold the herdW
Far off on the opposite side she
made out lone horseman riding at q
full run along the sidehill above the
cows as he made a supreme effort to
reach the head Of the run. The Three
Bar men split and streamed ur both
sides of the bottoms. The flashes
had ceased except for brief quivering
plays of less than seconds duration.
She hung her spurs into Papoose and
trusted to his footwork. A half-fare
showed the pinto bare twenty yards
ahead, with Harris putting him at the
slope to pass the cows. She swung
her own hose after him and she felt
the frequent skid o. his feet on the
treacherous sidehili
From the sounds below she knew
they we're well up on the TANKS Of
the run and nearing the peak. The
stampede seemed slowing. long,
wavering flash revealed Harris a dozen
jumps ahead. Papoose followed the
paint-horse as Harris put Calico down
the slippery sidehill and lifted him
round the point of the herd. In the
same flash Billie had seen two slick
ers out before the peaks of the run,
Tapping weirdly in the faces of the
foremost cows. This accounted for
the slowing-up she had sensed. Two
of her men were before them and she
wondered how this had come to pass.
The lightning-play broke forth once
more. She saw two riders swinging
round the opposite point. The two
slickers were working in the center.
Harris gun flashed six times. She
jerked her own and rolled it. The two
riders who had just rounded the far
point joined 1t. Cows in the front
ranks held back from this fearsome
commotion out in front.
The stor I ceased as suddenly as 1t
had begun and for two miles she rode
in inky darkness. The run had spent
it, force. The herd stopped and the
cows gazed stupidity about, standing
with dropping heads and heaving
sides. Three Bar men showed on both
TANKS are in the rear. They had held
the drove intact and prevented its
splitting up in detachments and scat
tering through the night.
Horne and Moore rode over to them
and for the first time the girl noticed
that the two men who had welded
slickers ont In front of the run were
nowhere to be seen.
"Who was the pair out ahead?"
Moore asked. "And what swallowed
'em up?" H..
Harris shook his head.
"Billie and were the fret to make
the front he said.
"Not any," Moore stated positively.
II saw 'em tive minutes before you
two swung round the point. l was On
guard nd halfway up the far side.
Split ear took a header with me and
delayed me some"
He pointed to the mud crusted on
his clothes. Billie knew that he was
the lone rider she lad seen on the
TANKS of the herd as she rode away
from tie wagon. The fall accounted
for their rounding the point ahead of
him. Moore was looking off across the
country.
"Do you r1ean to tell me you didn't
see those two slickers Tapping out In
front?" he demanded.
II confess didn't observe any"
Harris said. "Your're getting spoOky,
Moore. A couple of white cows, like.
ly, out aheaa Of the rest"
Moore regarded him curiously.
"Maybe that's So" he said. "Waving
their tails in the air, sort Of" &c
grinned and turned his horse to head
back bulcr that had drifted out Of
the herd.
"The boys made nice ride" Har
ris said to Horne. "You float roun(
from one to the next and tell 'en
we'll soon have a feed. I'll ride bach
and send the wagon up"
Billie rode with him as he skirtet
the herd and started on the return
trip Her mil was occupied with thu
two riders who had slowed the rul
and disappeared. There had beer
something familiar about them. A.
she had viewed them In the lightning
flash they had closely resemblet
Bentley and Carp. But she decided
that this resemblance had been but ,
fancied one, suggested by the fac
that the two men had been much OF
her mind of late.
tTO BE CONT1NUED.)