The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-10-28


overlook them. After time Lands
spoke of the struggling fiivver.
'That Lizzie seems to be making
hard work of it." he said, when, on
one Of the reverse loopings, they could
see 1t across the Intervening guich. 1t
was stopped, and two men were APP
parently doing something to the motor.
Markham gave the halted ear only
a passing glance. "This is the gulch
where we saw the fire night before
last" he pointed out. Suppose we
climb down there and have look"
They got out and scotched the wheels
with stones. The descent into the
gulch was down a precipitous slope.
Before they had gone very far they
came upon what appeared to be a
rough trail, with crushed and broken
bushes to mark its course.
"What's been happening here?" Lam
dis asked. "More rock rolling?'
Looks like it; we'll find out when
we get to the bottom"
At the bottom of the gulch they
found themselves In boulder-strewn
stream bed, and, turning to the left,
they struggled upward toward the
place where they had seen the fire
| 1t was in dry stream bed that they
came suddenly upon the thing they
were searching for-the remains of
the fire. Wedged in the bottom of
the gulch was the wreck of large
car crushed into shapeless heap OF
junk, and with everything burnable
blackened and destroyed.
"Now we know what made the
SCARED TRAIL" said Markham. "That
car ran off the road and came down
here and burned up. Is it the Fleet
wing?"
Before Lands could reply. there
came vicious spat on the face of the
rock beside which they were standing,
followed by the crack Of rifle. They
ducked behind the boulder, and at
that there was another report and the
clang Of bullet upon the iron work
Of the wrecked car.
"What the-w Markham choked,
| grabbing for his pistol. But Lands
was cooler.
Easy" he counseled. "It's those
| fellows up at the flivver. Don't waste
your ammunition. The automatic won't
carry half that far"
"D-n!" gritted Markham. "We're
penned up here like rats in trap!"
"No trouble about getting out Of 1t,
with all these rocks to dodge around"
Worming their way cautiously
among the boulders, they were soon
out of range from the road above,
though the unseen rifleman kept on
firing. but the bullets went wild. After
they reached hollow that was out of
sight from the marksman's position,
Markham looked apprehensively at the
bare slope they would have to climb
to reach their car.
"We'n have to go farther" he
painted. "We can't scramble up there
in plain sight"
II don't mean to-" said Lands.
Then, in sudden upblaze of passion,
''Tve had about enough of this id
ambushing business, haven't you?
There is good cover on this other side
of the gulch. Well climb out that way
and see If we can't do little of the
ambushing ourselves! !" ....-.-s......ss.
AS he had pointed out, there was
foresting enough on the western slope
of the gulch to afford fairly weIl-con-
cealed stalking cover, and as they
toiled up through the underground,
Markham was striving to fog his esti-
mate of his boyhood chum and coll
lege mate around to the new point of
view. He had always thought of Ian
dis as a dreamer, a thinker, a student
las anything but fighting man.
But here was an entirely new de-
velopment. The dreamer, pale of face,
to be sure, but with his jaw out
thrust and the light of battle in his
wideset gray eyes, was storming up
the steep ascent at pace that made
his heavier follower pant and blow.
| Thus it came about that Lands was
the first to step out of thick growth
of little spruces at the level Of the
road. Markham burst out of the cover
a moment later, and what he saw was
further proof that a lifelong friend
ship may not reveal the whole man,
even to his closest intimate.
The small. dusty. rattletrap car was
standing as they had seen it from the
opposite side of the gulch. Beside it
were two men with their hands above
their heads in Difference to Landis'
covering pistol, and at their feet lay
the rifle with which one of them had
been firing into the gulch. Before
Markham could get his breath, Lam
dis was grilling the pair snappily.
"What did you fellows mean by fir
ing at US when we were down there?
Talk fast and talk straight, If you
want to go on liying!"
"G-g-great Scottl'' suffered the
taller of the two. Are We meanin' to
s-say hit was you-all down yonder in
the gully" So
"You know id owen It was (!
What's your game? Who sent you
here to kill US off? Talk quick!"