Nogales international., 1936-09-12

what did you hear, Bud?" Speed
spoke low to prevent his voice from
carrying to Pete, indoors. 1t was
before dawn of the second morning.
Maitland told him.
do you reckon we're both hearin'
things?" Speed muttered. 1T lis
tened to me more like louder
sound way off. An echo of gunfre.
Or else froze trees swapping in the
thaw."
Motion1ess, they listened again.
The silence of the shadowed chasm
Knocked them.
Speed stirred abruptly. "You stay
here, Bud, and watch with Pete. |
may be gone awhile, but keep that
cliff covered with the rife. I'll call
you when I come back round it."
Speeds reconnaissance took him
over wider range than he had ex-
pected. When he paused, halfway
down lofty slope, it was to survey
long and unobstructed view of
white head1ands, shining in the
dawn. In the center of one of the
ravines, about two miles away, a
pair of dark moving specks came
into view. They were men; one of
them carried what might be rife.
Very slowly, so as not to betray
himself by a quick movement, he
sank in the snow The advantage
of view was in his favor, since he
looked down on them from above.
They were too far to be recog-
nized as anything but men, but the
image of Fallon had somehow
leaped into his minds eye at the
first dim glimpse of them.
He lay along the base Of boul
der, raising his head just high
enough to bring the figures into
view. He fired the gun once, at
random in their direction, and i'm
mediately covered it to prevent even
a wisp of smoke from showing.
They kept moving for an interval
before the sound reached their ears.
They stopped, as he had expected.
But instead of looking up in his
general direction, they turned to
stare the other way.
Yet, in spite of the advantage this
gave him for observation, some
vague and nameless instinct made
him sink back out of sight between
the boulder and snow trough. This
wary sense did not leave him; but
after lying hidden some thirty sec
onds, he looked over the rim again.
Strange to say, the two figures had
vanished.
Slowly he rose into clear view by
the boulder, to tempt them to de-
clare themselves with bullet.
The shot that did come was an
utter and confounding surprise. The
roar of it burst in his ears from
directly behind him! He dropped
back instantly into his shelter. The
bullet had fattened against the in
ner side of the boulder right next
to his arm, in the same fash of time
as the guns roar. This marksman
was not more than hundred yards
awayI
Nothing showed behind him,
either. He waited for gun muzzle
to show; for some tremor, however
slight, in the snow above. Why
didn't the fellow shoot? His ear,
close to the snow, detected the
crunch of running feet, receding
from him.
He jumped up and ran to the
had seemed to come. There he
found hollow in the snow where
the sniper had lain concealed, and
the marks of his feet leading up
from below to this depression, and
running away from it. The fugitive
was headed for the cabin and had
left a moccasin track!
There was spreading dark pink
stain in the snow where he had hid
den, and blood trail all along his
course!
A wild scramble along CANYON
Drinks and lodges brought him to
the head OF the jackpine gulch, and
the absence of blood trace in it
assured him that he had arrived in
time.
Maitland stood waiting with the
| carbine and with Pete close by. He
motioned them to back in close to
the cliff, in silence. They had
caught the alarm of the shots, but
had no notion of what was about
to happen.
After still wait, a voice spoke
abruptly from around the cliff and
close at hand husky, broken
voice. Don't shoot" it said weak
ly. CTS your game. I'm out of
| shells"
Along the cliff warl and into view,
covered by Speeds guns, fur-clad
and nocca5ioned figure CROPPED it's
! way. TWISTED with agony. Maitland