The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-09-16

there alone in the dark he now found
himself keenly aware of the peopl-
ed layout about him-aware of the
exact location of the men in the
bunk house, of the ponies in the
corrals. 1t was peculiar sensation,
as if he were suddenly more awake
than before, as awake as a man in a
ring battle, or man in danger.
And especially he was aware of
the dark, silent brush country at
his back, where buckbrush and des-
ert juniper stood thick behind the
corrals. Somewhere out there a
twig cracked, and his nerves jerked.
Something in that black mile OF
brush was as awake as he.
Then abruptly the silence broke
definitely, once-and-for-all, as if the
nights shell of stiffness had crack
ed.
Behind Marian's Swallowed sill
houette the window glass itself
shattered, as if it had exploded in
ward; out in the brush sounded the
ringing crack of a rifle. Then there
was silence and the window against
which Marian had stood was empty
except for the lamp-lit CLEAN of its
shattered glass.
Wheeler's breath jerked in his
throat; he dropped to the ground
and raced for the house.
In the dark beside the shattered
window Douglas was holding the
girl in his arms, and though she
chung to him, Wheeer saw that the
wagon boss was holding her up. He
heard Douglas say, care you hurt?
Are you"
Billy Wheeler cried out, 'In Gods
name, Marian"
Marian's voice said shakily, "I'm
all right"
"You hit?"
''No."
Get a gum" said Val Douglas
crafty. eve was standing here,
and somebody took a shot at"
Wheeler turned and ran for the
bunk house. Half way he almost
crashed into Tuare Callahan.
whats up?" q
Get the boys out" Wheeler told
him. 'To hell with saddles, but
get ropes and guns. Somebody fired
into the layout-we've got to try to
stampede over him in the brush"
Behind the "a layout the buck
brush stood ragged, much of it
shoulder high to mounted man; in
it's crooked brakes the hard sandy,
ground showed barren in the light of
the near stars
With some difficulty Billy Wheel
er restrained Gil Baker and Steve
Hurley from squirting their ponies
headlong into the brush, as if they
were trying to jump a bunch of
steers.
"Stick together, move slow, and
keep stopping to listen," Wheeler
said. ''That's our only chance"
They trailed into the bush slowly
single file, Wheeler in the lead. He
had accidentally mounted a horse
that believed in ghosts and it moved
sidelong, stretching its nose warily
at the brush shadows, blowing long
uneasy whoofs. Repeatedly they
halted to sit listening.
For an hour they combed the dark
brush, alternately walking their
horses and listening.
Not until they came out at the
foot of barren rise did they rea-
lie that they had wandered almost
a mile from their starting point.
When you have seen one thicket of
buckbrush by starlight you have
seen them all. They had pushed
through a hundred thickets, in which
a man could have hidden under
the very feet of their horses-yet
in that mile of country there were
a thousand thickets more. The
riders were grim and tight-mouth-
ed.
Horse Dunn met them at the cor
rails. He had been prowling all over
the place, rifle on his arm. He
spoke low-voiced, but no one of
them would have crossed him then,
any more than they would have
fooled with a 14-hand silvertip.
His words came out as hard as
pieces Of rock.
eco on and turn in," he told them.
Once they were inside, Horse de-
manded of Wheeler, what the devil
got into Old Man Coffee?"
whatever it was got into him, it's
going to cost up plenty"
'I don't believe he knows horse
tack from a hounds ear, Dunn
declared angrily. "He puts me in
mind of some old moss-horn-he
paws and blows and hollers, but
what's he know about it when he
gets through? Nothing"