The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-02-20

at a faster pace, all at once wanting
to be out of this No wind reached
him down here, and no sound save
the rapid pad of his palomino's
hoofs. He felt the oppression of
being Gagged in, and riding blind.
Then when he least expected it, the
cut struck sharply upward; there
was a short scramble on loose rock,
funneling away of the walls, and
he rose abruptly upon the open
prairie.
An immediate sweeping glance
took in a circle of flat empty land.
He was alone. But then far west.
ward where this top began a long
lift, a dark smudge showed against
gray earth. The N drive. Seven
miles off, Candy judged, though
maybe more. They'd not reach the
watch. Three o'clock; dark in an
other two hours. Hollister? He
rocked up onto his feet, hands on
the saddle horn and stood searching
that sector of prairie west and south
west.
| He reined his pony south, seeking
the heads of those other two ra-
vines, for surely into one of them
Hollister had started. There was
no other way west. Again as he
rode on, bowed into cold wind,
there settled upon him dull con-
slant dread, the sense of an inevita-
bic ending here which Hollister him.
self had predicted.
He had covered less than a quar-
ter of mile when a rider seemed
to leap from the very earth. His
horse was in tight run, the man
bent forward, and he had shot out
like that, Candy knew, from one of
the other west cuts. He was headed
for the n drive and through the first
minute after his sudden appearance
it was plain that he did not know
there was another on the prairie top.
Candy clapped spurs to the palo-
mino, loosening the thirty-eight in
its belt holster as he quartered to-
ward the fleeing man. This party
was getting away from something;
! no doubt about that. His head
turned, and then in a jerk upon
shortened reins, he set his horse
back with all hoofs sliding In the
same move his right hand had
crossed over to the left of his sad
die; smoothly rifle ran from the
scabbard there and whipped up to
his shoulder.
Things happened then. Distance
was too far for the thirty-eight.
Wheeling his own mount Walt Gan
dy made vain try with two rapid
shots. He saw dust kick up in front
of the others horse. Wind snatched
a white wisp from the rifle barrel
leveled toward him and a hornet
hinged close to his ear. Again he
saw the white wisp and his palo-
mino jumped straight up. He heard
that second report, third and the
earth rose and slammed him from
the saddle.
Breath went out of him and he
fought black fog that thickened be-
fore his eyes. 1t could have lasted
only a few seconds. He came out
of it crouched behind the body of
his horse, gun trained across the
bulging side. The other man was
streaking away once more in a head
long run.
Walt Candy stood up and was not
aware until then that he was shot
in the left leg. 1t felt as if a red
hot rod was suddenly stabbed into
his flesh near the knee. His knee
was stiff; his blue jeans already be-
ginning to stain. But again that
went momentarily out of his mind
as he stared down at the unmoving
palomino. The little beast was dead.
The fact registered now only in
numbing way; too much impended
for him to feel the full sense of his
loss. Rapidly he stripped off the
saddle, blanket, and bride, shoul-
dered them and turned toward the
ravine out of which the unknown
rider had appeared. On the rim he
looked back. He would never want
to own another pale gold horse.
Now it was a matter of getting
back to Outpost Camp with no time
lost, and searching the ravine on the
way. The rider might have left
him for dead. Still it would be no
good if others came ahead and found
him on n ground afoot
The cut slanted in a sharp descent
at first, then leveled out in a wind
ing sand bottom much like the one
up which he had ridden. High-heeled
boots were never made for rapid
walking. He limped on, shifting the
saddle from shoulder to shoulder. He
was perhaps halfway to the sink
when two brass shells glittered
against the sand. Candy scooped
them up, put them to his nose.
Next he had let the saddle gear fall
and was stumbling ahead, for the
shells still had in them the rancid
smoke of freshly burned powder.
| Within fifty PAGES the sand showed
that HOLSTERS horse had come to
a sudden stop, had wheeled, plunged
| sidewise. All the marks of am
bush were here in tangle of tracks
and then spot where a man had
fallen, bleeding.
Candy ran on, reading signs
where the horse had come to halt,
and where Hollister had renounted.
Relief swept him. Bill was not
dead. But farther on he was fol-
lowing a trail of blood stains
dropped evenly every two PAGES.
CHAPTER Xxx