The Argosy, March 27, 1920 — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

256 THE ARGOSY, that was riding the north wind. Lawler was to the north of the men, slightly eastward, and they could not have faced the smother of dust to look toward him, Lawler could dimly see the herd moving toward the fence; he could see the men plainly; and as he watched them his eyes narrowed. The big horse leaped with the word he caught from his rider’s lips, racing lightly with the wind towatd the fence where the men were working. Lawler’s approach was noiseless, for all sound was engulfed in the steady, roaring whine of the storm, Neither of the two men, working at the fence, heard Lawler as he brought the big herse to a halt within half a dozen paces of them. The taller of the two, plying a pair of wire-nippers, completed his werk at a fence post and turned to leap toward another. The movement brought him against the muzzle of Lawler’s horse. He halted jerkily, retreated a step, and looked up, to see Law- Jer looking at him from behind the muzzle of the big pistol that had leaped into his hand. There was no word spoken—none could be heard at the moment. What followed was grim pantomime, with tragedy lurking near, The tall man held his position. He had tentatively extended his right hand, the fingers spread, clawlike. Now the hand was going upward, accompanied by the other. When the man had stepped backward to escape a collision with Lawler’s horse, the wind had whipped his hat from his head. He now stood there, his hair waving to the vicious whims of the gale, veiling his eyes, and he not daring to lower his hands to brush it away. The shorter man, too, had assumed a statuesque pose. He had turned when he had noted his companion’s startled move- ment, and he, too, had seen-an apparition that had sent his hands: swiftly upward. The big horse stood motionless, his back to the wind. He did not move as Lawler leaped from his back—smoothly, quickly, his eyes alert, his muscles tensed for violent action. The men stood rigid while Lawler jerked their pistols from their holsters and tossed them into thé dust waves that danced and swirled around them. The short man was catapulted against the tall one with a vi- ciousness that staggered both; and then they heard Lawler’s voice, sharp and pene- trating, above the shrieking of the wind: “ Those cattle will be here in five min- utes! If you don’t have that fence repaired before then, you drift with them, hoofing it!” In the allotted time they repaired the fence, working with breathless energy, while Lawler stood near, the menacing gun in hand, a saturnine smile wreathing his face. When the herd reached the fence there was no break in it. More—where the break had been were three men on horses who took instant charge, easing the cattle down _ along the fence, heading them eastward to- ward the shelter they were sure to find if they kept going. The three men followed the cattle for a mile—until they were going straight and fast toward the home ranch. Then Lawler, smiling with bitter humor, motioned the men toward the back trail, They seemed to know what was de- manded of them. They wheeled their horses, sending them into the billowy white smother that was now coming in a gigantic wave toward them. The southern light had gone. A dense blackness, out of which roared a gale that robbed them of their breath, descended. The snow was hurled against them like a sand blast, biting deep, stinging their faces and blinding them. It took them more than an hour to travel the distance that lay between the point at which they had cut the fence, and the line cabin. And when they reached a wind- break near the structure the two men rode behind it, silent, thankful, Lawler had ridden forth, prepared for bad weather. His face was now muffled in © huge scarf that encircled his neck, and his eyes were shielded by the peak of the fur cap he wore. He dismounted, waved the men toward a dugout, and watched them as they dismounted and led their horses through a narrow door. When the men emerged Lawler led the big red horse in, ‘sees tw comicbooksacom