The Argosy, March 27, 1920 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

THE TRAIL HORDE. 259 “'That’s all,” he said. “ You'll hang out here until the norther blows itself out; then you'll hit the trail to town and tell your story to the sheriff. Ill be doing the honors.” He sheathed his gun and flung open the door, stepping back as a white avalanche rushed in; grinning broadly as he saw the men shrink from it. He divined that the men though he was going to force them out into the storm immediately, and he srinned coldly. “You can be tickled that I’m not sending you out into it, to drift with the cattle you tried to kill,” he said. ‘* You’d deserve that, plenty. You'll find wood beside the dug- out. Get some of it in here and start a fire, Move; and don’t try any monkey busi- ness!”’ He closed the door as the men went out; He had no fear that they would try to escape — even a threat. of instant death could not have forced them to leave the cabin now. When they came in they kindled a fire in the big fireplace, hovering close to it after the blaze sprang up, enjoyjng its warmth, for the interior of the cabin had become frigid. Lawler, however, did not permit the men to enjoy the fire. He sent them out for more wood, and when they had piled a goodly supply in a corner, and had filled a tin water-pail from a water hole \tuated about a hundred feet straight out from the door of the cabin, he sent them again on a message to the dugout to get their ropes. With the ropes, despite the sullen objec- tions of the men, he bound their hands and feet tightly, afterward picking the men up and tossing them ungently into upper bunks on opposite sides of the room. : He stood, after watching them for a time, grinning coldly. “ That’s just so you won't get to thinking you are company,” he said. “‘ We're holed up for a long time, maybe, and I don’t want you to bother me, a heap. If you get to bothering me—disturbing my sleep trying to untangle yourselves from those ropes, why—” He significantly tapped his pistol. Then he pulled a chair close to the fire, dropped into it, rolled a cigarette, and calmly smoked, watching the white fleece trail up the chimney. CHAPTER XVUI. THE KNOCKING AT THE DOOR, OR an hour there was no sound in the cabin. Lawler smoked several cigarettes. Once he got up and threw’ more wood upon the fire, standing in front of the blaze for several minutes, stretching his long legs, watching the licking tongues as they were sucked up the chimney by the shrieking wind. Then, fer a time, he lounged in the chair, gazing meditatively at the north window, noting how the fine, frozen snow meal clung to the glass; watching the light fade, listen- ing to the howling white terror that had seized the world in its icy grip. At the end of an hour it erew dark in the cabin, Lawler got up, lighted the kero- sene-lamp, placed it on the table, seated himself on a bench, and again resumed meditatively watching the leaping flames in the fireplace. Satisfaction glowed in his eyes as he thought of what would have happened had he not decided to substitute for Davies and Harris. Undoubtedly by this time the two men were on their way to the camp. They would certainly have noticed the warning, black northern sky and other indications of the coming storm. And undoubtedly, if they had started toward the camp, they were by this time being punished for their dereliction, They would make the camp, though, he was sure, for they had the wind at their backs, and they knew the trail. He ex- pected, any minute, to hear them at the door. He grinned, his face a trifle grim as he anticipated their astonishment at finding him there, with the two fence-cutters oc- cupying the bunks, He had not followed the herd to the Cir- cle L shelters because he had had small hope of keeping close to the fence-cutters in the storm. And he had brought them back to the cabin to make sure of them. As he sat cComicbooksscom