Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

THE LAUGHING RIDER. Willis rose up to close with him. At the same time MacQuillan, drawing Billy’s own gun from his pocket, took aim from the newel post, and Craddock rushed down the stairs like a wounded bull. Billy whirled his great cushion high above his head to smite Willis down, and the feathers rushed out in a cloud through the rent that the bullet had made. Mac- Quillan got them in the face, and catching a quick breath, was choked with them. Craddock, his aim ruined, fired into space; and Willis received the full force of Billy’s blow on one side of his head, reeled, and was snapped back again by the return. Then Billy turned from him only long enough to batter Craddock down with a long bolster. Craddock, bleeding, and dazed, tried to fire upon Billy, but his pistol arm was thrown hither and yon. He. then tried to crawl away from the ridiculous punishing blows, and Billy followed the miserable man, belaboring him until his gun fell from his hand, and he to the floor in collapse. _ * We'll lose him!” sobbed MacQuillan. He was seriously choking, gasping and . Striving for breath against the newel post. _ Billy stopped only long enough to rend one cushion asunder and dash twin handfuls of feathers into the sergeant’s face. “ They’re fine cut,” he cried jovially, and - he swung on Willis with a soft, loose purple one, just in time to prevent him from pick- ing up Craddock’s gun. A cushion in each hand, now, he dashed Willis’s head from side to side for a moment, saw from the tail of his eye the sergeant coming back, and Craddock uprising from the floor. He saw also the door open and Emile himself appear, so he hit Emile squarely with the purple one, smashed Craddock to. the ground again with an apple green crea- _ tion in moiré silk, and, scooping up ‘the mattress, which was the foundation of the divan, turned on the sergeant with it. Mac- Quillan retreated up the stairs and fired twice through the mattress before it over- took him. Billy dropped one end of it behind the sergeant, and by a vigorous shove, tripped MacQuillan up so that he fell backward into the mattress. Then Billy rolled the. 759 mattress down the stairs with the sergeant inside. He picked up a last armful of cushions as Willis and Emile rushed for- ward, and tore one of them open as he bounded up the stairs. ‘ Breathe deep!” he laughed, and dashed the feathery contents into their upturned faces. They recoiled, and he turned to make the top of the stairs three steps at a time. There he turned again and flung cushion after cushion down upon them. They were beaten by cushions in the face and about the legs. They were blinded by cushions, and cushions swung them from their balance. They trod on cushions, and breathed feathers. They staggered through cushions. They lost the feel of the stairs beneath their feet. They tripped and fell —into a sea of cushions. And Billy bounded lightly through the upper corridor, burst through a window at the end of it, slipped to the ground below, and was mounted and away before his pur- suers had again breathed the outside air. He rode to the rear of Savardé’s barn and crouched in the shadows there, listening, while the red coats rushed forth and gal- loped away to look for him in the open country where he should have been, but was not. Then he boldly reéntered the house by the front door, apologized adequately for the damaged pillows, borrowed a revolver from Annette and cantered off at his lei- sure. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE SERGEANT’S MOVE, N, the dark night and a black fury, Staff Sergeant MacQuillan rode in pursuit of Smiling Billy Argent. Constables Wil- lis and Craddock rode with him. They stopped at Sleepy River only long enough to get fresh horses and to free Supernum- erary Constable Flynn from his arrest. With harsh words MacQuillan sent that victim of circumstances, over which Billy had enjoyed complete control, post haste back to the Savardé ranch. ‘Sit there with yer gun in yer hand and yer eyes open!” roared the sergeant. “ If — EGomicbooks co