Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

910 must ride Billy down and regain those horses, else there would be no peace left for him. By some strange oversight it appeared that Billy had leit one horse behind him. For that Menzies was duly thankful, but it did not ease the painfulness of his pre- dicament. If he deserted his comrades, two verigeful cattle thieves would be added to the forces who hunted him. Ii the three of them tried for the border with that one horse, the chances were that they would be overtaken before a day’s journey was completed. In short, Menzies could have no peace until he retrieved the animals Billy had taken, and although he had small heart for the job, he took the trail with a fair hope that riding alone he could soon overtake a man who led two horses. He made an ar- dent prayer that Billy would not have the opportunity of shooting first. He noticed early that the fugitive had taken small pains to cover his tracks. No doubt urged by a desire to put as much ground as possible between himself and his pursuer, Billy had ridden recklessly on soft sround and sandy river beds, leavmg a glaring trail behind him. Menzies followed it at high speed, grin- ning thankfully at the indications of panic which the open hoof prints showed. He gave his horse its head, keeping it at a fast canter, and leaned far over his saddle horn, with his eves far forward, avidly following after the man he hunted. As the day wore on, the invigorating tang of the autumn air, the swift movement of his steed, and the reckless haste dis- played by the trail he followed, heartened Menzies immeasurably as he rode. Fre- quently now his hand stole to his revolver butt, making sure it was ready for instant usefulness, and he gradually became even eager for the moment when, the quarry sighted, he could draw rein, and irem a goodly distance and a steady seat shoot Billy through the back. It would doubtless have spoiled his en- tire day if he had known that while he in- duiged in this amiable anticipation, Smiling Billy Argent was humorously watching him from an aspen thicket on the highly colored ARGOSY-ALLSFORY WEEKLY. hillside half a mile in front of him to the left. : As the sun rose high, Menzies became aware that he approached dangerously near the end of the rugged and unsettled coun- try which spread away to the southwest some nine or ten miles below Sleepy River. A few miles more would bring him close to a civilization which he made it a rule to visit seldom in the day time. Had destiny permitted him a glimpse of her fair form in that moment, however, his worry would have been allayed by the dark foreknowledge that Billy wasn’t going to allow him te proceed upon that precarious trail much farther. For if he had, Men- zies would have arrived at a brush-filled gully where Billy had concealed the two purloined horses; and at that brush-covered gully Menzies would have found that Bil- ly’s trail doubled back, taking him into the hills to the left. Billy had picked out among those hills the aspen screened height from which he now regarded his pursuer, and had with vast patience awaited several hours for Menzies’s coming. He permitted the cattle thief to pass, and very considerately al- lowed him to disappear behind the shoulder of that hill. In this manner, reflected Bil- ly, he could ride down upon the man with- out getting him all frightened and unhap- py. Menzies having disappeared, Billy pro- ceeded to do so. | He rode Concho down that hill, as a swallow, flying low, darts over the face of the turf. While Menzies would no doubt have failed to appreciate the sight, it is still to be regretted that there was no wit- ness for that ride. Concho came down like a lambent flame, skimming over the bril- liant carpet of the grasses, and Billy swung in the saddle like the torso of a centaur. Leaping small coulees and frequent ob- stacles without a break in her pace, the little horse made the valley trail and swung into it, like a catbeat turning mto the wind. Around the shoulder of the hillside the horse and rider swept, and came bounding upon the heels of the unfortunate cattle thief with the same effect as lightning strik- ing from the blue. ‘Hands up!” yelled Billy, as they bore Gomichooks7co 2