Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 143: what you’re looking at

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

CROSSROADS. they were taut she leaped into the saddle, waved to them, and spurred in silence down the steep slope of the ravine. A tall boulder rose before her. like a hunting horse and sailed easily over it. It buried her from view on the other side. “ By God!” said Noony, pointing back at the winnings of the girl. ‘“ She forgot it!” But Lawton stood with his hat off and stared down the ravine. “ Forget it,” he said slowly at length. ‘“ Noony, you was always mostly a feol, and you get worse the older you get. Me speak- in’ personal, I guesseI been a fool most of my life, too. I’m going to take a longer look at the next girl IT meet.” And still he would not come back into the hut, but stood bareheaded under the full blaze of the sun staring into a vacuous dis- tance lined with wavering streaks of heat. Into that distance the girl rode at a des- perate speed, swerving back and _ forth among the boulders. Yet when the first rush of her eagerness had passed, she checked the stallion to a more even pace. She knew him as a student knows a well- conned book, every page by heart. The distance ‘to Double Bend was vague in her mind, but she gaged it as well as she could, and planned the use of the stallion’s strength to fill that measured distance. There was no distant range around Double Bend by which she could test the length of her course. It was all by guess. The rest at the shanty had freshened her house. She felt the spring and drive of his stride swinging onward tirelessly. It seemed as if no distance and no speed could exhaust that mount. Now and then, anxiously, she turned her head and glanced at the sun as it rolled westward. It had never seemed to move so rapidly. As if it lunged down the incline of the sky toward the sunset horizon, it sped faster and faster, and at every glance ‘upward her heart beat faster, and the sick- ness came in her throat. At sunset she knew something would hap- pen to Dix Van Dyck. What it might be she could not dream, but the very uncer- tainty increased her terror. Between those sudden and fearful siaies at the course of the sun she gave all her The white stallion rose - 293 care to picking out the best possible course for the stallion. If it had been the new trail, the one which passed through Godfrey, she would have been able to ride it on a dark night, but every stone of this old trail was new to her. She had reduced the pace of the stallion to a long, swinging gallop on the level stretches and to a sharp trot up the slighter inclines. But now and then they struck rough places, which would have winded the horse if she had not let him take them at a walk. All the time she had the burden of caring for the stallion’s strength. He was not like the average cattle-pony which gages a distance and strikes a pace which it can maintain all of a day. All that the great white horse wished was freedom to take the bit between his teeth and race at full speed. The sun rolled lower. She saw shadows growing deeper along the cafions, and rising higher and higher up the slopes—shadows . of death, she thought, and she knew now why death was_so often likened to the oncoming of night. Still there was no sign of the approach to Double Bend, and the sun stood still only an hour’s distance above the western hills. Here she stopped the horse, dismounted, and, forcing him to raise his head, she poured the last water from her canteen down his throat. His breathing frightened her. It came with a great gasp and wheeze, with a rattle toward the end, like the breath of a dying man. And when she leaped ais the saddle again the white stallion started ahead, not with his usual spring, but breaking into a trot before he could reach a gallop. The lilt and spring was passing from his stride. His feet struck the earth as fast and as hard as ever, but there was none of that easy resiliency which tells of a resource of power. His ears were flattened now along his neck; his head stretched forth in a straight line from the shoulders. She knew all at once that the last strength of the gallant horse was going into his work. And now, as if to break their hearts, the ground swept up into a long, steeply rising slopv. She struck her hand across her eyes and groaned. But to the west the red sun, settling and bulging at the sides, was resting on the top .OO = comic Ss (E)