Argosy, Vol. 119, No. 2 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

246 -for a year or so, they’d be better judges They’re thinkin’ they’ll be buryin’ their He grinned as he rode, and then waved a sarcastic hand toward the cattle. “Look at ’em runnin’! You’d think, havin’ projected around this here country mugs in that right pretty grass in about fifteen seconds, judgin’ from the way they’re hittin’ the breeze toward it. An’ itll take them half a day to get down there.” — Shorty was a better judge of distance than the cattle. For it was after noon when the Fast of the herd reached the level floor of the basin. They spread out, to graze in- dustriously, the men not caring, knowing they would not stray far from such grass. By the time the chuck wagon had come to a halt and the cook had clambered stiffly from his seat to prepare the noonday meal, Lawler and the others saw the horse wrangler and his assistant descending the long slope with the remuda. The horses had fallen far behind, and Lawler rode to meet them, curious to know what had hap- pened. When he rode up, the horse wrangler, a man named Garvin—a stocky individual with keen, inquiring eyes—advanced to meet him. “ Boss,” he said shortly, “ there’s some- thin’ mighty wrong goin’ on behind us. Me an’ Ed—my helper—has been kind of hang- in’ back, bein’ sort of curious. They’s a - bunch of ornery-lookin’ guys trailin us. I first saw ’em after we’d struck the bottom of that canon. They was just comin’ around that big bend, an’ I saw ’em. They lit out, turnin’ tail—mebbe figurin’ I hadn’t seen ’em; but pretty soon I seen ’em again, sort of sneakin’ behind us. I reckon if they was square guys they wouldn’t be sneakin’ like that—eh?”’ CHAPTER XIV. BLONDY ANTRIM. W/ HEN Lawler spoke to Blackburn re- garding the news that had been com- municated to him by the horse wrangler, Blackburn suggested that himself and sev-. eral of the Circle L men ride back to ascer- tain the object of the trailers. some; THE ARGOSY. ‘We'll ride back an’ make ’em talk!” he declared heatedly. Lawler, however, would not agree, tell- ing Blackburn that the trail was free, and .. that, until the men made some hostile move, there was no reason why they should be ap- proached. So the men ate, selected new mounts from their “strings” in the remuda, and again started the big herd forward. Lawler rode for a time with Garvin, keeping an alert eye on the back trail. But though he could see far up the cafion, where. the trail—white with dust from the passing of the herd—wound its sinuous way upward into the dark recesses between the towering mesa walls, he could see no sign of life or movement. , _ The non-appearance of the mysterious _riders was suspicious, for if their intentions were friendly they would have come boldly on. In fact, if they were abroad upon an honest errand, they must have found the slowness of the herd ahead of them irk- soon as possible, merely to escape the dust cloud raised by the cattle. ~ When the afternoon began to wane the herd was far out in the basin, traveling steadily toward a point where the little river doubled, where Blackburn intended to camp for the night. And though both Blackburn and Lawler scanned the back trail intently at intervals, there was still no sign of the riders Carvin had mentioned. Nor did the riders pass the herd in the night. Blackburn threw an extra guard around the cattle, making the shifts shorter and more frequent; and when daylight came a short conference among the Circle L men disclosed the news that no riders had passed. If any riders had passed the cow- boys must have seen them, for there had been a moon, and the basin in the vicinity of the herd was clear and unobstructed. Enraged at the suspicious nature of the incident, Blackburn took half a dozen cowboys and rode back, while the remainder of the trail crew sent the herd eastward. It was late in the afternoon when Black- burn returned, disappointed, + grim, and wrathful. “ There’s a bunch trailin’ us, all right,” | and they would have passed it as — Eomichboo “S (E(0)