Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

Doo ‘“‘’Your word is good enough, I am sure, but I don’t believe that there will be any further gun-play. The man we have got to find and bring in is my brother, and the only enemies he has are some rustlers— cattle-thieves, half-breed Mexicans, for the most part, who have been running off our cows,” she explained quickly. ‘‘ That is our ranch there, on the other side of the fence.” ‘““Gee, all those miles! And my party thought first that you was stickin’ them up for the bank-roll!’”? He chuckled once more and then exclaimed, ‘‘ Here we are! ['ll need the speed we’ve got to hurdle that ditch, but we can come back and have a look at the horse. Hold tight, ma’am!”’ The heavy car swerved, tilted sickingly and seemed for an instant to hurl itself through space, landing with a crashing jar which shook every bone in the girl’s body as it plowed through the break in the fence and over the uneven ground for a few rods and halted with another protesting screech of the brake. It had scarcely come to a stop when the girl leaped from it and ran back with the chauffeur close at her heels through the gap with its trailing wires to where the dead animal lay. It was a Mexican pinto, a wretched specimen of its kind, the lean bar- rel and flanks roweled and scarred from past ill-usage and still flecked with bloody lather. Blood had formed in a wide pool, too, from mouth and nostrils, and there was a bullet wound in the chest. “ Maybe you recognize him by the mark- ings?” Briggs suggested. ‘‘ He must have been stole, too, away back when he was worth stealin’, for it looks as though some sort of a brand had been burned off him there, and again on the hoof.” The girl shook her head. ‘¢ Some of the punchers might know him, but whatever identification marks there were on the saddle have been ripped away. You can see where the leather is newly cut. He was shot through the lungs and can’t have gone far—”’ She rose from her knees in the trampled earth and stood gazing back over the range with: straining eyes. ‘* That gang was pretty bold about it, or ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, do they usually pull off a trick like this in daylight out here?” ‘The chauffeur was following her gaze. ‘‘ We didn’t pass a liv- in’ soul on the State road for more than fifty miles comin’ along, though, so maybe they wasn’t takin’ so much of a chance at that.” “They must have known where my brother was riding line to-day and lay in wait for him.” The girl’s lips tightened. ** We ought to be able to follow their trail in for a short distance, anyway.” ‘‘'There was more than one of ’em, you think, ma’am? This tall grass is trampled down, but it’s in kind of a narrow line.” The chauffeur paused uncertainly as his un- accustomed eyes roved over the patches of crushed mesquite. ‘“‘ There were two of them and they rode in single file.” The girl went slowly for- ward, following the fresh trail. ‘‘ The other horse was bigger, but the pinto led; see where he circled around and doubled back? That is when they were looking for their man.” “Gee!” Briggs remarked again in im- mense respect. ‘‘ It don’t mean anythin’ to me, ma’am. I’d think I was goin’ some if I could tell the make of a tire by the tracks of its tread in the road, but this beats it! Looks, though, as if they had made for that little hollow over there, doesn’t it?” The trail was indeed leading in ever narrowing circles toward a slight depression in the rolling ground fringed with low scrub brush, and as they neared it the girl paused and her breath caught in her throat. The rank grasses at her feet were blotched here and there with ominous splashes of reddish- brown. ‘‘ That’s only where the circus pony back there got his, ma’am!” Briggs ventured consolingly. The girl shook her head. ‘These are the hoof-prints of a single horse. It must have been poor Bull’s-eye, and my brother can’t be far off, if—”’ Her voice died away in her throat, and Briggs asked suddenly in a lowered voice: ‘“Do you know if there is a rock over there behind that bunch of bushes?” She followed the direction of his pointing finger and her body tensed, for through the COMmicbhooks. com