Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

IN THE EVENT OF DEATH. Cosgrove until his voice choked in futile wrath. “We've come to take you away. To put you in a safe place! To guard you from the mob! Save you from lynching!” roared Cosgrove. ‘‘ But we must work fast! We must get you away! You and Lederer! We must get you away before the mob is upon us! Where is he? Where is Lederer hiding?” Then Farley burst into laughter. “ Qut in the mountains!” he shrieked. Out where you'll never get him. He'll be over the line and in White River by morn- Slade, who with Webb, had been holding Farley as a groom might hold a fractious horse, cursed gruffly. ‘““We want him!” he blurted out. “We'll get him!” Cosgrove’s voice was clear again with confidence. “No, you won't” snarled’ Farley. “ There’s a trail to White River that you ‘won’t never follow with all yore trick driv- ing. There ain’t nothin’ but a hawse can follow that trail, an’ Cliff’s got two of the pick o’ the ranch. You can frame me an’ hound me an’ murder me, but there’s one you won’t get! There’s one left to see the score’s made even!” Cosgrove strode to the door and opened it so that the room was invaded by a blast of wind. “ Get that man into the car!” he ordered. “And it «will be made even!” cursed Farley frantically as they dragged him to the door, Another blast of wind blew out the lamp light, and Farley’s weird voice sounded from that darkness like the wail of an accursed thing. “ He'll come back and pay you, Cosgrove! He'll pay you out an’, by Gawd, you'll never live to fatten orf the killin’ that you’ve made!” They dragged him, protesting, through the door and down to the car. He entered it cursing, and Slade and Webb entered with him. But Cosgrove did not follow. “ Ride through the back trails!” he cried to Gaines. “ Drive over the open prairie if you have to, but get him into the jail be- fore that mob has a chance at him!” “ But you’re comin’, Brad?” “No! I’m riding into the mountains. — ig aE a ST En a a le i i ag I El NN Fa ee at oe ee aw age nm a oe 279 When I come in, Lederer’s coming with me!” ‘‘There’s no chance!” protested Gaines. “ He’s got the best horses and a three hour start!” ‘““ But he doesn’t know horses!” laughed Cosgrove. ‘ I miss my bet if he hasn’t ex- hausted his mounts by now with hard rid- ing. I wish I had Thunderbolt here!” And as he spoke a gigantic equine shadow crossed the headlights that gleamed down the cut. There was a clatter of hoofs from the darkness as the rider wheeled into the wind, and with a plunging grace, Hazel Farley brought Thunderbolt prancing to a halt beside them. “The mob’s out!” she cried. ‘“ The alarm has spread through the town! All Manford’s on the way here to lynch them!” “ God bless you!” cried Cosgrove in high glee. ‘Get into this car, Miss Paul Re- vere. Gaines, cut down through the Broad Coulee trail! We'll have him in jail before the fools get back to town!” As he spoke he had her out of the saddle and into the waiting car. She expected him to follow, but he turned to mount Thunder- bolt. “ Where are you going?” she cried. “T’m going to show Lederer the way home!” he answered, and was gone into the howling gale. CHAPTER XXXV.. THE ABYSS. HAT was a turbulent night in the mountains, for the wind, coming out of the north in irrepressible fury, was split into a hundred varying currents by rocky barriers and rugged cafions. Cos- grove, aware of the haste which would drive Lederer to press his animals to death, strove to hold the spirited red mare he rode to an even canter. | But the wind was Thunderbolt’s ally. She found in its vagaries a thousand pre- texts for the wild spirit which impelled her to gallop madly through the night, or prance crazily at the weird shadows which the rock strewn trail presented. So, al- though Cosgrove’s firm hand held her in a comicbooks: