Argosy, Volume XXIII — Index Page, 1897 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

A CAMPAIGN OF STRATEGY. 587 Kingsford hated to leave the body of the fallen cowboy where it lay on the baked earth, but there was no avoiding it. If he rode close enough to lift it upon the back of his pony, he would certainly share the poor fellow’s fate. All this and more flashed through the brain of the frightened young man, who, wheeling his animal sharply to the right, buried his spurs into’ his flanks, and sent him scurrying through the blistering sand, animal and rider alike heedless of the rays that threatened to strike down both. Three minutes after Kingsford’s arrival, he had told them everything, while Atwood hastily. imparted his own experience and narrow escape, which, after all, was no narrower than the other’s. It was sufficient to stir.each heart to its profoundest depths, but the climax came when the photographer announced the woful fact that the two women at Bozeman’s were without a single male defender. ‘‘ And you are standing here idle !’’ indignantly exclaimed Kingsford. ‘Not too fast, my young friend,’’ exclaimed Gannett, whose feelings, intense as they were, remained under perfect control ; ‘‘it was only a brief while ago that I found out from Atwood how things stood ; we’re going to the help. of the women, but, if the thing ain’t done as it should be, it’ll be worse than if it isn’t done at all.’’ What is there to do except to make all possible haste to Bozeman’s? A delay of fifteen minutes may be fatal.’’ ‘““There’s some sense in what you ‘say, and it will take less time than that to get under way. In’ the first place, your pony is done up and won’t be good for anything until he has had a long rest. But I havea spare critter for you, and he’s just as good as yours; shift your saddle and traps to his back ; Atwood and me’ll do the same with ours. ‘Then I had another plan in mind.’’ ‘What is it?’” ‘To leave our ponies behind, while we footed it, keeping among the foot: hills, where it would be easy to avoid being seen. Ont in the open, the devils will be sure to observe us.’’ ‘Why not then stick to the foothills?”’ asked Atwood, favorably struck | with the plan. “The distance is too fur; we should have to pick our way so carefully that we could not get to Bozeman’s until late tonight, and I calculate that things will come to a head long before that.” ‘‘ And if we ride our ponies?” ‘We'll make a turn fur out on the plain, where: they can’t reach t's with any of their Winchesters, and then ride like blazes; we oughter be there in two or three hours.”’ : ‘“That’s the only thing to do,’’ said Kingsford in his brisk, military man- ner; ‘‘let’s not throw away another minute.’’ In that mild climate, where thousands of people never think of sleep- ing under a'roof during the entire year, the horses of the cattlemen live wholly out of doors. When not in use, their trappings are removed and they are left free to crop the grass among the foothills. They form tempting prizes to the ‘‘ dog’’’ or vagrant Indians and lawless white men, and every o : Ccommicoooks aD (EC)