Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

THE CHRYSALIDS I2I likely have disembowelled itself in trying to follow over the snapped- off stems that must have been standing up like stakes behind us. The pace and the violence eased a little. I sought anxiously for Rosalind. She came in from somewhere close by, on the right. She and Petra had managed to wedge and pack themselves in with blankets, and seemed less shaken than I was. I suggested that if they had control of their horse, they.should pull over to the left and try to converge with us. Our animal had a halter but no bridle, so that we could do nothing with it; the best hope seemed to be that if we could get together, it would follow the other out of habit when it was calmer. Presently, however, the trees thinned and we came out into star- light. Our horse caught sight of the other, whinnied, and trotted up to it. In a moment or two we had the lead rope joined. The two remaining men consulted briefly, and then we were off again, headed once more to the south-west. The steady plod was soothing. Presently I let it lull me to sleep. There was nothing one could do by keeping awake, and Rosalind and I had quite a loss of sleep to make up. Petra, who had slept half the previous day, started to converse with her distant friend, but soon even that couldn’t keep me awake. When I did become conscious again the sky was showing grey, and there was Michael agitating somewhere directly behind us. ‘‘ Was it you they fired at last night? ’’ he was asking. There was a sense of disappointment when I told him it was. ‘*T hoped they’d made a mistake and were off on a false trail,” he said. ‘‘ We’ve all been called together. ‘They think it’s too risky to come farther into the Fringes in small groups. We’re supposed to be assembled and ready to move off in two or three hours. Round about a hundred, I’d say. They reckon that if we do meet any Fringes people it'll kill two birds with one stone if we give ’em a good hiding. You'd better get rid of those greathorses now—we’ll never lose your trail while you’re on them.” “'That’s not in our hands,” I told him, and explained the’ situation. ‘Well, at least persuade them to keep on going, then,” he advised. Petra broke in, “The Zealand people are coming to help. They’re much nearer now.” Michael received that sceptically. ‘“‘ That'll be nice—7f they can. The wisest thing you can do is get rid of those horses quickly and let them lay a false trail.” As it grew lighter I was able to see our surroundings better. My father had evidently been right about normality being mocked in those parts. I could scarcely recognize a single tree—there were familiar trunks, but with the wrong kinds of leaves; there were familiar branches, growing out of the wrong kinds of bark, and here and there fantastic fences of immense brambles. Once there was a stretch of open ground that looked like a dried river-bed covered with pebbles, but the pebbles turned out comiclooks. con .