Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 136: what you’re looking at

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

926 drum. The sound dulled the brain and at the same time excited the nerves. Cal felt a crushing sense of danger as he trotted his horse into the dark gorge. When he saw the bowl-shaped canon into which he was about to enter, and ob- served that the entrance was only a small opening which could easily be guarded by a single rider, he realized that he might be walking into a trap. If he had been alone he would not have taken the chance under any consideration. It was not bravery but foolhardiness. He pulled in his mount and took the reins of the girl from her. She made no protest of any sort because of the bewil- dering thunder of the herd. Why her cap- tor had brought her so near a point of cer- tain danger she did not know, although, she argued, it may have been because he had given up. Thirst, hunger, the sun, the mirages, the desert, had defeated him. This was the girl’s conclusion, and it was very near to the truth. She looked up into Cal’s face and saw the first flicker of inde- cision that had come over him since the beginning of their long wanderings. “Why are you stopping here?” she asked. Before answering, Cal looked into her face. ‘How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Are you feeling exhausted?” “An outlaw abducting a woman does not worry about such things,” the girl an- swered. “Vou are exhausted. You couldn’t ride another mile without something to bear you up.” “Tm in your hands. If I fainted with hunger what difference would it make to your” “Then you are about to faint with hun- ger! I'll make a confession to you. I have no more food. I have no more water. I’m up against what you warned me of—when we first started in on our ride. The desert’s beat me—as it beats every one. The sher- iff and Hazen and the rest have just been waiting for me to weaken in my fight—not my fight against them, but against the des- ert. They’ve let the sun and the blistering heat of the cafions back there do their fight- ing for them. And Ill tell you out and out, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, that I’ve just about lost. But understand this first—it’s not the sheriff that has beat me—nor Hazen nor Meakin—”’ “Then you’re giving yourself up by go- ing in here?” the girl asked. “I don’t know. I’ve got to go in to see if that mucker was straight when he told me where I could get food. It’s a desperate chance, but I’ve got to take it. As soon as I enter that little shake barn there I’ll know whether I’ve been tricked or not.” “Tf you were alone what would you do?” the girl asked. “Td stay in the desert and be damned first!” “It’s for me then you’re going in here?” Cal pressed his mount over to the girl, and tried to read a meaning into her words by staring intently at here upturned face. He had no answer to her question, although he tried hard to say something. Instead he could only swear to himself, his face flushing hotly. When she returned his gaze he dug his heels into his horse’s flanks, cantering off and leading her mount by the reins. But Nan knew the answer to her ques- tion, and she thought over it from then on. This man—a prospector—who could prob- ably stand days of hunger and thirst in the desert, had come back into what looked like a certain trap. And this he had done so that the woman who was his captive could be refreshed with food and drink. “ After all, there might not be food there,”’ Nan said as they galloped into the canon. “Where that ore crusher is there is water,” Cal returned. ‘ At least we’ll get some of this alkali dust out of our throats.” Cal stopped when he saw that ore crush- er and a thought came to him. He resolved to play safe and to enter the shack with the supposition that a trap had really been set for him. There was no necessity, he concluded, of riding past the ore crusher where there might be a snipe shooter ready to drop him. He circled the creek bed, giving this hiding place a berth of a hun- dred yards. Reaching the shack he dismounted with the girl and advanced toward the door, walking one of the horses before him as a comicloool C©