Adventure, February 1917 — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

Strict Justice, and Cheap over the paved highway at better than sev- enty miles an hour, excepting on the steep- est part of the grade at the pass. All the rough way to Saugus the car kept at a pace that would make the ordinary speeder gasp and swear that he had never ridden fast in his life before. At Saugus they stopped to ask questions of three peo- ple, the station agent, the man who sold them gasoline ahd a rancher who had come in from the direction of Acton. The agent said they were the first persons that had come to Saugus to take the trail, the gaso- line man said the price of gasoline had gone up a cent, and the rancher said the road to Acton was fair. Again the racing car took up its speeding and went rolling and bumping over the road to Acton at a rate that would have made an accident insurance agent cancel the pol- icy of any one he saw riding in it at that rate on such a road. That twenty-eight miles had enough real experience in it to qualify the riders for admission to any rough-riders’ regiment that might be or- ganized in the future. At Acton Logan hunted up a man he knew and in a half-hour from the time he had landed in town he was.off across coun- try on an old trail which he seemed to know perfectly. He left the driver of the car with only a nod and “thank you” but the driver gave hima blithe “good luck” ashe backed his car around to begin his return trip. Logan held the trail he had started out on till he was about seven miles from the town of Acton and then swung out to the north- east across an untracked ridge that led him over to another trail which he followed to- ward Cajon Pass. About three miles west of the pass he turned up a cafion and checked his horse. Swinging off he examined the ground in the dim light. The sun was well down be- hind the ridge and it would be dark in a short time now. He found nothing to indicate the passage of any one either on foot or on horseback. He had kept his own horse well away from the trail itself and now he led the animal back among the trees and unsaddled him. Leading the horse into a little side cafion, that held a fair supply of grass, he hobbled him and turned him loose. Going back to where he had left the saddle he carried it to a thick clump of bushes close to the trail 175 and prepared for the night by rolling him- self in his blankets and resting his head on his saddle. He was close enough to the trail to hear a fox’s pads if one passed. “There!” he thought, “I’ve landed ahead of them just as I had an idea I would. They won’t expect any one to be on their trail who knows their old track and camp- ing-place. If I’d told those guys in town what I had in mind they would have spoiled it all by wanting a crowd to come along. This is one man’s job and I owe it to Jim to be the man. _I’ll be there on the job, Jim, old scout. And there won’t be any miscount made, either.” He lay with his eyes watching the sky and his thoughts far off in the past, the film that held his past life running swiftly past his mental vision. He saw himself as an orphan boy, sensitive, silent, the butt for every rougher boy’s jokes and horse- play. He saw himself taken into a family and treated as one of their own. He saw the sweet-faced woman who had taught him to call her aunt, though there was no relationship. He remembered the words he had said to her at the last parting: ‘Some day, I don’t know when, but some - day I'll show you what it has meant tome to have your care and love. Any time you need me I'll be there, no matter what it costs me, even to my life.” He would never forget the kiss she had given him then and her low-toned assurance that she knew and trusted him. ‘““You have been a good boy, Billy, and I have learned to love you as my own. I shall pray for you always and no matter when, or how you come home, there will always be a welcome for you here.” And the silent man that few other men understood wiped salt tears from his cheeks as he lay there with his head on his saddle. As the stars came out and the sunset light faded from the sky the mountain for- est became as still as the workings in a de- serted mine. The day voices were stilled and the voices of the night had not yet awakened. It was as if the vespers call had shut every mouth and hushed every sound till the moment of prayer had passed. Be- fore the night voices had begun to sound, Logan was well and soundly sleeping. He minded not the creeping things or the hunt- ing noises of small animals. His sleep was as sweet and deep as that of a child, yet his ears were tuned to catch one sound. ,OoOk (COy EONMIC