Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

CHANNING COMES THROUGH. ‘“Somebody’s fannin’ it, Vallon,” he said sharply. ‘“‘ Put out that light!” Vallon’s leap and the darkening of the interior of the bunk house seemed to come simultaneously. Channing stepped to a cor- ner of the building outside, where he could watch the coming rider. He felt Vallon beside him. The horseman was riding fast, and was heading straight for the bunk house. ‘Somethin’s sure eatin’ im!” Vallon. Channing felt Vallon’s right arm move and he covered Vallon’s rigid fingers with a soothing palm. He had caught a glimpse of the rider’s figure in the moonlight. ‘Vou won’t be needin’ your gun, Vallon,” he said. ‘It’s Jim Hale.” ‘Looks mighty suspicious for a sheriff to come rarin’ into camp like that!” grumbled Vallon.. But his hand dropped from the pistol holster. Both men stepped into view when the horseman came close. He saw them, for he brought his horse to a sliding halt within said half a dozen paces of them, and leaned” forward to peer at them. _ | “You're sort of draggin’ it some, eh, Hale?” greeted Channing. “ Whew!” A deep sigh of relief surged from the sheriff. “ Thought I’d have to ride to the south camp!” he wheezed. ‘‘ Number Ten is wrecked. Fifty miles east! At Corwin’s Gap. She split a switch an’ run head on into Number Six! There’s a dozen people killed! They’re bringin’ ’em back to Red Mesa! Hook up your hoodlum wagon an’ beat it!” Before the sheriff had ceased speaking Channing and Vallon were running toward the stable. Number Ten was the train that had taken Eve and Warren eastward. CHAPTER II. “7 RECKON YOU WOULD.” ¥T was two o’clock in the morning when | the hoodlum wagon, driven by Channing, ‘with Vallon sitting on the seat beside him, arrived at Red Mesa. Long before ae _—— — -_ 645 the wagon reached the town Channing and Vallon could see a row of rectangular lights stabbing the darkness and the headlight of an engine streaking the western distance. Channing surmised that an engine had been sent on from Red Rock, eastward, to bring the undamaged coaches and the in- jured passengers to Red Mesa. And before the hoodlum wagon reached the edge of town the engine and a single car steamed westward, bound, Channing supposed, to Laskar for medical assistance. Channing’s teeth were set, his face white, his jaws corded. Jim Hale had brought no names of the victims, and Channing’s terrible impatience had expressed itself in the way he had driven the horses from the - Circle B. There had been times on the trip when Vallon had been bounced completely off the seat of the wagon. His head had been bumped in a dozen different places. Half a dozen times he had opened his lips to protest te Channing, but a glance at the grim figure beside him had been enough to dissuade him. But Vallon sighed with a vast relief when the wagon came to a’ halt near the station platform at Red Mesa. Vallon remained in the seat for an instant to felicitate himself upon his safe arrival, and in that instant he saw Channing run- ning toward the train. The hoodlum wagon was filled with bed- ding, most of which Channing had taken from the Circle B ranch house. Vailon, whose mind was intensely practical, clam- bered down from the seat, entered the wagon from the rear and began to get the bedding into a semblance of order. Channing leaped the railroad tracks and made his way down the platform toward a group of people. He saw that Red Mesa’s lights were all ablaze. Lanterns were bobbing here and there, and the lights from the windows of the coaches streamed upon the platform. A crowd of men and women was grouped near the steps of one of the coaches, other men were hurrying back and forth between Red Mesa’s buildings and the station platform, carrying various objects. A negro porter from one of the coaches was Carrying a flimsy canvas couch across the street toward the platform. He stum- oO COTMmMicooolkSse© > fit