Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

ited AAA A in A bet 7 die, watching her. 588 gave the animal under her his head and fled | recklessly into the yawning distance that stretched before her. CHAPTER XXI. | BLOCKADED. EFORE Edna had ridden a mile she knew she had made her second mis- take of the morning. ‘The horse she _ rode had been traveling since midnight the night before, and in that time had had neither feed nor water, and the terrific pace at which he had traveled the mile after she had sighted the horseman at the edge of Willets had winded him. She heard his breath coming in shrill wheezes, and she despairingly searched for a covert in which she might hide in an effort to throw the horseman off her trail. featureless except for clumps — of cactus growing here and there, and some rolling corrugations which were not deep enough to offer concealment. Far away to her left was a line of timber, but the horseman had kept in sight of her and she knew she would — not be able to escape in that direction. So, clenching her teeth determinedly, she lashed the horse with the quirt she carried. The action drew a burst of speed out of the animal, but presently he began to falter again, saad despite all her urging the pace _ erew slower and slower. Meantime, the pursuing horseman came on at a pace that now seemed leisurely. It appeared to Edna that he was enjoying her plight and, there being no danger of inter- ference, was permitting her to ride until the horse would carry her no farther. Once, when the horse stumbied and halt- ed, to stand with its legs braced while it shrilled breath into its lungs, the horseman also halted and sat motionless in the sad- He was, she estimated, perhaps a half mile distant. Later, when her horse went on again, the rider followed. In a shallow arroyo which descended to a gully, her horse again halted. This time, having reached the end of the levél land, she could not see eae - horseman immediately. offer her no assistance. left the town when he had set: N ayer upon ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. _ But after a short interval, just when she was meditating deserting the horse and tak- ing to feot in an effort to seek concealment in some wild brush that grew at the bottom of the gully, she saw the horseman appear on the edge of the plain above. Again he halted and watched her. He was not more than a few hundred feet dis- tant now and she got a good view of his face. The horseman was Naylor, the man who had been with es in the cabin the night before. But she was not cate surprised, for - if her pursuer hadn’t been Naylor, it would have. been’ another of Travis’s friends. She realized now the reason for his strange un- concern, for his. decision not to attempt to - hold her in Willets. She felt she also knew what he had meant 2 when he had warned her of the uselessness But there was no covert. The level was — of disclosing her predicament to any of the town’s inhabitants. The reason was that all the people who lived in Willets were his friends and he could depend upon them to And she had hardly her ira. = Somehow, she didn’t ie inde ‘Nay- lor was under orders, and the. fact that he so far hadn’t attempted to molest her ‘indicated that he didn’t intend violence. ‘Naylor had been sent to capture her. There was little doubt of his ability to do that, and it appeared to her that he was merely waiting for her to reach a certain point before he attempted it. She got her horse going again. She rode him down into the gulley, and through the place until she reached a stream of water that intersected: it. 7 The horse refused to go farther. He halted at the bank of the stream, plunged his muzzle into the water, and drank. Naylor rode close and sat in the saddle, watching. Edna did not look at him, al- though she had heard him approach. “TI reckon he’ll founder hisself, ma’am,” he said. “Oh!” she exclaimed scornfully. “So you are here! Perhaps you will be good enough to tell me why you have been fol- lowing me?” : | Comicbooks:.co