Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

450 a horrible thought it seems to men now— that I should hate you for that! I hated you for it—but no, it was not hate. You know how to interpret what a woman says: sometimes a woman will mean she hates when she bursts out into a fury like that— and sometimes she means that she loves ten times more passionately than if she said, ‘1 love you ’!” Quade drew the girl to him, but as Kirbie lifted up her face she drew back. Quade turned to look in the direction she pointed. The two lovers could see the entire ex- panse of the great plain which they had just crossed. In the center they could see six little clouds of dust, each one spreading. from a tiny dot to a thin wreath and then* fading out to a purple smirch. The six parallel lines of smoke were advanc- ing slowly across the face of the plain. Quade and the girl immediately mounted their horses and swung back to the trail. They spurred their mounts up the steep in- cline until they reached a hillock from which point they could again see the desert val- ley. One cloud of dust was considerably in advance of the others. ‘“Taurog has sent posses in every direc- tion,” the girl said. ‘‘ But our mounts are the best on the range—if they hold out.” They pressed on higher and higher until the foothills steepened and the two riders were obliged to follow the contours of stream beds. They plunged into the bear- brush of a steep caiion, gaining the upper edge as she shadows of the evening were lengthening to purple. Then another higher cafion, leading up onto the flat of a mesa. The low western sun beat into their faces as they topped this crest, and looking back they could see the long, mauve-colored darkness cast over the desert by the moun- tain. The first pursuer had reached the foothills and attained a sufficient height to remain still in the rays of the sun. Kirbie looked back and saw the red light falling distinctly upon the tiny form of a horse—like a little speckled bug crawling over the top of a sand-pile. Kirbie recog- nized the horse—white with splotches of black. “Tt’s Taurog’s piebald mustang,” she said. “It can cover the roughest kind of ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ground. It can make as good time in this rough mountain country as our thorough- breds.”’ “Tf it’s Taurog,” Jim said, “ he better stay back with his gang. He’s riding too fast.” They crossed the flat mesa and cut into an arroyo at the western end which wound. upward to the crest of the Big Divide. As soon as they trailed in among the shrub junipers and chaparral of dwarfed ever- green oaks, the walls of the canon enveloped them in a soft twilight. “All this time that I have been with you,” Jim said, “ I have been thinking only of the luck that’s come to me in winning you. I’ve been too happy to remember something else—that the fight I came here to fight is not finished. I came to repay Taurog for the wrong he did me years ago. I must not forget that.” “You must not think of that any more. We must escape—that is the only thing now. You have had your revenge. You started the cattlemen to rebel when you saved the Tumbling L ranch. Taurog’s own gang—the people at Lava and his own gunmen have seen him beaten in a hand-to- hand fight. You have humiliated him. No revenge could be greater than that.” “There is only one kind of revenge for the wrong that I have come to right,” Quade said. ‘‘ And I am going back now. I am going to meet Taurog again!” “You may be killed!” ‘“‘ That is why I want to meet him before he catches up to us. I want to meet him alone. If you are with me—you are put in danger.” The girl went on without heeding him. ‘“* ‘You must not go back! His posse is fol- lowing him. They will kill you!” “ Better that I meet the pesse—than to have them catch us together. I can take chances with my gun-firing alone—but not with you behind me. I must meet them alone. If I can get Taurog first, all the. better. You must wait here for me. Wait where you can see the whole cajion. If I win, stay here till I come. If I am hit, ride on over the divide.” “ Forget the fight and we'll both ride on —to a new life.” COMmiClbooks.Gom