Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

452 putting the girl into direct danger. He de- cided that at all costs he would finish the fight before going back to her—at any rate, before leading Taurog to her. If he let Taurog follow him up to the crest of the divide, he argued, the girl might be killed. Another more desperate plan oc- curred to him—a plan of attack which would leave the girl out. As soon as his horse rounded the trail and was out of Taurog’s view behind the cliff, Quade dismounted, whipped the horse sharply with the bight of the reins, and sent it galloping up the trail. Quade waited at the turn of the cliff, and listened for the cautious approach oi Taurog’s mount. Taurog was also listening, and he could hear the striking of the hoofs of Quade’s horse against the rocky trail as it galloped on riderless up the canon. He judged that it must be five hundred yards ahead on the other side of the cliff. Thus, without a mo- ment’s hesitation, he rounded the point of the cliff to meet face to face with Quade himself. Quade darted out to the center of the path; the horse reared, panic-stricken, and backed to the edge of the trail where the base of the cliff sloped. down sharp to the cafion bed two hundred feet below. Tau- rog drew, but the reins which he had thrown over his arm were suddenly jerked and the gun shot futilely into the air. The horse had side-stepped, and with the added fright of the shot, it fell back to its haunches. Its weight started a tiny landslide of rocks and Taurog, firing wildly with one hand, clutched at his pommel with the other, fear- ing to be plunged down into the canon bed. * Quade leaped back to the other side of the trail as he saw the horse pawing wildly for a footing. The big steed struck only at the loose dirt, doubled up convulsively as if back-jumping in the empty air, and fell backwards. Taurog tried to leap—but the leap was too late, and there were the reins about his wrist. It was almost an hour later that Jug Trilles, with four other horsemen of the posse, came into the canon. They took a longer time than Taurog had taken in riding the trail of the canon bed. Night had fallen, and their progress was slow. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Tf Taurog don’t meet up with them afore pitch dark, it ain’t no use,” Trilles said. ‘“‘ Them nags the gal picked can walk away from us ifethey gits a night’s rest.” “It’s pitch dark now,” one of the posse replied. ‘I’m gettin’ all tore up with this here brush, and my nag’s stumblin’!” Halfway up the canon Trilles made a startling discovery. He saw the shapeless piebald body of a horse sprawled upon a pile of rocks and rattleweed a hundred yards above the creek bed. He called to his men, and they hurried up, examined the lacerated carcass, the torn reins, and the saddle crushed beneath the horse’s stomach. Trilles looked up to the cliff, which was now a huge, black eindistinct form. Stars were beyond it. The men dismounted, beat their way up through the brush and weeds, until they came to the naked granite jutting straight up above them. Trilles stopped and called quietly: ‘“* Taurog is here.” He leaned down over the prostrate still body, which he examined for a long time, while the men stood about silently waiting. Some of them held matches while Trilles examined Taurog’s wounds. “There ain’t no gun-wounds,”’ the little fellow said. “It’s clear to me, men, that for some reason the chief climbed to the upper trail—maybe he wanted to make better time, and the darkness was making the travel hard down here in the brush.” “ But Dll swear I heard gun-firin’,” one of the men objected. ‘“* Maybe so. His gun ain’t in his hol- ster, but then, might he could have lost it. The holster’s tore—just like the saddle. He fell from up thar.” ‘“‘He met up with Quade, that’s what! It’s up to us to go on with the chase.” Trilles stood up, ordered two of the men to put Taurog on a horse, and then looked up into the darkening recesses of the canon. Quade and the girl were up there , im the end of the cafion, he knew. Proba- bly they were zigzagging over its steep, rocky bluffs to the western trail beyond. It was a difficult climb, Trilles recalled, and a dangerous one in the dark which was overtaking the pursuers. COmiclbooks.Gom