Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

MYSTERY LAND. gate of the horse corral, opened it, entered, slid the bar into place and began to walk toward three or four horses which were grouped together, watching him. He walked toward the horses, singling out Midnight. Midnight snorted when Bassett continued to approach him, kicked up his heels and raced to the far side of the cor- ral, where he stood, his nostrils flaring, watching Bassett. Bassett was amused. Midnight, he ob- served, had not forgotten him. That was good; he wanted Midnight to remember; that was what he had been figuring on. Bassett was now smiling with straight lips. His eyes were hard as agates. A strange pallor had come into his face, al- though a spot of deep red glowed in each cheek. He was breathing shallowly, with sharp, rapid, shrill inhalations. The calm that had enveloped him for many days was gone. His hands trembled as he shifted the rope he carried; he swayed as he walked around the corral seeking to get within throwing distance of Midnight. Bassett was in the grip of the strange malady that he had been fighting for years. Midnight seemed to sense the transforma- tion in the men. He was wild with rage and fear as he whipped around the corral trying to keep away from the rope. He saw the rope in Bassett’s right hand. The sinuous loop he dreaded was swinging in the right hand, the rope’s end was in Bassett’s left. Midnight’s eyes were alight with a red fire. Bassett made several casts, but Mid- night adroitly evaded them, and each time he escaped he snorted and bared his teeth, Relentlessly, remorselessly, Bassett pur- sued Midnight. Bassett betrayed absolute- ly no discouragement at his frequent misses. He seeemd to expect to miss; it was as though he had had this same experience with Midnight before and knew exactly what was in prospect. Bassett’s movements were unhurried, de- liberate. The straight lipped smile stayed. It was fixed: it was a smirk that advertised the tenacity of his purpose. He made no sound as he followed Midnight around the corral; his pursuit was inexorable; it could have but -sne end. 228, The end came with startling suddenness. Bassett made a feint with the rope. Mid- night dodged, wheeled and bolted. He hadn’t taken half a dozen strides when the noose slipped over his head. Frenziedly he fought the noose.. He backed away and shook his head like a ter- rier shaking a rat. The noose tightened, and he had to lunge forward to keep from choking to death. The lunge brought him a moment’s respite, and anticipating free- dom he reared to his hind legs, pawed at the rope with both forelegs. When he came down he leaped directly away from Bassett. But with a swift flirt of the arm Bassett twirled the rope around the snub- bing post in the center of the corral, and when Midnight’s third or fourth leap pulled the rope suddenly taut his head was drawn between his forelegs. He turned completely over and landed heavily on his side. There he stayed, mo- tionless, the breath knocked out of him, while Bassett, releasing the rope from the snubbing post, leaned over him and twisted a loop about his muzzle. Then the rope was slipped off Midnight’s neck. He rose and stood trembling. He knew the fight was over, that he had been con- quered. Still trembling, he permitted Bassett to lead him out of the corral. The corral gate, self-closing, banged behind horse and man. Bassett’s lips were still in the straight smile, though his breathing was heavier. Midnight, too, was breathing shrilly, for he had fought hard. this spectacle it must have been apparent that the horse knew he was beaten and that Bassett, in-the rdle of victor, had not yet completed his victory. He led Midnight into the big stables; into a stout box stall. He loosed the rope around Midnight’s muzzle, slipped the bar on the door into place. Then he walked to the stable door and gazed toward the ranch house. | There had been no witnesses to the scene in the corral; there was no sign of life around the ranch house. Bassett closed the stable door, locked it. He went back to the box stall, climbed to COMIC IOOLKCS Had one been watching © (E)