Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

ee MYSTERY LAND. the breeze’ as soon as you’ve got your grub.” Bassett went back into the house. He stood at one of the rear windows, where he could watch the bunk and mess houses, the corral, and the stable. And when, an hour later, he saw Vallon come out, rope his horse, throw saddle and bridle on, and ride southward, he smiled. Well, he’d got Vallon away, and he had made the first move toward the consumma- tion of his plans.. There was no backing out now, even if the old fear of Channing should return. But he knew the fear wouldn’t return; ’ he knew he had conquered it. Why, never in all the days of his acquaintance with Channing had he felt so sure of himself. He’d “ fix” Channing now! He walked out upon the rear veranda and stood there until the traveling dust ~ cloud southward diminished until it was nothing but a wisp. Then he went to the stable, opened the doors, and set a prop against them. A little later he was lean- ing over the top of the partition of the box stall, looking at the wild horse. The horse lunged at Bassett, teeth bared, ears flat, his glossy neck smooth and sin- uous as a snake’s body. When Bassett shrank back away from the clashing teeth, the horse reared upright and tried to strike’ Bassett with his hoofs. Bassett’s face paled with rage. “So that’s your game, is it, you black devil!” he said. oo, He ‘drew out his six-shooter. Realizing ‘that he would never get a hackamore on the black while the animal was in posses- sion of his senses, he decided to “ crease’ him. Creasing, however, was dangerous, if a man wanted to keep the animal he creased; and Bassett waited for a. few min- utes, knowing that his hand was slightly unsteady. He’d helped break a great many wild horses, but to break one effectually and without danger to the breaker required the services of two or three men—two at the least. There wasn’t anybody around to help him, so he’d have to do the breaking alone. That required drastic action. He got down from the partition, went stable. into the house, and got a rifle. He took a hackamore from a peg, laid it on the floor of the stable near the door of the box stall, got a lariat and placed it alongside the hackamore. Then with the rifle in hand he climbed again to the top of the partition. He had to wait a long time before the horse turned its head slightly away from him and stood for an instant motionless. Then Bassett took quick though careful aim with the rifle and pulled the trigger. He ~ had planted the bullet through the cartilage -at the top of the black’s neck, just above the spinal processes, near the poll. The horse pitched forward and fell, flat on his side, to the floor of the stall. The animal was apparently lifeless, but Bassett: knew better. The shot had been a cunning one, and the horse was merely stunned. Within a few minutes, save for a slight dizziness and a trifling loss of blood, he would be as good as ever. Bassett ipoed down from the partition, dropped the rifle, leaped to the door of the box stall, and threw it open. Then he grabbed the hackamore, entered the stall, and slipped the device over the head of the recumbent animal. - He got the lariat, tied one end of it to the hackamore, which was of Spanish in- vention, and its ropes and straps so ar- ranged that a steady, strong pull upon it would close fast upon the nose and make - breathing difficult. Running the rope un- der the door of the box stall, he closed the latter, locked it, and went for another horse. “ | Within a few minutes he rode into the He ‘dismounted, took up the free end of the lariat and- fastened ‘it to the saddle, so that it could be released with a single jerk. Mounting again, he rode to the door of the stall and swung it wide open. The black horse had regained its feet. It stood, legs asprawl, head down, breath- ing shrilly. When it felt the pull of the rope leading from its muzzle to Bassett’s saddle, it at first resisted. But when the hackamore’s noose closed under the pull and breathing became difficult, the wild horse followed Bassett’s horse out of the stable. ?