Argosy All-Story Weekly, August 9, 1924 — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

CHANNING COMES THROUGH. view, and Channing retraced his steps until he stood at the hitching rack where he had tied his horse. He led the animal back to a stable behind the restaurant, where he gave him a light feed. He settled with Breen for the feed while the horse was in the stable. Afterward, nodding shortly to Breen, he mounted and rode back the way he had come. “That guy’s a fooler,” mentally re- marked Breen, who was covertly watching Channing as the latter rode. ‘‘ You don’t know how to take him. One of them quiet kind. First he asts about Givens. Then he wants to know about a doctor. He ain’t none flustered because neither Givens or the doc is around. But somethin’ is boilin’ in him!” Channing kept his horse going southeast- ward until he was certain he could no longer be seen from Laskar. Then, where the land began to slope downward he vanished into a forest of spruce. At a distance of several miles from where he entered the forest the trees grew sparse. He veered off and got into some broken country, where a growth of wild brush concealed him from view. He finally rode out of the brush, spurred his horse across a ridge and for several miles traveled along its base. About mid-after- noon he reached a river. The river was the Wolf, mentioned by Breen as running past Nelly’s place. Channing dismounted, built a small fire and lunched frugally upon dried soda bis- cuit and jerked beef, obtained from his slicker. The food had been taken from the chuck box in the mess house the day be- fore yesterday, when he and Vallon had laid plans to ride to the south camp. That plan had been spoiled along with others he had made. He would ride no more with Vallon. So great was his emo- tion over thought of Vallon that he could not eat after he got to thinking of Vallon. He restored the food to the slicker and stretched himself upon some grass in the shade of a tree and stared at the sky. Dusk was upon him when he watered the horse, mounted and rode on. He now trav- eled southwestward, close to the river, skirt- ing the trees and brush that grew along its bank. Where there were open spaces upon which no brush or trees grew he. halted the horse and sat for long periods scanning the country in all directions. However, when darkness came he pressed on steadily, though he continued his vigi- lance. In Laskar he had seemed to Breen to be unhurried and unconcerned, but all the time he had been in Laskar he had been seeth- ing with a terrible impatience. He had definitely determined upon the nature of his revenge upon Givens and the others. He might have waited in Laskar for the three men to appear; he had thought of waiting. Sooner or later they would have come. But he had no intention of forcing a meeting at a time when the three would be together. The odds would be too great. And when he had observed how Mellert had looked at him he felt that Mellert had suspected his mission in town and had gone to Pete Nelly’s place to warn Givens. And Givens, knowing him to be alone, would come to Laskar to look for him, bringing Montana and Douglas and perhaps some others, with him. Channing wouldn’t be caught that way. He wanted to meet the men, but he wanted to bring about the meetings in his own way and in his own time. If he had met the men in Laskar when he had got there he would have taken his chance, for they would - have been surprised and unprepared. Now, with Mellert warning them, they would move with great caution. That was perfectly proper, of course; he could not object to that. Nor could they object if he attempted to match his cun- ning against theirs. He rode on. He knew the country fairly well, for he had ridden over it many times in the past. And about nine o’clock, when the moon rose and flooded the country with a soft, mystic light, he again kept close to the screening brush and trees. Later he rode down into a basin, through a maze of tangled bushes that covered the spaces between big cottonwood trees and gnarled, spreading fir-balsam. He found the river again at a point where it tumbled down a rocky slope to spread broadly into shallows on the floor of the basin; and he followed the stream until he caught a flick- 265 GOMIIGIOO SS (©