Frederick Ritchie Bechdolt

“ While the stock tenders were unhooking the sweating horses and bringing up the fresh team, Wes Carter remained in the little barroom. Here was some semblance of coolness and the benignancy of shade; he would have to spend time enough within the overheated coach at best. So he came forth at the last moment when the half-broken bronchos were scuffling in their traces with four men hanging to the leaders’ bits. From his seat where he was doing his best to restrain the plunging wheelers the driver nodded down at him.
“Make it lively,” he growled. “We ain’t got all day.” ”

“ I want to try a shot at a road runner.” A moment later her arm appeared holding the weapon through the window. He leaped down beside the wagon track and took the rifle from her hand. “Much obliged,” he growled. The stage creaked on.
Here where the flanks of the mountains drew away a cairn of granite boulders stood. Wes Carter climbed to its summit and sank down among the rocks. The creaking of the harness and the rasp of the iron tires was already growing fainter. Save for himself and the receding stage the place was without any sign of life. ”

“ A man’s thoughts, if he be accustomed to action, move swiftly in emergencies. Wes Carter said no word but, rising to his feet—the while he steadied himself with one hand against the lurchings of the coach—he passed the other hand before his lips. ”

“ He lay watching the spot below him where the mountains seemed to touch. The seconds dragged. Then suddenly the space down there beside the dried stream bed was filled with lean brown forms. Their black hair was slapping the warriors’ cheeks; their turbans were bobbing in the sunlight as they came trotting on. The voice of Wes Carter’s rifle broke the silence. ”

“ The lines deepened between his brows. He rubbed the place where Tom Pierce’s forty-five caliber slug was imbedded in his muscles. Gradually the violence of motion was subsiding.
“They’ve steadied down at last.” The girl was smiling at him. Wes Carter nodded.
“Yes, ma’am, we’re climbing up into them little mountains. They’ll be tame enough now, I reckon.”
The noise had died away; the steady creaking of the coach body on its strap hinges was the loudest sound. She settled back into her corner; her eyelids were beginning to droop. Wes Carter sat bolt upright staring before him. ”

“ Twice each man’s finger had pressed the trigger. Now, when the darkness put an end to marksmanship, Tom Pierce was leaning against the wall; Wes Carter was lying on the floor, striving to prop himself up with one arm. The voice of the proprietor broke the silence.
“The’s eighteen buckshot in each of these barrels. First man that moves is going to get ’em.” ”

“ The other shook his head.
“The’s a mile steep climbing near the top. The best that I can do is save ’em fer the grade.”
Now as they reached the canyon mouth where the road twined upward among low rounded knolls, Wes Carter looked behind again. Already the specks had grown larger; he could see the bobbing of the turbans in the bright sunlight. A moment later a curve had shut them out of sight.
“How will they organize their game?” he asked. The driver flicked one of the mules.
“They’ve got it figgered out to a gnat’s ear. The town lays over there acrost the summit. ”

“ Somewhere among the boulders on the canyonside the living warriors in accordance with the old custom of their breed, were dragging away the dead. The noise of the approaching horses grew louder. Wes Carter raised himself from his shelter and felt the warmth of fresh blood on his arm, $o they found him with sleeve uprolled, examining the superficial hurt. ”

“ For the first time since he had left his father’s house, he realized that there were other things in life besides the hard joys and the grim purposes which had been his portion. Such few good women as he had seen in the wild country west of the Llano Estacado were worn with work and hardship ”

“ From the beginning they were weaving from side to side, each striving to keep himself from being a target and, at the same time, centering his faculties on putting a bullet into the other. To those who watched behind the flimsy barricades of chairs and overturned tables it was immediately evident that there was no spot within the room which was safe. ”

“ Ef we pull up on one of these here hills to make a stand, they’ll take their time becuz they know no one will hear the shooting and they will have till dark to clean us out. Ef we go on, they’ll jump us som’ers fu’ther up where the canyon is narrow; and they’ll aim to finish the job before help comes. ”