by Nelson Nye
Too tired really to sort out his thoughts, Rafe decided this weather was enough to depress anyone, and let it go at that. He whistled two or three times the signal he'd taught the skewbald to answer and, when this failed to fetch her, set off for the bosque. She'd either gone too far to hear, seemed like, or was too busy foraging to pay him any mind.
He couldn't remember when he'd been so whipped out. This clammy air stuck the shirt to his shoulders and brewed a discomfort where the belts crossed his belly, and the dreary look of that droopy woods pressed down like the lid of a coffin.
God, he was cheerful!
Luce, he reckoned, would probably marry that puncher. With what she'd come into when the Old Man kicked off they'd be pretty well fixed—a heap better than most in these parlous times. Not that he envied them! He'd traveled too long by himself, been too free, to look with much favor on being pinned down with the problems of as ranch—not to mention the gold or the burdens—he grimaced—of double harness! Nope, he sure wasn't cut out for that.
He rasped stubbly cheek, thought of Bunny, and scowled.
The brush of the bosque and the half-stripped trees, conjuring as these did the other times he'd been in them, were harder on his mood than that depressing damn street. The leaves hung as limp as a parson's coat tails. He had no idea where to look for the mare. He whistled again, shoving on through the brush, half-minded to settle for a bed at the hotel. Then he heard a faint whicker and pulled up to let her find him.
After three or four minutes he remembered what he was standing there for and whistled again. When she still didn't come he started testily after her; sometimes she could be about as obstinate as a mule. The spindling trees grew thicker in here. He was beginning to work up a sweat with all this bumbling around. Once more he whistled and heard her answer off to the left. Pushing through a scratchy thicket he broke into a forty-foot clearing and saw her, tied with a cotton rope around her neck.
While he was staring a gun went off. The clearing spun dizzily. Rafe didn't hardly know he was hit till he found himself peering up off the ground into the blurred grinning face of Jess Spangler. He saw the gun tip again and frantically rolled. Spangler fired twice before Rafe got his own pistol out of its holster. Desperately Rafe raised it, feeling the bite of fresh pain along his ribs, hearing screams somewhere back of him and suddenly remembering he'd forgotten to reload. Spangler crazily was running toward him when Rafe squeezed the trigger. Six feet away he saw Spangler crumple; and then Bunny Pike had him tight in her arms and he knew everything was going to be all right.
THE END
Transcriber edits to original text:
page 12:
from: "you've waked up!" How do you feel?"
to: "you've waked up! How do you feel?"
page 14:
from: he hadn't asked to be saved,"
to: he hadn't asked to be saved,
page 23:
from: Slim as a willow-busty, too.
to: Slim as a willow—busty, too.
page 30:
from: tycoons at him every hour of the night, any pore
to: tycoons at him every hour of the night, any poor
page 34:
from: came hotfooting out from the bar with a bungstarter
to: came hotfooting out from the bar with a bung starter
page 40:
from: ensconsed
to: ensconced
page 41:
from: "If you're wantin' 'em forclosed
to: "If you're wantin' 'em foreclosed
page 42:
from: He's a plenty rough customer
to: he's a plenty rough customer
page 47:
from: Pride was fine, but it made a poor supher.
to: Pride was fine, but it made a poor supper.
from: tick-tacktoe
to: tick-tack-toe
page 53:
from: He saw there too shocked
to: He sat there too shocked
page 66:
from: to take a peek
to: to take a peek,
from: It's impared the circulation
to: It's impaired the circulation
page 75:
from: as though she's sprouted two heads
to: as though she'd sprouted two heads
page 82:
from: waited to if Spangler's gunhawk would show
to: waited to see if Spangler's gunhawk would show
page 88:
from: Rafe stared, finally modding.
to: Rafe stared, finally nodding.
page 91:
from: You wouldn' have known he was drunk
to: You wouldn't have known he was drunk
page 137:
from: Somebody could get bad hurt—
to: Somebody could get bad hurt—"