The Rangeland Avenger

ping, hunting, cooking, and all the lore of the trail, Lowrie stood as a valuable resource; and Sandersen was the dreamy, resolute spirit, who had hoped for gold in th

orning mist. He was the very spirit of lost causes, full of apprehensions, foreboding, superstitions. A hunch

o parched by that day's ride that he dared not open his lips to sing, as he usually did. He compromised by humming songs new and old, and when his companions

o days before, the blow had fallen. They found Sawyer's water hole nearly dry, just a little pool in the center, with caked, dead mud all around it. They drained that water dry and struck on. Since then the wa

nce of the desert would have crushed them; otherwise the lure of the mountains would have maddened them and made them push on until the horses would have died within five miles of the labor

wled at Hal Sinclair wh

I'll bet the rest of you I can drill

iciency with firearms where a man is apt to reach for his gun to decide an argument. Now Lowrie followed the direction of Sincl

"Save your wind and your ammunition

der. But a grin spread on the broad, ugly face of

you for

op

doll

op

raid to tr

Lowrie flushed. He had a childis

t, kid. G

it dexterously, swinging it back and forth between h

ed Hal Sincl

forgot to look for the results of Lowrie's shot. They reined their horses away from the pitching broncho disgustedly. Sinclair was a fool to use up the last of his mustang's strength in this manner. But Hal Sinclair had for

tugged at a leg that seemed glued to the ground, and then buckled suddenly and collapsed on one sid

mount. The huge strength of Quade sufficed to budge the writhing mustang. Lowrie a

ie who shot

y to the prostrate figure of Sinclair. "Four men a

. "Do something for

turned out the foot. It was painfully twi

!" said Sincl

ead horse, at the white-hot deser

do? You've spoiled all

! But tie up that foot befo

oked across at the skull of the steer. It was still there, very close. It seemed to have grown larger, with a horrible significance. And each instinctively put a man's skull beside it, bleached and

e said, "might

put him into Quade's saddle. Quade was the largest, and it was mutely accepted that he should be the first to walk, while Sinclair rode. It was ac

on the back of the thigh, and then the ball of the foot slipped back in the midst of a stride. Also

was barely

the desert. Now it was low in the sky, but bitterly hot. And their mourn

half an hour at a time, walking and then changing horses, and, as each

the moment; and, as far as lay in his cheery, thoughtless nature, he had come to regret it. The work of the trail had taught him that he wa

dersen's tu

e a turn walking,"

ef prayer for Riley Sinclair. There was a man who would have walked all day that his brother might ride, and at the end of the day that man of iron would be as fresh as those who ha

: "Maybe I could take a

o a stirrup and h

ed, and Sandersen reto

ssible, but I ought

s not possible. The twisted

sen to mount, and Lowrie to take his turn on foot. Sandersen snatc

d take it easy. Me and the rest has to go through hell. You take some of the hell y

at the others. Their faces

endless hours, it seemed, pouring down a fiercer heat. And the foothill

He lifted his arms to the cloud of dust as if it were a vision of mercy. To Hal Sinclair it seemed that cold water was already running over his tong

in't riders; it comes too fast for that. And it ain't the wi

ing along at a steady lope. They sighted the men and veered swiftly to the left. A moment later there was only a thin trai

ng at water," he said.

ole fifty miles away. N

r. Quade was cursing thickly with every other step. When it came his turn to ride he d

and vaguely he suspected their treacherous meanness.

dersen, and again, with the wolfish side glances, they eyed the injured man, w

t you got to be dropped behind for a time. We're going on to fin

ned his lips, b

dden passion. "Say, do you want three men to

you don't mean it! Not alone out here! You boys can'

to Lowrie, and the latter stared a

in his powerful arms and lowered him to the sands. "

t's all of us or none of us," he said.

s hastily to the hills,

r them, not one da

f all the work we've done

ised the weary brutes into a gallop; the voice faded in

the position of the sun. Once Sandersen, in the grip of some passion of remorse or of fear of death, bowed his head with a strange moan

had scented drink, and they became unmanageable. Five minutes later the animals were up to their

t one another in a stunned fashion. There see

appy gent when he sees us coming bac

thers for a moment. Then they be

your ide

you glad to take the idea? Are

ed Lowrie. "Ain't we go

left him? We'd have to l

tell. We'll

pretty sudden," said Lowrie, t

e puts that brother

rd. "Well-" he bega

ould make them lose the position of their comrade. When they were quite near the place, the semidarkness had come, and Quade began to sho

one the wrong way. He should have

nted and found Hal Sinclair dead and cold. Perhaps the insanity of thirst had taken him; perhaps he had figured it out methodically that it was better to end things before the madness c

ie with curious quiet. "Take a

seized on Sandersen. "W

d'you

r Riley Sinclair. And, you mark me, we're all going

id. "Who knows except us? And will one o

, gents. But we done an awful thing, and