The golden west boys, Injun and Whitey to the rescueHart, William S. (William Surrey)
General
The golden west boys, Injun and Whitey to the rescue
Hart, William S. (William Surrey)
Adventure stories; Teenage boys -- Juvenile fiction; Western stories
You, who have followed the adventures of Whitey, know that he had been
in situations in which he was threatened with death. But then he had
been upheld by excitement; by the necessity of protecting himself. And
he had even faced death, but then he had come on it unexpectedly, in the
case of the hanging train robbers. This was a different matter; waiting
to see men burned out and shot down. And it is small wonder that
Whitey's nerves quivered, that the burning house began to dance before
his eyes, and that he buried his face in his arms, to shut out the
sight.
It is unlikely that Walt Lampson had thought of Whitey, until he chanced
to see this action. Then he spoke, and not unkindly.
"You'd better get back there behind the hill, kid," Walt said. "This
ain't no place for you."
And so Whitey rose, and returned to where Monty was tethered, and he
was not ashamed of the fact that he stumbled as he walked. But Injun
still crouched out behind the boulder. There was no quivering of his
nerves. The only fear he might have had was that if he returned he would
be sent to the rear; and he was too wily to take a chance. So most of
what followed was seen by Injun, and heard about by Whitey.
There came the time when the surviving sheepmen could no longer remain
in the house. Like a wise leader, Donald Spellman divided his forces,
and ten crouching figures emerged from the front of the house, and ten
from the back, and were outlined against the flames, as they scurried
away. How they were harried and followed and shot down would not make
pleasant reading, and what happened to those who were captured it is not
necessary to write, as you will remember what the cattlemen had sworn to
do at their meeting.
After this, if there had been any who doubted Mart Cooley's skill as a
gunman, they doubted no longer. And it was the misfortune of Donald
Spellman to come under Mart's aim. Or perhaps it was his good fortune
to be mortally wounded by a bullet, instead of ending his life as did
the captives. But Spellman had something to say before he died, and he
said it to Walt Lampson.
"You got us," he gasped, "an' you got us right. An' I only got one thing
to tell you, an' to tell you quick. I didn't plan that cattle stampede.
It was a dirty trick."
"Who did?" Walter asked eagerly.
And Spellman answered that question with the last words he ever spoke.
It was at this time that Injun, still crouching behind his boulder, saw
something like a miracle--a dead man coming to life. The man had fallen
at the first volley, and the fight had swung past him. And now he rose,
and stole hastily on his moonlit way. Injun watched solemnly. He had no
mind to give a warning, and probably get shot for his pains. He might
even have admired the trick, if he had not had a closer view of the
runaway, who was Henry Dorgan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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