The Long Dim TrailHooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
General
The Long Dim Trail
Hooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
Arizona -- Fiction; Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Western stories
Glendon, in advance of Wentz, heard the shot and looked back. Then
something struck his leg and he felt the blood oozing down into his
boot. Rather than give up now, he determined to follow Wentz' example
and use a bullet on himself.
Ahead of him rose huge boulders, looming like gigantic tombstones. Once
he could attain their shelter, it would be almost impossible for the
posse to catch him, or to take accurate aim. The horse he was riding
responded to the hammering of the man's heels--he had no whip or spurs.
At last he reached the shelter of the rocks and darted in circles from
one to the other, keeping them between himself and any chance bullets.
By degrees, the sounds of shots died away, the voices of his pursuers
ceased. He knew he had outwitted them for the night; but there was no
time to lose before dawn.
When he had pressed on a couple of miles, he pulled up his horse and
slipped to the ground, laying his ear against the wet earth while he
listened intently. But the only sound he heard was the rumble of distant
thunder growing louder and louder. Back of him the sky was inky black,
punctured at short intervals with zigzag streaks of dazzling light. The
storm was already upon the town from which he had escaped.
With a sigh of relief, he examined the wound in his leg. It was
superficial. Glendon tore a sleeve from his shirt and bandaged the
wound. Then, mounting the panting horse, he doubled back on his trail
for a mile and made a cut across the mountains at a point where no one
but an Apache had ever dared to cross, except in daylight.
This trail had not been used for a long time. Glendon knew the danger of
it; but death in the mountains at the bottom of a gully, was preferable
to the Yuma Penitentiary for ten years, or longer.
By morning the rain would have completely obliterated his tracks, and
the posse would, no doubt, continue their search in the direction they
had last seen him following. He realized there was another danger. He
was trying to reach the Circle Cross. The authorities would probably
telegraph to Willcox and a posse be started from that point to Hot
Springs. He must reach the Circle Cross, get clothes, food and a fresh
horse before any one else could make that ranch. But first, there was
something else to do.
His thoughts were interrupted by the storm breaking over his head. The
reverberating thunder, incessant flashes of lightning and shrieking wind
sounded as though all the fiends of the netherworld were keeping pace
with him, rejoicing at his escape and conspiring to aid him. Across the
backbone of the range he urged his frightened, stumbling horse. Five
miles from the Circle Cross, Glendon halted and sat peering in all
directions when a flash illuminated the brush and trees. He had no fear
of pursuers now, but he was searching for one particular tree, and it
was hard to identify in the fitful glare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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