United States or British Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Wrangle settled gradually into an easy swinging canter, and Venters's thoughts, now that the rush and flurry of the start were past, and the long miles stretched before him, reverted to a calm reckoning of late singular coincidences.
So the changing, swaying emotions fluctuated in Venters's heart. This was the climax of his year of suffering and the crucial struggle of his life. And when the gray dawn came he rose, a gloomy, almost heartbroken man, but victor over evil passions.
He had time to brace himself for the shock; nevertheless, Wrangle threw him and dragged him several yards before halting. "You wild devil," said Venters, as he slowly pulled Wrangle up. "Don't you know me? Come now old fellow so so " Wrangle yielded to the lasso and then to Venters's strong hand. He was as straggly and wild-looking as a horse left to roam free in the sage.
Then Venters's gaze passed to the tables, and swiftly it swept over the hard-featured gamesters, to alight upon the huge, shaggy, black head of the rustler chief. "Oldring!" he cried, and to him his voice seemed to split a bell in his ears. It stilled the din.
Then the small, wiry, frog-like shape of the second rider, and the ease and grace of his seat in the saddle things so strikingly incongruous grew more and more familiar in Venters's sight. "Jerry Card!" cried Venters. It was indeed Tull's right-hand man. Such a white hot wrath inflamed Venters that he fought himself to see with clearer gaze. "It's Jerry Card!" he exclaimed, instantly.
Light, sure-footed as a mountain goat, Bess pattered down at Venters's heels; and they went on, calling the dogs, eyes dreamy and wide, listening to the wind and the bees and the crickets and the birds. Part of the time Ring and Whitie led the way, then Venters, then Bess; and the direction was not an object.
But Venters's voice would have kept anybody's legs from bucklin'. I was stiff myself. He went on an' called Tull called him every bad name ever known to a rider, an' then some. He cursed Tull. I never hear a man get such a cursin'. He laughed in scorn at the idea of Tull bein' a minister.
His head was high and twisted, in a most singular position for a running horse. Suddenly Venters descried a frog-like shape clinging to Wrangle's neck. Jerry Card! Somehow he had straddled Wrangle and now stuck like a huge burr. But it was his strange position and the sorrel's wild scream that shook Venters's nerves. Wrangle was pounding toward the turn where the trail went down.
He said good-by to Bess in a voice gentle and somewhat broken, and turned hurriedly away. Venters accompanied him, and they had traversed the terrace, climbed the weathered slope, and passed under the stone bridge before either spoke again. Then Lassiter put a great hand on Venters's shoulder and wheeled him to meet a smoldering fire of gray eyes. "Lassiter, I couldn't tell Jane!
Murmuring water drew their steps down into a shallow shaded ravine where a brown brook brawled softly over mossy stones. Multitudes of strange, gray frogs with white spots and black eyes lined the rocky bank and leaped only at close approach. Then Venters's eye descried a very thin, very long green snake coiled round a sapling. They drew closer and closer till they could have touched it.
Word Of The Day