FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  
lds. But to think you can stand there--an' talk sweet an' pleasant--with no idee of manhood!... Let her come now--or--or I'm a-goin' for my gun!" "Roberts, haven't you a wife--children?" "Yes, I have," shouted Roberts, huskily. "An' that wife would disown me if I left Joan Randle to you. An' I've got a grown girl. Mebbe some day she might need a man to stand between her an' such as you, Jack Kells!" All Roberts' pathos and passion had no effect, unless to bring out by contrast the singular and ruthless nature of Jack Kells. "Will you hit the trail?" "No!" thundered Roberts. Until then Joan Randle had been fascinated, held by the swift interchange between her friend and enemy. But now she had a convulsion of fear. She had seen men fight, but never to the death. Roberts crouched like a wolf at bay. There was a madness upon him. He shook like a rippling leaf. Suddenly his shoulder lurched--his arm swung. Joan wheeled away in horror, shutting her eyes, covering her ears, running blindly. Then upon her muffled hearing burst the boom of a gun. 3 Joan ran on, stumbling over rocks and brush, with a darkness before her eyes, the terror in her soul. She was out in the cedars when someone grasped her from behind. She felt the hands as the coils of a snake. Then she was ready to faint, but she must not faint. She struggled away, stood free. It was the man Bill who had caught her. He said something that was unintelligible. She reached for the snag of a dead cedar and, leaning there, fought her weakness, that cold black horror which seemed a physical thing in her mind, her blood, her muscles. When she recovered enough for the thickness to leave her sight she saw Kells coming, leading her horse and his own. At sight of him a strange, swift heat shot through her. Then she was confounded with the thought of Roberts. "Ro--Roberts?" she faltered. Kells gave her a piercing glance. "Miss Randle, I had to take the fight out of your friend," he said. "You--you--Is he--dead?" "I just crippled his gun arm. If I hadn't he would have hurt somebody. He'll ride back to Hoadley and tell your folks about it. So they'll know you're safe." "Safe!" she whispered. "That's what I said, Miss Randle. If you're going to ride out into the border--if it's possible to be safe out there you'll be so with me." "But I want to go home. Oh, please let me go!" "I couldn't think of it." "Then--what will you--do with me
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Roberts
 

Randle

 

friend

 
horror
 

thickness

 
muscles
 

recovered

 

coming

 

confounded

 

strange


leading

 
unintelligible
 

reached

 

caught

 

physical

 

weakness

 

leaning

 

fought

 

thought

 
pleasant

whispered

 

border

 
Hoadley
 

couldn

 

struggled

 

faltered

 

piercing

 
glance
 

manhood

 
crippled

convulsion

 

fascinated

 

interchange

 

disown

 
madness
 

crouched

 

effect

 
pathos
 

passion

 

contrast


thundered

 
singular
 

ruthless

 

nature

 

huskily

 

terror

 

cedars

 

darkness

 

stumbling

 

grasped