Pagina 66 de 439

And then into the awful silence leaped a sound like a messenger

of hope. It was a shot, so close that she could see the smoke

rise from an arroyo near. She ran forward till she could look

down into it and caught sight of a man with a dead bird in his

hand. He had his back toward her and was stooping over a fire.

Slithering down over the short dry grass, she was upon him almost

before she could stop.

"I've been lost all night and all yesterday," she sobbed.

He snatched at the revolver lying beside him and whirled like a

flash as if to meet an attack. The girl's pumping heart seemed to

stand still. The man snarling at her was the convict Struve.

CHAPTER V -- LARRY NEILL TO THE RESCUE

The snarl gave way slowly to a grim more malign than his open

hostility.

"So you've been lost! And now you're found--come safe back to

your loving brother. Ain't that luck for you? Hunted all over

Texas till you found him, eh? And it's a powerful big State,

too."