Page:Edward Ellis--Alden the Pony Express Rider.djvu/202

 not guess which. At any rate no dusky head showed itself. The weapon that had been used gave out no sound and whether there was one assassin or a dozen must remain unknown to Alden.

The feeling which succeeded the first horrifying shock was one of profound pity for the victim. Young, vigorous, full of bounding life and hope, his cheering words lingered yet in the ears of the couple, and here he lay on the ground his life driven out by the arrow launched by a demon in wantonness, for Dick Lightfoot had never harmed a hair in the head of one of his kind.

Jethro was almost speechless, for he expected other deadly missiles to hurtle through the air at him and his companion. The chances as the negro viewed them were a hundred to one that the two would never leave the spot alive; at any rate they would not do so if they tarried another minute. But he dared not go of his own accord and knew better than to protest to Alden.

Some idea of what had taken place must have passed through the intelligent brain of the Express Rider’s pony. He had stopped suddenly when his master fell from the saddle,