Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/366

 endeavored to anticipate such zigzag maneuvers by running parallel to the line he believed Abner would follow. But this time Abner, as if possessing the power to read his pursuer’s mind, held on straight ahead and gained a great distance.

The half-breed was convulsed with rage as scheme after scheme proved of no avail. To do his best he could only catch an occasional glimpse of the fleeing man, and never one sufficient to warrant a shot. Sometimes he suspected Abner was playing with him, and the thought was maddening. A dozen times he halted and raised his rifle, intending to shoot the moment the cruiser should show an inch of his person. In each instance Abner flashed into view in an unexpected quarter and was gone before the trigger could be pulled.

These repeated failures washed everything from the half-breed’s mind except his desire to kill the cruiser. He even forgot his grudge against the youths in his passion to prove he was a better woodsman than this stoop-shouldered man, so nimbly evading him at every turn.

The old-growth now gave way to a tangle of smaller evergreens and Big Nick cursed fluently under his breath as he realized he had lost a