Page:Max Brand--The Seventh Man.djvu/60

46 pasture she was not a rag, not a straw compared to the black.

“For God's sake,” groaned Vic, “loan me your hoss!”

“You couldn't stick the saddle. Come in here out of sight; I'm going to take 'em off your trail.”

While he spoke, he led, half carried Vic, into a thicket of shrubs with a small open space at the center. The black and the wolf-dog followed and now the stranger pulled at the bridle rein. The stallion kneeled like a trained dog, and lying thus the shrubbery was high enough to hide him. Closer, sweeping through the wood, Vic heard the crash of the pursuit, yet the other was maddeningly slow of speech.

“You stay here, partner, and sit over there. I'm borrowin' your gun”—a swift hand appropriated it from Vic's holster and his own fingers were too paralyzed to resist—“and don't you try to ride my hoss unless you want them teeth in your throat. Lie quiet and tie up your hurt. Bart, watch him!”

And there sat Gregg where he had slipped down in his daze of weakness with the great dog crouched at his feet and snarling ominously every time he raised his hand. The voices came closer; the crashing burst on his very ears, and now, through the interstices of the shrubbery he saw the stranger swing into the saddle on Grey Molly and urge her to a gallop. He could follow them for only an instant with his eyes, but it seemed to Vic that Molly cantered under her new rider with