Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/66

 haunches and pulled his gun. Flash whirled and snapped at a hot stab of pain which seared across his rump as the report crashed in his ears. He fled and from behind him the sharp reports rang out in quick succession. Spurts of gravel were tossed up about him and there were whining rushes of air close to his head.

Flash knew well the use of firearms. He had often seen Moran and others shoot and after each report there had been a jack rabbit flopping in his death throes or a dying antelope twitching on the ground. He knew that this man, for no reason whatever, had meant to kill him.

Half an hour later as he trotted across the flat there came the sharp crack that a high velocity rifle ball makes when it passes close to the ear. The distant report reached him as he whirled to run. Four hundred yards away a man leaned against the door of a sod house and emptied his gun at the gray form that was running with incredible speed across the flat.

Flash entered the mouth of a long valley. A horseman was plunging down the right hand slope to cut him off. He veered to the left, and as the furiously running horse pulled in behind him the rider’s gun barked six times at the fleeing wolf.