Speedy by Max Brand

Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2017-09-28T22:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER XXIII

OUT of the black door of the building, a monstrously tall form emerged, bounded to the ground and raced straight at the two.

“Catch him, Speedy!” whispered the girl, through her teeth.

She made no move to run from the danger. And then Six Wilson was upset by sheer bad luck, for his toe caught under a projecting root and he rolled heavily to the ground, crashing into the bushes near the feet of Speedy. One groan from him, and he lay still. The dull night light glimmered upon the revolver which he still clutched loosely. He lay limp, and the weapon was offered freely, as it were, at the feet of the tramp.

Speedy stooped and picked it up, and a whole column of men charged down from the schoolhouse, roaring through the doorway like water through a dam.

“Here he is!” someone yelled, driving straight at Speedy and the girl, then realizing that Speedy did not fulfill the dimensions of the tall bandit, he yelled: “Where’d Wilson go?”

Mary Steyn strove to give the proper answer.

But Speedy had glided behind her, and now, from the rear, he clapped a hand over her lips, while he shouted, loudly: “That way! That way! Around that corner of the school. Hurry like the devil!”

“You yellow hound, why don’t you hurry yourself?” shouted the angry questioner. “This way, boys!”

But others, seeing the dim gesture in the distance, already had turned and were running on the false trail.

Up rose, with a stagger and a lurch, big Six Wilson.

“Kid, you’re white,” he gasped.

And then he bounded straight for the line of tethered horses. Even in his haste, he did not forget to pick and choose. A big shimmering gray was his choice, and leaping into the saddle, he jerked the big horse around with force enough to stagger it. Then off he shot into the night.

The girl bit hard upon the hand of Speedy, but he endured the pain without flinching.

For that matter, there was no need that she should cry out. Others had heard the galloping of the horse, others had seen the vanishing outlaw, and nearly every man at the schoolhouse, young enough for such work, had flung himself on horseback for the pursuit.

Then Speedy unhanded the girl.

She turned upon him, dead silent with fury.

“That’s it!” she exclaimed. “That’s what you are, at last! You’re one of Six Wilson’s gang! I’d rather—I’d rather stay at the side of a leper. Speedy, get out of my sight. You poison the air for me!”

“I’m taking you home, first,” said he.

“I’ll die, first,” said she.

“Maybe you will,” said he. “But I’m taking you home.”

“A Wilson gangster!” she breathed. “Faugh!”

“Mary,” he said to her, “you gave me your word that you’d go to this dance with me and go home with me after it. And you’ll keep your word if I have to take you by the elbows and throw you on a horse.”

He heard her panting, and moaning with helpless rage.

Then she said: “I’ve given you my promise.

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