Free Tales Of Lonely Trails (1996) by Zane Grey Page B

reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.
    The pack commenced to work back and forth along the ridge. We neared a hollow when Don barked eagerly. Sounder answered and likewise Jude.
    Moze's short angry "bow-wow" showed the old gladiator to be in line.
    "Ranger's gone," cried Jim. "He was farthest ahead. I'll bet he's struck it. We'll know in a minute, for we're close."
    The hounds were tearing through the sage, working harder and harder, calling and answering one another, all the time getting down into the hollow.
    Don suddenly let out a string of yelps. I saw him, running head up, pass into the cedars like a yellow dart. Sounder howled his deep, full bay, and led the rest of the pack up the slope in angry clamor.
    "They're off!" yelled Jim, and so were we.
    "Oh, Justine!" said she. "Why did you rob me of my last consolation?
    I relied on your innocence, and although I was then very wretched, I was not so miserable as I am now."
    It did not take me long to realize what my mustang was made of. His name was Foxie, which suited him well. He carried me at a fast pace on the trail of some one; and he seemed to know that by keeping in this trail part of the work of breaking through the brush was already done for him. Nevertheless, the sharp dead branches, more numerous in a cedar forest than elsewhere, struck and stung us as we passed. We climbed a ridge, and found the cedars thinning out into open patches.
    Then we faced a bare slope of sage and I saw Emett below on his big horse.
    "The Turk allowed this intimacy to take place and encouraged the hopes of the youthful lovers, while in his heart he had formed far other plans. He loathed the idea that his daughter should be united to a Christian, but he feared the resentment of Felix if he should appear lukewarm, for he knew that he was still in the power of his deliverer if he should choose to betray him to the Italian state which they inhabited. He revolved a thousand plans by which he should be enabled to prolong the deceit until it might be no longer necessary, and secretly to take his daughter with him when he departed. His plans were facilitated by the news which arrived from Paris.
    A signal cry, sharp to the right, turned me. I answered, and with the exchange of signal cries found my way into an open glade where Jones and Jim awaited me.
    "Here's one," said Jim. "Emett must be with the hounds. Listen."
    With the labored breathing of the horses filling our ears we could hear no other sound. Dismounting, I went aside and turned my ear to the breeze.
    "I hear Don," I cried instantly.
    "Which way?" both men asked.
    "West."
    "Strange," said Jones. "The hound wouldn't split, would he, Jim?"
    "Don leave that hot trail? Shore he wouldn't," replied Jim. "But his runnin' do seem queer this morning."
    "The breeze is freshening," I said. "There! Now listen! Don, and Sounder, too."
    The baying came closer and closer. Our horses threw up long ears. It was hard to sit still and wait. At a quick cry from Jim we saw Don cross the lower end of the flat.
    No need to spur our mounts! The lifting of bridles served, and away we raced. Foxie passed the others in short order. Don had long disappeared, but with blended bays, Jude, Moze, and Sounder broke out of the cedars hot on the trail. They, too, were out of sight in a moment.
    The crash of breaking brush and thunder of hoofs from where the hounds had come out of the forest, attracted and even frightened me. I saw the green of a low cedar tree shake, and split, to let out a huge, gaunt horse with a big man doubled over his saddle. The onslaught of Emett and his desert charger stirred a fear in me that checked admiration.
    "Hounds running wild," he yelled, and the dark shadows of the cedars claimed him again.
    A hundred yards within the forest we came again upon Emett, dismounted, searching the ground. Moze and