“Take him off!” Teddy yelled. “Look out, Silent!”
Silent, his lips in a straight line, raised his weapon. At that moment Allen jerked his horse’s head cruelly and the bronco swerved into the cowboy, knocking him down.
“You blamed fools!” Allen yelled. “Think you could get me? So you know Greyhound, do you? Well, he’s where you’ll never find him! So long, you washed-out nursemaids!”
He brought a quirt down sharply on the back of Bug Eye’s pony, then did the same with Nick’s.
Although later, on looking back to this scene, Teddy declared they should have had time to draw a gun on Allen, at the time, events seemed to follow one another with such lightning-like rapidity that no one thought of this. Before they could fire a single shot the two ponies that had been hit ran in opposite directions and Allen was among the trees, away.
CHAPTER XXII
On the Trail
Silent picked himself up slowly and those who looked at him saw that his face was of a peculiar grey color. The gun was still in his hand.
“Too late,” he said briefly, to Nick’s excited suggestion. “Got no ponies. Can’t chase him on foot.”
“We’d better get those broncs quick,” Roy said. “They didn’t go far—just far enough,” he added.
“That gun—” Teddy began.