The Lakewood boys on the Lazy S

by L. P. Wyman

The game of cards evidently was getting more and more exciting and he could hear the men as they made their bids and often a violent oath broke from the lips of first one and then another as the card went against them.

Darkness settled rapidly and, a few minutes after he had made his decision, he was able to see only a few feet from where he sat unless he looked toward the fire.

"As well now as any time," he thought as, without making the slightest sound, he began to hitch himself farther away from the fire. He moved three or four feet and then stopped and listened, watching the men to see if they were aware of his movements. But the game went on with no abatement and foot by foot he increased the distance between them and him. At no instant would he have been in the least surprised to have felt those powerful arms close about him or even to have felt the impact of a bullet. But nothing happened and soon he felt that he was far enough away to get up and run for it. Although he was in the dense forest the trees were not very close together and there was little or no underbrush, which enabled him, even in the darkness, to make fairly good speed, and at the end of another ten minutes, he felt that he was reasonably safe, at least so far as they were concerned.

But he well knew that not yet was he out of the woods, either literally or figuratively speaking. Could he find his way back to where he had left Satan? He was not so sure that he could, but he thanked God that he had, at least, escaped from what had at the time, seemed almost certain death. If he only had a flashlight, he thought as he slowed down his pace and began to hunt for the narrow trail which led to the main path. Once he found that he felt that he would be reasonably safe and he thought that he was moving in the right direction but could not be certain. He knew how difficult it was to maintain a correct sense of direction in the woods, especially at night.

Soon he was sure that, had he been going in the right direction, he ought to have reached it and turned sharply to the left. He was walking very slowly now, both on account of the injured leg which was giving him considerable pain every time he stepped on it, and because he knew that should he cross it without being aware of it, the chances were that he would not find it, at least, until morning. For another fifteen minutes he pushed on and then stopped suddenly. Was that a shout he heard? He listened and almost at once the sound was repeated. Someone was calling and the shout was answered by another not very far away. They had missed him and were searching the woods.

A shudder passed through him as he thought what would probably happen to him if they again got him into their clutches. Another shout, which sounded only a short distance in front of him answered almost immediately from off at his right, made him realize that his enemies had him nearly if not quite surrounded. Unless he found some way of safety very soon he would be caught for sure. He could now and then see flashes of light as his pursuers made use of their electric torches. He had not the slightest idea of which way to go and, for a moment, despair settled on him. It seemed impossible that he could escape. Then as he took a step forward, his cap was brushed from his head by the limb of a tree. As he stooped to recover it, an idea struck him. Although it was so dark that he could see but a few feet he could tell that the tree in front of him was thick-branched and, in another minute, he was rapidly making his way toward the top. The tree was tall and he did not stop until he was so near the top that the trunk was only a few inches through. Then, straddling a limb, he crouched as close to the trunk as he could get and waited. He had done all he could and he breathed a fervent prayer that they would not find him.

As he crouched there he could hear the men calling one to the other and all the time they were coming nearer. Flashes of light stabbed the darkness but, so dense were the branches beneath him, he only caught an occasional glimpse like the gleam of a firefly. Soon he was aware that two of them had met directly beneath him, and strained his ears to hear what they were saying.

"I told Pete to keep an eye on him," were the first words he could distinguish, and he thought it was Hains' voice.

"I guess Pete got too much interested in his cards," the other said.

"Wall, I'll larn him ter get mixed up with other things when I tell him to do sumpin'."