Page 18 (1/1)

Down the road toward the south ran The Oskaloosa Kid with all the fleetness of youth spurred on by terror In five minutes he had so far outdistanced his pursuers that The Sky Pilot leaped to the conclusion that the quarry had left the road to hide in an adjoining field The resultant halt and search upon either side of the road delayed the chase to a sufficient extent to award the fugitive athe hway The men were determined to overhaul the youth not alone because of the loot upon his person but through an abiding suspicion that he ht indeed be what some of them feared he was--an a them who had reason to be especially fearful of any sort of detective fro the sht and left and ahead of them as they went

The Oskaloosa Kid puffed, too; but he puffed a mile away from the searchers and he walked er and his wind unimpaired by dissipation For a time he carried the s no evidence of pursuit, he returned it to the pocket in his coat where it had lain when it had saved hienerate Charlie

For an hour he continued walking rapidly along the winding country road He was very tired; but he dared not pause to rest Always behind hiht of the bearded, blear-eyed followers of The Sky Pilot Terror goaded hito the earthen floor of the hay barn haunted him He was a murderer! He had slain a fellow ain he alh the black night in greater terror than he felt for the flesh and blood pursuers upon his heels

And Nature drew upon her sinister forces to add to the fear which the youth already felt Black clouds obscured thefields and transforloomy arms which appeared to hover with clawlike talons above the dark and forbidding road The wind soughed with glooht flared across the southern sky followed by the reverberation of distant thunder