Читать книгу Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders at Circle O Ranch онлайн

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“Merciful heaven! What is that?” cried Nora Wingate, the color rushing to her cheeks, then instantly receding, leaving them blanched with fear.

The Overland Riders were, for the moment, too startled to move, and it was Jim and Sam who first sprang to their feet.

“Look out! They aire comin’!” warned Sam.

The girls ran for the protection of their tents, with the exception of Emma Dean, who appeared to be too frightened to stir. Tom and Hippy were on their feet a second or so behind Jim-Sam, each with a hand on his revolver holster, while Stacy had disappeared on the dark side of his tent. Stacy Brown always believed in safety first, and he seldom lost many seconds in applying that principle.

All this occurred within the space of a few seconds, during which the shooting and the shouting had ceased, but the hoof-beats of ponies sounded much nearer to the camp. Then the Overlanders saw them. Wild riders they were, shadowy figures in the night, keeping just beyond the flickering rays shed by the campfire, but circling the camp, racing their mustangs. Once more their shrill penetrating yells split the silence, followed by a rattling fire of revolver shots.