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

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“They’re shootin’ into the air. They don’t mean no harm. Keep steady!” urged Jim.

“Shoo them off, Jim-Sam! Somebody will be shooting lower than that if this keeps on for many minutes,” warned Hippy Wingate.

“Git out o’ this, ye galoots!” yelled Sam as one rider, bolder than the others, drove his pony right through the camp. The animal hurdled the campfire and ran between two of the Overland tents. Yells from his companions greeted the achievement.

The night rider repeated the performance, but this time Jim-Sam fired at the same instant, one bullet snipping off the rider’s hat, the other fanning the hind hoofs of the pony.

“Now you’ve done it, you poor, crazy coyote!” roared Sam.

“I didn’t. You did it yourself. I fanned the critter’s feet,” retorted Jim. “Look out, they’re comin’ fer keeps this time!”

They were.

The wild night riders had circled out on the desert until joined by the man who had twice ridden through the Overland camp, then they drove their ponies straight at the camp, uttering thrilling yells and shooting into the air. They were upon the camp before the Overland Riders fully realized what their attackers were doing. The man in the lead rode down the little tent beside which Stacy Brown was in hiding, and Stacy, who had armed himself with a tent stake, hurled it at the fellow as he passed. The stake reached its mark—the neck of the rider—and the man sagged in his saddle as the pony rushed on into the darkness.