The Infiltrator

She was on the point of stepping out into the road again when a horseman rode into sight between the two rocks. In the same instant of his appearance she heard the unmistakable crack of a gun, saw the rider jerk backward in the saddle, throw up one hand,-and then the darkness dropped between them.Laura crouched behind a juniper bush close against the rock and waited. The next flash came within a half-minute. It showed a man at the horse's head, holding it by the bridle. The horse was rearing. Laura tried to scream that the man on the ground would be trampled, but something went wrong with her voice, so that she could only whisper. When the light came again the man who had been shot was not altogether on the ground. The other, working swiftly, had thrust the injured man's foot through the stirrup. Laura saw him stand back and lift his quirt to slash the horse across the rump. Even through the crash of thunder Laura heard the horse go past her down the hill, galloping furiously. When she could see again she glimpsed him running, while something bounced along on the ground beside him.She saw the other man, with a dry branch in his hand, dragging it across the road where it ran between the two rocks. Then Laura Hudson, hardened to the sight of crimes committed for picture values only, realized sickeningly that she had just looked upon a real murder,-the cold-blooded killing of a man. She felt very sick. Queer little red sparks squirmed and danced before her eyes. She crumpled down quietly behind the juniper bush and did not know when the rain came, though it drenched her in the first two or three minutes of downpour.