CHAPTER XIV
AN ALARMING SITUATION
MEANWHILE Alden Payne had entered upon the most stirring experience of his life.
In a twinkling, as may be said, he was transformed from an emigrant plodding his way across the continent to a Pony Express Rider, whose sole effort was to skim over the dangerous ground at the topmost speed to which his swift pony could be forced. “Get ahead in spite of everything,” was the motto of those daring fellows.
It was a sudden impulse that led the youth to make this perilous venture, but it is almost certain that, had he been given hours in which to consider the plan, he would have done precisely what he did do.
It is in the momentous crises of a person’s career that he often becomes sensible to trifles which would pass unnoticed at other times. The moment Alden set off with the small rifle
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