The red lane Author:Holman Day Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BY THE HANDS OF BEAULIEU's GIRL HE sheep came on, crowding, bleating, thrusting woolly bodies together, their trotting hoofs purring on the hard roadway.... more » The undulating press of shaggy backs filled the Monarda thoroughfare. Two collie dogs with lolling tongues scurried here and there on the outskirts, menacing stragglers with sharp barks, nipping at vagrant hocks. Now and then the dogs crossed the field of moving wool, springing from back to back. Far behind, hardly more than shadows in the haze of fine dust from the clay road, were men with long staves. The men were shouting commands to the eager dogs, and yelped angrily at the laggards or truants among the sheep. "You take the big chance this day—you take the big chance," complained Beaulieu. He scowled apprehensively when the clamor swelled; he peered under his hand to the west, searching with squinting eyes among the scattered trees of the Yankee border. "Oh, the good old Red Lane is open for me here all right," said Roi, boasting carelessly. "They're looking for me twenty miles north of here. The good old Red Lane is easily shifted overnight." He laughed loudly and looked at the window in the far end of BeauHeu's house. "But when you shift three thousand sheep and drive 'em across in daylight you shall find much trouble some ofthese days," warned Vetal. "That Red Lane ain't made to be vise after sun-up." Roi did not reply. His eyes were fixed on the curtained window, but the curtain continued to guard it jealously. A man, dust-streaked and panting, came running up on the outside of the drove, leaping over the gutter boulders. "What say, boss? All right ahead?" "Let 'em go, Nappy! Divide 'em as I told you. Same pastures as on the last trip. When you come across Jeffreys tell him I'll meet him later in...« less