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Jack of the Pony Express by Frank V. Webster
page 59 of 178 (33%)
rode up alongside him, and dealt him a blow on the head.




CHAPTER IX


IN BONDS

For a moment Jack was so overcome by dizziness and a faint, sick feeling,
that he could do nothing. Everything seemed black before his eyes, a
blackness not of night, but the blackness of a fainting fit.

The young express rider reeled in his saddle, but he kept his seat by a
great effort. Then he fought back the growing faintness that was overcoming
him.

"I mustn't give in! I mustn't give in!" he told himself fiercely, over and
over again. "I mustn't give way! I won't! I've got to protect the valuable
letters--the mail--the express."

Then, somehow, Jack's head cleared. He felt more able to hold himself back
from that terrible black void. He straightened up in the saddle, and his
vision was again normal.

In the darkness he could see several men, three at least, standing around
him. These three were not mounted, though off to one side of the trail Jack
could see several dark forms which he could make out to be horses. Then he
saw, as he turned in his saddle, a man behind him on a big horse. This man
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