Show t 4 isna lb va s B E v EF E F LD CHAN N I 1 N 6 wa ir tase 1 l LEW BURNET riding back to from rom ui his wyoming ranch la in the be spring of MM 1875 in deett as ul an n 0 old 1 bil trapper er 1 WILLY NICKLE who tui tells him that th the bank at 0 ox bow has hai been robbed R be alfo aiso say lay th that at TOM to NI ARNOLD owner ot at the cross T ranch li Is planning to move hit his herd bard to wyoming Wyom lne and hints that tom wm will need agrall a boss bon willy voices his dislike of CLAY MANNING ranch fore ore man on the night 01 ol 01 f the robbery willy says ay he saw aw tom son ion STEVE ARNOLD riding with lour four strangers willy alia mentions that lome am sons 1 I 1 6 a horses gonei from th the cross I 1 herd bard lastly az willy tell s low lew that JOY ARNOLD ARNOL D has bai not yet married her fiance a clay M manning III le lew w reflected that he needed only attle cattle or money to stock block his wyo ming ranch that brought him back to tom arnolds letter tied and wondering sure of clone one thing toms tom promises were never small i bilyou you come south and boss this trail drive for or me the letter said and ill ila make you a proposition As always when riding the little comanche certain familiar landmarks rose ahead each one with a special pedal meaning and he be could see in them the ten years he be had spent here ever since he be was a homeless drifting kid of fourteen and tom arnold had taken him in ire he could see those rowing growing years of school and ranch life and the close wild companionship ot of three apaches himself and joy and steve in his bis young way then be had thought it would go on like that as long as they lived the three ot of them would always be together even earlier in that evening evenin 9 of the ox bow dance a year ago there had been nothing to warn him that was why it had struck so hard he remembered joys str strange ange silence silance on the ride home with clay manning holding his bis horse close to her stirrup his talk and laughter even more gusty than us usual ua 1 and then the secret that had burst from alm ilm N m against g in s t joys sudden protest C lyl not betl but day clay had bad said why tiby not ill tell the whole world honey youre going to be in my y wifel he remembered how bow that word wife had struck into his brain she was only a little giral but then he had bad looked across his saddle at her in a new way brought by that word handshe and she was no longer a little girl she was a woman nineteen ready to marry marry a man something had ended tor for him that night something he had taken tor for granted and counted on unknowingly until it wai was suddenly gone he had tried to fill that gap with a new life in wyoming and knew now ithac he never could it was not only joy he be realized it was what three ree of them had had together 1 and ajoy joy and steve guardedly guardedly with all his bis alert senses centered cai on the dark choked growth of crazy womans comans mouth he moved across the narrow entrance at a slow pace watching tor for signs then in a sand wash below the opening he came upon a swath of tracks and halted baited to read them with a detailed care they were all of horses unshod all going into crazy woman none coming out that would have been the foe bunch he judged which old willy nickle had told about last night at least twenty in the herd bard he urged his black hose horse forward and in another hour when a patch of willow at ten mile spring blocked the way it ivas was his eagerness that made him cut into an opening through the trunks instead of going around he knew instant ty it was a mistake nothing hid bad warned him this was an isolated five acres of growth on the barren valley floor betit but it wa salso hedw he saw at once once an ideal i lookout post forthe for the men stationed I 1 here his first urge was to rein back and make a run yet it was already too late for foi that pour four men had spread out in a little clearing directly ahead of him hands close to their bolstered guns and then even as tle the urge ran through him and was gone be knew that whatever gairich he was waa to play here on the little comanche would have to open some time he might as well open 9 w rode rde in and stepped down from his saddle the outspread four 0 closed in again to face him across the ashes of their camp H he e nodded how are re you gentlemen had my eyes pe peeled led for bucks ind and feathers glad to see white men again he jerked his head south maybe you can tell me how bow for far to ox bow town that eased them it placed him 42 ba stranger he saw the tight readiness diness go out of their arms a little I 1 one asked you headed for ox bow and beyond he sala said he pulled buthis out his pipe and loaded it explaining been coming down the trail S he be searched the ashes coal he found the ashes r w with a bed of fire underneath co these men had cooked a noon meal here and were waiting top for what rising he be fated theode man who had spoken the brand on this tange range j the answer came gruffly cross T ka know 0 W it he shook his hl shead bead new to me the man was hard to place squat quat and nd powerfully built black bearded over a pugnacious jaw shrewd gray eyes eye there was the look of the cattleman about him except tor for nil his bands even sieves gloves could not have protected them so much from the calluses kalluses cal luses and burns of 0 a bowmans cow mans rope they were soil soft the skin ab above 0 ve his wrists was white the squat man asked what outfit circle dot lew said naming a brand far fair to the south he saw the gray eyes hold a moments speculation move to the other three men and pause and there seemed a silent question asked and answered they came back then veiled behind drooping lids you looking for a trail job no not yet I 1 aim abin to get my old one with the circle dot lie he knocked out his pipe and put it in the side pocket of his rawhide coat a standing landing there afterward with th the G thumb of his right band hooked booked over the pocket edge it if youve been north three times and know enough the man suggested maybe you can get a better deal here what routes do you know my own he sold said and smiled faintly and that knowledge comes high keep it theril sure im not asking you for a job puzzled he turned away he had thought this was a camp of horse hoise thieves well ill teu tell you the decision came slowly still with a guarded reluctance we need a good man were shorthanded on a herd starting north tomorrow the right kind can draw seventy a month that was almost double the usual wage lew grinned whitla wrong with the color of your herd Noth nothing irig it goes out of here with a clean bill of sale were traveling fast all im willing to pay for a man who knows some short 11 1 cuts 1 I see bee he had his Inform aon a big herd going north tomorrow to IV 04 nobody asked you to talk so 10 now then sout f ogallala or beyond ile he turned himself a little facing squarely toward the four bunched men its if a tempting offer but 1 I guess not he saw their quick suspicion and the move that thai all four started to make but his bis own right hand hooked on his coat pocket had only to drop slightly and the up in the curved grip of his fingers under its level aim the group froze dryly be said nobody asked you to talk so much now then schools out moving backward slowly he reached around with his left hand tor for the bridle reins of his horse he watched the four men they held their hands rigidly away from their guns his groping fingers touched the reins smooth leather he heard beard the animals nostrils rattle in a snort felt a quick pull yet could nottage not take his eyes from the men he started to say easy boy when a rope slapped out of the air behind him pinned his arms and jerked him over backward to the ground afterward coming 0 out ut of the sudden darkness that a downward blow agatin against st his jaw had brought he felt first the dull ache where he had bad been struck and then the tight rope that held him lie he was lying off at one side of the camp where they had bound him with the thoroughness of experts ankles together hands tied behind his back a length of rope snubbing to the trunk of a tree all ali five were crouched now at the ashes of their fire again in ih that attitude ot of waiting etwas it was still another moment before he caught the drumming run of ai horse unchecked the rush of in tow toward edthe the willows slowing only when they reached the outer otter edge then the rider entered with no signal someone wholly familiar in the camp he twisted bis big head bead for a bett better or look but could see no more than a dim shape of man and animal blended together A voice growled youre latel the blended shape moved s little the riders answer seemed forced out of him in a desperate way youre lucky I 1 came at aall I 1 told you last night tee be no morel something cold and hard tightened down the long length ot of his bit body hed recognize this voice anywhere here clay Mann manning ive filled your bar bargain barbain kain im you think sot sol there was a shifting shit ting movement of the dim figures standing on the ground we dont quit now and you know what happens what I 1 rode to tell you clay mannings voice and the blurred whirling of his bis horse came in the same instant not one of the group yelled stop and a guns guins yellow flame streaked across the dark but the crash of clay mannings horse through the willows continued and then he was running tree free down the valley floor the men made a quick shuttling movement among the trees lew heard beard the slap ot of saddles and cinch leather then someone came and bent over ever him jerked at the knots testing them and without a word ran baik back the horses were visible now and the shapes ot of the riders rider swinging up he heard beard a moments mutter ot of talk like a plan being made and changed and suddenly decided upon bolting from the camp they too timed aimed their headlong run toward the south twisting he made another savage attempt to loosen the ropes until the breath went out ot of him in a gasp of their cutting palm pain and when he dropped back again face up a man was standing over him in the dark thought sot 01 ol sold said old willy will nickle and came silently forward fixin to get yourself rubbed out so you were dont you never take an old coons advice no sir reel the sharp blade of his bis scalping knife parted the loops ot of rope forcing his stiffened body up onto legs that had gone numb lew said 1 I had to know he throw threw open tha the camp bedrolls bed rolls until he found one where his bis gun had bien been hidden bidden so you did 1 old willy admitted he wiped the knife on his greased sleeve seems like I 1 was watching from the rims saw you come in here never saw you come out but them five go south in a 8 hurry and what for you dont know lew asked his horse was in the willows the pack mule near by he was up in his saddle when old willy answered say was a fire off south alter after sundown too far to tell what lew nodded the horse was loov amov tog ing behind him willy warned lift ifft your hair yet boy you better hatchl then the blacks strong lunge car ried him beyond the spring and he h was out on the open valley floor running with the mule traill trailing ng somewhere in the dark lie he was soon at the cross T his sense of everything wrong here settled upon him with a heavy weight the empty corrals the silence the absence of cross T men the faint slit silt of light widened a lit tle tie who is it the demand came quick and sharp hardly more than a tight whisper he move joyl lewill lew the door swung back she made a small dark figure rushing toward him he caught her and her arms went around him and clung with something desperate and almost fierce in their grip lew hewl she said again and then 1 I cant believe belleve 1111 holding berau her all the month long ache was swept from his body his tiredness was gone it was like hunger bunger satisfied she moved first drawing away and he asked joy happened 1 I dont knowl know the tear fear he had quieted broke into her quickened voice again our grass stacks were burned late this afternoon and ana a little while ago clay rode in and sat said it something to dad I 1 hear but all the men went with him where down the valley our trail herds been gathered there on the flats ile he took her hands are you alone no owl heads here then ive got to go I 1 can help she gripped him but I 1 even seen youl wait lew walt wait a little A sudden burst of gunfire rattled in the distance stance dl A rumble like far oft off thunder trembled up from the valley galley mouth in the first moments of running his horse beyond the ranch buildings he blare the direction of 0 that low rumble lie he veered off to cut in at the head ot of the stampede drawing his gun A dust tog fog rolled out to meet him the clack of horns and hoofs alid the heavy breathing of 0 perhaps four our thousand animals swept aside ever every i other sound TO T BE E CONTINUED |