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Show THE MIDVALE JOURNAL THE FIGHTING TENDERFOOT By WILLIAM MacLEOD RAINE CopJ'rlcllt by WUllam MacLeod Raine CHAPTER XU-Continued -14"Why, no. Wbat makes think so?" "I've been sleeping on his trail for four days. He's either here, or he's h<>adlng this way.'' "You sure 1" "Not sure, Buck. But he told me he'd be here." "Told you?" Grogan's forehead knotted ln a frown. "You an' Bob cettln • to be side-kicks these day!!?"' "Listen, Buck. I've got to have some sleep. In forty-eight hours I've hardly bad a wink-been to the sad· dle plowing through drifts most of the tim~. I don't want It known I'm in town. While [ sleep find out tor me It Quantrell is here. Last night he t~tole the two Kentucky horses of my partner. H the horses are in town It ought not to be llard to locate them. Bob may be staying at the house of Manuel Gomez. They say be's In love wlth Dolores. Not likely he'll stay at the Gomez house. though. He's too wily tor that. Find oat what you can, but be careful nobody suspects what you're after. When you get back wAke me If I'm asleep." Buck Grogan was a brother of the Texas Kid, who with Shep Sanderson had been killed on the main street of Concho a little more than a year be· fore this time. In his heart he cherIshed a bitter hatred of the outlaw. "All right, Sheritr." he said. "You sleep. I'll find out what I can. Hadn't I better let you lay till ten or eleven o'clock?" "No. It he's here he may hit the trail at daybreak. Soon as you get back wake me up." O'Hara took otr hls boots, his coat, and his vest, and settled himself on the bunk. In two minutes be was sound asleep. When ile opened his e~·es It was broad daylight. Grogan was standing over him. "He's here." "Have you seen him?'' asked O'Hara. "Who told you he wa~t?" "You did. I've seen the horses he an' some other guy rode In on. 'l'bey're stabled In the barn buck of Delgado's house." "Do you know where Bob is?" ''No, I don't. Down In the Mexican quarter, I'd say. I met Gomez on the street an' edged round the subject the least 11'1' bit. But you know how ,_.reasers are. They won't tell a thing they don't want to." "You didn't let him know I w11s here?" "Do I look like a plumb fool?'' Gor~an wanted to know. "Of course I didn't. What I said to Gomez was that I'd heard Dolores' friend was in town, an' when he lvloked at me real quick I added klnda casual, 'Marla Garcia.' She Is, too. Came up from Agua Caliente TueFdrt~· . ~Ianuel was right there with the 'SI, si' stuff, but be was just a mite too late_. He'd done give himself away, though I didn't let on for a minute." "You feel sure Quantrell Is in town, then." "I'd bet six fat three-year-olds against a ping of tnhacco that he's not four hundred yards from us right d-'-n now." "If he hasn't lit nut." "Tell you I saw the two Kentucky horses." "He might lea,·e thPm here to fool me while he's makmg tracks for parts unknown." "What would he tiHJ sense In that when he could jn"t as well take 'em along? You know how be loves a good horse. No, sir. When he goes those horses go, too. Wouldn't sur. prise me It he lies low here three-four day~. There won't more than halt a dozen folks know he's here. He (:an trust his Mexican friends. They like him, an' they're not ci ,·!llr.ed enough to betray him." The last sentencf' Clrogan otrered with an Ironic grin. Common opinion to the contrary, It Is quite true that the Mexicans are as a p<>ople very loyal to their friends. During the past year or two as much could not be said of the white population of Jetrerson county. While the feud had been In progress most of the ranchmen had not felt any compunction about shift. lng sides. It was, for lm•tance, not at ali remarkable that O'Hara was now depending upon Buck Grogan to help him capture Qnantrell, although the two cowboys had fought together against him in the battle at the Circla S 0 ranch. Yet Grogan was no traitor. The circumstances had changed, and with them bls allegiance. ''That sounds logical," O'Hara ad· mltted. "But Qnontrell Isn't very dependable. He doesn't always do what you'd expect him to do." "That's so, generally speakin'. But he'll stay put here two-three days an' ' give his saddle a rest. He's been em the dodge a long time, an' he's right fond of Dolores Gomez. I'd say he'll want to stick around for a while, an' he most always does what be wants to do. He ain't what you'd call a prudent guy. His friends will be keepin' a lookout til see he's not trnpped. Yes, slr. He'll be plumb tickled to Ue right here in Concho an• fool you." "Yea. that ""'"llld be like him," O'Hara agreed. "Wlll you find out for me whether Steve \\'orrall has reached town yet? I want to see him." "Got In late last nlgbt-hlm an' Amen Owen. Their horses were sure whipped out, too." "Good I Ask him to drop In and see me. He'd better come along the creek and In the back way. Some of Quantrell's friends may be watchllll\' him." "All right. Breakfast first. ~o. sir. You lie right there. I'll tl:c us up something." A couple of hours later Wot'rall reached the cabin. He and the sheriff talked the situation o\·er. It WM decided to keep an Inconspicuous watch on the Delgado stable ft·om a side window of the Steelman store. Probably Quantrell would not stir out until nlght After dark the Gomez hou~>e was also to be kept under observation. "It his gang Is here with him some of the bunch will poke their nose~ from where they're holed up soon 11s It gets dark," said 'WorralL "Good thing to have quite a few men ready tor emergencies, don't you reckon?" "I think so. See Bucklskln Joe and Amen and the Browns. You ml!!'ht speak to McCarthy, too. Ste,·e. Tell them trouble Is brewing and may break, but don't let them know what's up. If too many people know a secret It's not one any longer." O'Hara did not lea,·e the cabin until darkness tell. By a back way he '1\:ent to the Steelman-)fcCarthy Rtore where Worrall and Grogan were to meet him. He was eating a ctupper of chee~e and crackers and sardines when Owen joined him. " 'Lo, Amen," he saitl. "Get all rested from your long ridP ?" "Umpha! Say, boy, there's a !\lexlean balle tonight at the 1\Ionte:r. place. If you're nil het up to met Bob you might find film amon!); those preRent." "What makes you think that?" &!'ked O'Hara. "You mightn't think It to <~ee me such a stove-up old donker as I am now, but once upon a time I was a kid 111y own self. As I come down the street I met the Gomez family dressed in their war paint headed for the dancf'. Includin' Mi. s Dolores of the black, black eyes. She sure Is a right pretty senorita an' I wouldn't blame Bob for wantln' to shake a IPg with her. Course I don't say he'll he therP, All I'm sayin' Is that he might.'' "So he might," agreed the shPritl' reflectively. ''Well, I'm not too old to enjoy a dance. I'll glye mysPlr an Invitation to be there, too." Amen Owen grinned. lie thought perhaps he had started something. "Uninvited guests ain't always so doggoned welcome.'' the old cowboy said. "It' you go you're liable to g-et in a jaclcpot, rlon't you reckon?" "It wouldn't su rpri1se me." "Bob Is top hantl with his shootin' Irons. I'd say take four of ti\·e of us with you." O'Hara cut a piPce of chec,o;e nn<l put it between two crackers. "Can't take a po~se into the harn with me. That woulrl mean tt·ouhle rigl1t awoy it Bob was there, and I {'an't risk promiscuous f:hootin~ with a lot of womPn present. If Bob wnsn't there, world would rPach him in ten minutes tiHtt we were hut on his trail. No. I'll IPH ve two or three of yon out,ide and go In alone. I'll tal'e you and Grogan and Baldy Brown. Worrall and l\lcC'arth:v and Jess Hro" n will watch the Delgado stnhle to cut Quantrell of!' from the horses if he tries for a gpta way." "l<; It yorf> notion that the1·e won't be trouble soon as Bob sees ~·ou ?" asked OwPn with obvious sarcasm. "Guess different. When ,von go In there right then you're playin' yore hole card-If Bob is at the baile. Now It I kinda drifted In maybe he'cl let It ride. · For as we know, he ain't hep to It that I rude on the posse to the !11al Pais. Qulen sabe?" "Dollars to doughnuts that be knows. You rode Into town last night with Steve, didn't you? It he's here the Info was passed to him almost befo1·e you had unsaddled. No, it's my place to go Into the barn anu see whether he Is there. So I'll go." ''You're cock-a-doodle-do of this outfit, Garrett. All I got to say is, look out you don't buck yore luck onct too often." "The I.ord loves the Irish, Amen," answered the sher!tr, his gay smile flashing. "l<'ar as this curly wol1' goes, he's just a man like you or me. Don't forget that he has his weaknesses, just as all criminals have. One of Bob's Is his vanity. He has to make grandstand plays so that people will fear and admire him. Some day he'll come a cropper on account o! it. Maybe that some day Is tonight." "Hmp! Bob ain't the only grand· stander In our midst. Right now I'm close enough to spit on another guy who Is a h-1-poppln' team his own self. Don't tell me you're against ad· vertis!n', boy. I ain't ever noticed that you ride Into the encinal to pull otr the plays that make folks talk." The sheriff protested. "l'\·e been driven into doing speetacular things I didn't want to do, but I never did any of them to make people talk. Or I! I did the reason was not vanity, bnt to Increase respect for the law." WNU Service Owen shrugged his shoulders. "I'll backtrack on you being a grandstander, Garrett. You're not that, an' you're there, boy, both ways from the ace. But that won't keep you from t•layin' on a golden harp If you're so doggonf'd careless. Some low-down cuss will plug you one of these days when yon walk up to him with no gun In yore fist an' say, 'Consicler yoreself under arrest.' I'm warnln' ;vou." ''.Maybe you're right and maybe you're not, Amen.'' O'Hara rose and brushed the crumbs from his clotheR. "Rut I've got to play the hand the way it'!! dealt. One might as well be cheerful a!Jout It as melancholy. How does that song go that Texas Jim sings? Hrt bls eyes from the bandit. The price of a moment's inattention might be death. · There was only one door to the barn downstairs and one window. To reach the stnin'l'ay to the loft it would be necessary for Quantrell to came within eight feet of where the sheriff stood. O'Hara knew the outlo,w wns thinking furiously. He would guess that the barn was surrounded, that the sheriff had his posFe outside. Oth~>rwlse his course would be simple, to shoot the officer down and escape in the darkness. Quantrell murmured something to Dolores. The girl's startled eyes fla!lhed toward the door. She lost step, her mind distracted, then joined her partner and walked beside him from R<•ll ~·nur tail and roll her high, the floor. Vl' e'll all be angels by and by, The sherltr noticed that she was be"Hmp! I've heat·d preachers deny tween him and her lover; that her that, but even if so I aim to postpone body protected Quantrell against the my angc•lin' for a while. Well, let's chance of gun fire. A quick suspicion mosey along." shot into his mind. Be mo\·ed toward Outtside of the !\fontez baru four or the man he wanted, ' brushing aside 6\'e young Mexicans were grouped. those who were In the way, dodging O'Hara moved forward out of the the dancers os he cro::<sed the barn. darkne.l!s and greeted them casually. O'Hara was too late. He saw the outlaw's teeth flash In au impudent grin, caught a mocking wave of the hand. A stt·eak of color dlYed through the air. There was a crash of gla~s. Quantrell had flung hlmselt' through the window head first. Confusion Instantly filled the room, which became vocnl with screams, lm· precations, and the lift of eJo:cited Spanish vowels. ::llen and women pushed this way and that, so that O'Hara found himself caught in the press as he fought his way to the window. The soft oodles of young girls impeded him uo less than the muscular onPs of lean ,-aqueros. From the outside came the sound of shots, staccato reports of battle. Tl1e sheriff drew closer to the exit, though in his eagerness to reach the 011~>n it seemed to take many minutes rather than moments. He found him· self flung against a senorita face to face, so closely that her bosom rose and fell a~~:alnst his heart. Dark, liquid, long-lashed eyes lifted to his. 'l'he firm brown fiesb of bare arms hru>~hecl Ills d1eeks and fing-ers laced themselves together hack ot his ne(•k, Dolores Gomer. had found another way to sen·e her lover. Gringos Were Not Welcome, EspeO'Hara tried to push her away. She cially Officers of the . Law. hung there heavy as a sack of meal. He reached back, caught her wt·ists, ne had seen a bottle passing from one • and dragged at them to break the to another, but at sight of hJm activi- hold. The girl clung de~perately to ties became suspended. They were him. Even after he had frE.'ed himself surprised to see him. This was a pri· she snatched at his coat to detain him. vate baile; at least Americans had not At last he was at the window. Probeen Invited. If the >'heritr attt?nded It tecting his fa•·e with his arms, he must be in the way of business. plunged through it to the ground outThen on what business? The Mexi- side. cans held together against the gringos. :-;orne one !<houted, "Y'i'ho is it?" If one wus wanted by the law his The voice belonged to Amen Owen. conntr~·men hid and shielded him. O'Hara called aloud his name. The ThPy were suspicious of· the u(lmints- cowboy ran to him, revolver in han<J. trution of justice as worked out hy "Be 11:0t away-that greasE.'r who the ruling race. eame through the window. Who O'Hara passed into the building. "·as he':" The sounds of stamping feet and the "Bob QuantrPII." The sheri!T was strains of the music tilled the !Jarn. alrendy ou hls feet, his !'lx·shootcr out. :Most of those present were 1lancinl! "Which way dld he go?" and did not ob~erve him, but the men "Thataway.'' Owen waved his hand standing near the door expr~>ssed In Into the dnrkne>:s. "lie took us by their looks a surprised hostility. This snrprise. We didn't know at first bnt was thl.'ir demesne. Gringos were not what it wus rou-not till after he welcome, especially officers of the law. came a-~hootln' ." The sherifl' refused to undet·stan•l "Anybody hurt?" the resentment. His smile remained "No. Too uark to see. All of us pleasant and friendly though it was a pi u~giu' away for gencl'lll results. The little aqsent-mlnded. His eyes were boys folhtwed him a little wars, but already searching fur the man he had I rnlled 'em back. Figured It might come to find. The first suney of tile be a trick to draw us off from the floor failed to find him. 'fht>re wer·e barn. Here are the boys." only Mexicans. Grogan and Baldy Brown joined He saw Dolores Gomez. She was them. dancing with a slender young vaquero The sherifl' sketched briefly the situIn the costume of a caballero. Ranged ation while he hm-ried clown the against the wall were her father and street with his men. her mother, the latter wearing a black lace mantilla. Juan Garcia was on ***************************************************** the floor. In the room were two Hash· knife riders. But no Bob Quantrell. A !!hift in the position of the dancers brought Dolores and her partner Shanghai, to a notable extent, ha.s dences of Americnu tnfiuence In Into the foreground. Carelessly O'Hara become Amel'icanlzed. There, \n the China." They may be the Instruments gaze rested for a moment on the young most polyglot city in Asia, the roving of attaining confraternity between man with the girl. He was in \'elvet American finds all the comforts of China and America. But I do not bell-shaped trousers nnd a short vest hom~the radio and jazz bands, cock- think so, says Edgar Snow, writing tn elahorately fringed wlth gold braid, A tails and correspondence schools, night the American Mercury. The fact Is wide red sash was fitted tightly to his clubs and cabarets, neon lights and that nobody in Shanghai worries him· slim waist. From the costume the skyscrapers, chewing gum and wide self very much about Sino-American sheritr guessed that gallant a vain understanding. Both the Chinese and trousers and long skirts, evangelists young man. ne was light on his feet, Americans are too busy making money. and the Salvation army. but he went through the figures of the And there, too, he finds such dance hesitantly, as though he hnd not practiced them \'ery much. Yet peculiarly American institutions as First Makera of Paper he was not abashed when he made a navy wives, shotgun weddings, Girl The art of making paper from slight mistake but quite self-possessed. Scouts, Spanish-American war ,·eter- fibrous matter seems to llu,·e been A smile llt the swarthy face, and at ans, a board of censors, daylight hold· practiced by the Chinese at a wry sight of the two buck teeth that UPiJ, immaculate barber shops, a short· early date. Some writers believe that showed above the retreating chin story club, wheat cakes and a chamthe Chinese made such paper at least . O'Hara's heart lost a beat. In spite of ber of commerce. two centuries B. C. Paper first beAll these things may be, as touring the disguise he knew that the dancer came available for the rest of the congressmen and other such ideallsts was Bob Quantrell. wot·ld about the Eighth century And even while the s.herltr watched are fond of saying, the "splendid evi· through the Arabs, who learned the him a man sidled up to the outlaw and art of paper making from Clllnese dropped a word in his ear. O'llara prisoners captured in Asia. Before Snowfall Calculated knew what the man had said as well papel' was made from fibrous matter The weather bureau says that as though he had heard him. For papyrus wa~ used for writing purQuantrell's glance swept Instantly to snowfall that occurs at the govern· poses. the door and found the officer. Hard ment observing stations is reduced to and unwlnklng, the eyes of the two its equivalent In rainfall and Included with the latter In determining the Geographical Dlviaion men met and clashed. The boundary between Canada and Quantrell knew he had been recog- amount of precipitation during the the United States Is merely a line benized, and the sherifl' knew that he year. As a rule the ratio of unmelted tween the termination of the United knew it, though the man's feet still to melted snow Is 1 to iO--that is, 10 States anu th& commencement of Cukept time to the music. What would Inches o! snow wlll ord!narilJ make he do? O'Hara dhl not for an Instant ttbout 1 Inch of water. ada. American Feels at Home in Great Chinese City Lucky Day Three candles! And each one represents a year of jo~·ous living. This is Carolyn Bahush, of 800 Downer Ave., Milwaukee, \VIsconsin. Her mother says: ..My mother used California Flg Syrup, and when Carolyn became constipated we got some. It relieved her constipation, sweetenell her breath, made her weJl and happy. I have sin<'e used It for all her upsets and c.o lds. It has kept her strong and energl.'tle." Fer fifty years, mothers have used California Fig Ryrn1> to overcome a ehlld's bilious, headachy, feverish orfretful spells. DOctors recommend its soothing aid to keep nowels clear in colds or chlldren's ailments; or whenever bad breath, coated tongue or listlessne,:;s warn of constipation. It a,:;slsts in building up weak chUilren. The genuine alwnys bears the name Oali(ornia. All drugstores. tl»l!'l:rtB~a LAXATIVE-TONIC for CHILDREN Blacl; sheep of tht> flintily under stand" human nature hetter, but doe)'n't t•rnfit ~~~- it. WOMEN SHOULD LEARN USES OF MAGNESIA To women who suiTer from nausea. or so-called "morning >-ickness," thi Is a ble_o:sing. ~fost nurses know lt. It Is advised by leading specialists: Over a small quantity of finely cracl>ed ice pour a teaspoonful of Phillips' Milk of llfagnesia. Sip slowly until you are relieved. It ends :,;ick stomach or inclination to vomit. 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Fill out the Blank and mail it to Dr. Pierce's Clinic, Buffalo, N.Y. for FREE medical advice. Send lOc if you want a trial package. Feel Always Stiff amd Achy? It Maq Wlm of Disordered ~' Are yc,u troubled with backache, bladder irritations and getting up at night? Then don't take chances! Help your kidneysat the first sign of disorder. Use Doan's Pills. Successfulfor more than SO years. Endorsed by: hundreds of thousands of teful users. Get Doan's toSold everywhere. Do~ &~~~ FOil CONSTIPATION fi!«'D~ in .tllldller~ . SAFE SCIENTIFIC |