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Show THE STORY so ak: Ann Lee and Cole Cody, beneficiaries under two identical identi-cal wills made by Early Bill Cole, ar- ', rived in the town of Bald Eagle by stage ; coach only to learn of Bill Cole's death ; afew days previously. Ann, accompanied ! by Aunt Jenifer, went out to the Ranch the following day and was greeted by ! Ranee Waldron posing as Old Bill's neph- ew. AFterward, Ranee made it evident they were not welcome at the Ranch. And : while Ann Lee was making it just as I ; plain she had no intention of leaving, Cal Roundtree, Old Early Bill's foreman, came upon the scene. Shortly they heard i someone else arriving. Ann Lee gaspetf i when she saw it was Cole Cody. Now continue with the story. CHAPTER VIII H Ann Lee had not been such a precipitate, hair-trigger sort of creature, a lovely little package of all sorts of unmanageable impulses, she must have marked in Cole Cody's Co-dy's startled expression that he was no whit less amazed to see her here than she was to see him. But she happened to be a girl who did her major thinking, when thinking seemed indicated, after the act instead in-stead of before. "Well!" said little Miss Ann Lee. "Of all things! If you think for one single minute, Mr. Cody, that either my aunt or myself has anything whatever to say to you, you are sadly mistaken. Come, Auntie, let's go in the house. It's nicer in there." "Good morning, Mr. Cody," said Aunt Jenifer, smiling friendliwise. "Lovely morning, ain't it?" Mr. Cody, having regarded her niece with his head tipped sidewise grinned back at Aunt Jenifer every hit as friendly as she. "You're right!" he told her enthusiastically. enthu-siastically. "Take this morning just as it is, you couldn't beat it with a ten foot pole. The sun's shining, notice? And the sky is as blue as anything. That's the way it ought to be. The air, now, it's all shot full of sunshine, and you can smell the pines and the green grass; and you just get a whiff of wood smoke out of the chimneys, dropping down lazy-like because on a still morning like this, with no wind blowing " "Coming, Aunt Jenifer?" asked a 1 .inw;nrv Ann Tan another word or two of defiance: "Stop! I tell you" In the quiet kitchen the explosion as the gun went off was as good as a cannon shot. Down at the corrals Cal Roundtree heard it, quite as he had said he would. A queer, rigid look stamped itself on Cole Cody's face. He stood his ground a minute, staring incredulously. incredu-lously. He opened his lips to speak, then closed them again without a word. After all, what was there to say? The matter required a modicum modi-cum of thought. "That's just to show you!" the girl told him, mocking him with voice and eyes and her whole attitude. atti-tude. "Next time I'll kill you!" He thought that over, too. "There won't be any next time," he managed at last. His eyes fascinated fas-cinated her; they seemed to catch all the light there was in the room, to focus it and draw it down to a fine point, to drive it back at her in a long, poison-tipped, altogether venomous lance. "You see, it's like this " Then, when she began to feel entirely en-tirely mistress of the situation, thinking that he meant to draw back and go his way, he leaped forward, taking half the room in one panther-ine panther-ine bound, and slapped her gun down just as it roared for the second time. His grasp wrapped about her wrist, tensing unmercifully, twisting her arm so that she screamed out in pain, and the gun dropped to the floor. He let her go, stooped and caught, the weapon up and hurled it far out through the open door be- and went down ignominiously. But Cody's gun was in his hand, its blunt, ugly nose turned Cal's way. "Better drop it, feller," said Cole Cody, sounding listless and not greatly concerned. He sat down as though making himself thoroughly at home. "Might blister your fingers." "Look here, you," said Cal Round-tree, Round-tree, his hand hanging down, the muzzle of his gun brushing his boot top. "Seems as though " He stopped short, biting his words off clean. He saw that the man lounging in the kitchen chair had turned white under his heavy tan, and he saw something else. He saw a tiny red pool on the floor close to one of the chair legs, and noticed the spaced drops falling down into it. Cal said, "I'm putting my gun away, stranger; all right?" and hol-stered hol-stered it with Cody watching him narrowly. Then he stepped up close to Cody and stood looking down at him. "Hurt bad?" he asked. "No," said Cody. Cal stooped down and took his gun away from him. Ann Lee, her eyes enormous, hot spots Of red on her burning cheeks, was on her feet again and staring at the man who had. just used her so, and she, too, a last saw the whiteness through his bronze, and the slowly dripping blood into the tiny glistening pool. "I shot him and I am glad!" she exulted. Aunt Jenifer came to Cal Round- tree's side, bending over the man in the chair. "Children shouldn't be allowed to play with shooting irons," said Aunt Jenifer mildly. "They're always getting hurt. If you boys, Mr. Roundtree, will get Mr. Bill Cole Cody to a bed, and if you'll bring me some boiled water and a clean sheet or pillow case, we'll try to mend him up. I don't think " "Mr. Who?" demanded Cal Roundtree. "Who'd you say he is?" "He calls himself Cody, William Cole Cody, and" Roundtree ran his fingers through his hair, then along the rim of an aching jaw. He frowned down at Whether Aunt Jenifer exactly tipped Mr. Cody a sly wink, or whether perhaps she merely squinted squint-ed an eye against the sun, looking his way, is a question. Not much of a question, perhaps, yet there is room for argument. She said meekly to her niece without with-out in the least looking meek, "Coming, "Com-ing, my pet," and followed along to the door which Ann was holding open. "Just a minute there!" Cody called after them. "Me, too, I'm J coming in!" "I don't think you have any business busi-ness here, Mr. Cody," Ann said crisply. "You are not invited and you are not coming in. And I never want to see you again. Do you understand? un-derstand? Or must I say it again?" "Can you get it through your head," said a very rude William Cole Cody, "that you and I, far apart as the poles in , everything else, agree right up to the hilt on one thing? That we never want to see each other any more than we have to, and let's hope that today wipes the slate clean. Just the same I am coming in, and I am going to stay for a spell, and " "Like fun you are!" Ann cried angrily. And, stepping swiftly backward, back-ward, she slammed the door in his face. He set his hand to the latch just in time to hear her drop the oaken bar into place. He swore gently "Get but!" she said again. "I mean it. You eet out or I'll kill you." young Cody. "You Cole Cody?" he demanded. Cole Cody, a trifle dizzy and sick-ish, sick-ish, demanded, "Might I ask if it's any business of yours? I'm not asking your pedigree, pedi-gree, am I? Suppose you leave me alone." - - ' "You're a nice kid, like a hornet," Cal snorted. "But I got to know. Unless you're ashamed of yourself, and I reckon you ought to be on general gen-eral principles, you tell me whether you're William Cole Cody or not!" Cody regarded him speculatively. Not a bad sort, it struck him, this nosy individual. Further, he was in no mood for a lot of empty jabber. jab-ber. Nor had he any reason to deny himself. So he said curtly, "Me, I'm Cole Cody. William Cole Cody. Just Cody for short. Now what? Want to do anything about head, jerked his hat forward and strode purposefully along the corridor corri-dor edging the patio, hunting for another door. He found it just in time to have it slammed, good and hard. He hastened his step and heard light steps running. So. he, too, ran. The next door was already fastened. fas-tened. He wasted no time at all on it those doors at the Hacienda Estrada, made long and long ago of good, honest oak two inches thick, asked for a battering ram when hospitality was not at home but spun on his heel and dashed for the kitchen end of the house. Little Ann Lee, hearing him, ran, too, as swift and agile as anyone of the three little pigs who were not wish-M wish-M for a call from the wolf, but the long-legged Cody was ahead of her hy several safe yards. He burst into the kitchen and halt-, halt-, ed there, briefly triumphant, while he could hear the staccato tapping f her racing feet. They looked at each other across the room. Cody shoved his hat back, se' his hands on his hips, lifted his chin at her and gave her a look as 8od as a slap. She came to a dead halt. 'You get out!" she cried in an ""get that made her beautiful for any man, not likewise angry, to saze upon. "Some other time," said Cody, Vfry brittle with her. Behind Ann Lee, Aunt Jenifer ap-Wared. ap-Wared. She wasn't laughing; she wasn't even exactly smiling. Yet a ' an some degrees less than blind ' "Md have told that she was having He time of her life. I Ann Lee, close to her wits' end, reembered the recent visit of the I amiable Mr. Calhoun Roundtree, re- m ?bered m a flash the gift he had made her. There on the kitchen a'e, in the middle of the room, Wween here and the detestable Mr. -o u Was Cal's Colt -45! What more , wud any beleaguered girl ask? fnatVa'rly leaPed uPn il- She 4 tched the weapon up and, her , ,s very bright along its barrel, ,0ed at Cole Cody disquietingly. Get out!" she said again. "I , . You get out or I'll kill lu6tter lock out' Mister." said itu Jenu"er's gentle voice. "Our i ih0etVlXen an shoot Iike a sharp" ' 3el ter and she's just in the mood. er do the way she says and 1 "e back some other time." ' Vega" t0 laush and took a ' lm ard s'ep, meaning to force the fi hen t0Wn' t0 take St away f10 her' J he have a sensible word with n lr.r,,Very obviously sensible Miss J CEdwards- Lee, desperate how, shrilled hind him. Then he set both his hard hands on her shoulders, jerking her toward him, shaking her back and forth so that her hair tumbled down and whipped lashingly across her reddening cheeks. "You little tiger pup!" he called her. There was a convenient chair. He dropped down into it and pulled her down across his knees; he yanked up her flounces and lifted his hand-high! hand-high! She kicked wildly, her legs threshing like some fantastic sort of windmill as, on fire with this indignity, in-dignity, she bit and scratched and screamed at him. His hand, lifted high, came down with a smack which made even a paralyzed Aunt Jenifer shudder; that hand of his rose and fell to such effect that in a couple of minutes little Miss Ann Lee received all the thorough spankings spank-ings she had missed and needed these many years. It was upon such an arresting scene that Cal Roundtree, coming at a dead run, burst, gun in hand. Cole Cody, hand lifted, gazed at him frowningly, little liking the interruption inter-ruption just now when things were quite at their best. To make matters mat-ters even less to his taste, there was another man looking in over Cal Roundtree's shoulder. Young Cody brought his hand down for the final smack. "Hey, you!" roared Cal. "What in the" Promptly Cole Cody gave over what was occupying him and stood up letting Ann Lee slide off his knees and sprawl on the floor. He stepped toward the newcomers. "Why, darn you!" Cal Roundtree stormed at him. Again Cole Cody emulated a springing cat, and his fist came up in a long swing, taking Cal Round-tree Round-tree neatly and forcefully upon the point of the chin, and such was the effect of the blow that Cal was lifted from his feet and flung bacukward' landing in the yard from which he had just come, flat on his back. And still a stormy Cole Cody stormed along, giving next his full attention, asking no questions, to Cal's com-panion, com-panion, Ranee Waldron. Ranee, too. went for his gun, and small good it did him, for in his case as in Cal s Cody's hand seemed to be quicker Than the eye. At any rate the same fist looking now to Ann Lee like a rock bound to the end of a war club accomplished for Ranee Waldron Wal-dron what it had already done for Cal Roundtree, with but a slight variation: va-riation: the bronze knuckles i landed with a sound compounded of thud TnS and squishing effects upon Ranee's nose, and blood spouted, and Ranee - tottered backward, tripped over Cal's e.irthbound body. it?" Cal Roundtree stood rubbing his bruised jaw. "Yes, I do," he said, having duly meditated. "Two things. I want to get your shirt off, see how bad you're hurt and mend you up again. That's one thing. The other is, I want to make you welcome to the King Cole Ranch. Old Early Bill told me to watch out for you, to treat you like home folks. That's two things. Maybe May-be later on we can make it three: when you're all well again, I'd like powerful well to take you out behind be-hind the barn and beat you clean to death!" He stuck his hand out. "Shake, Cody," he said. "Old Early Bill says so. You're wel- . come; like the old Spanish used to say, the place is yours." Cody looked up at him and a slow smile ' twitched at his lips and warmed his eyes, and his hand went out to find and clasp Cal Roundtree's. And Ann Lee stared at them with all her might. As, indeed, in-deed, did Ranee Waldron. So Cal got young Cody as far along as a chair in the living room the same old chair in which Early Bill had sat just before he lunged up, to die standing up! and yanked up his shirt tail and sought his wound. . Ann Lee came close after them, stood a moment looking down at the white flesh, the ugly blood-smear, blood-smear, the raw, gaping wound and ran out of the room, out into the patio, to the old green bench in the sunshine and sat down, her fingers twisting in her lap, her eyes traveling travel-ing out beyond the girding wall, into far blue distances. She saw three tall pines standing on a gentle knoll they filled her vision for a time she was not conscious of them at all just then, but they managed somehow to catch and still her fugitive fugi-tive eyes. No one had told her yet that out there, under those old pines, Early Bill was taking his long siesta. She bad overheard that funny man, Calhoun Roundtree, with the funny name, muttering Just what was it he had said, all to himself? Something about old Early Bill I could break his neck for him, ducking duck-ing out on me like this I bet a man somewhere he's laughing his old head off! Old Early Bill dead she had never seen him She stared unseeing unsee-ing at the still, tall pines, not knowing know-ing where old Early Bill was, and yet thought of him laughing! "I could love you, Early Bill!" whispered little Ann Lee, clasping her hands very, very tight. "I could love you with all my heart! Oh, why didn't you wait for me!" (TO DE CONTINUED) |