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Show INSTALLMENT TWELVE rusUers had been mysteriously killed. A lot of Texas ex-peace officers have been brought in by the big ranchers to kill off rustlers. Terry objects and his ranch is offered for sale in small parcels to small ranchers. Jeff shows back of the barn, which was over seventy-five yards from the house. Several he stationed across the brook in the brush near the edge of the clearing. A steady, intermittent intermit-tent sniping centered on the cabin. Already its windows were shattered. The defenders had dug spaces in the dry mud between the logs of the walls, which they used as loopholes for their guns. One had a rifle. Apparently the other was armed only with a revolver. The door of the cabin opened a few inches and a hand came out to wave a white flag. A voice called out something that was drowned in the crash of guns. Quickly the arm and the rag were withdrawn, the door shut and bolted. "Why not let them surrender?" Gaines asked. "Save us some time and trouble." "Let 'em surrender and then hang 'em?" McFaddin asked harshly. "No, by Jackson! I won't stand for that. If we're going to hang 'em we'll have to dig 'em out." "We don't even know they are on our list," Collins said. "We know damn well they are. They are the same scalawags who brought Turley's body back. If they hadn't been rustlers they would have held up their hands and let us take them. . . . Oughtn't to be much trouble to collect them." The forted man with the rifle served notice he was not to be taken too lightly. He wounded in the arm a ranch foreman who exposed himself him-self rather carelessly. Ellison passed the word among his men not to take any ' unnecessary chances. A few moments later a the killer's note to Ellen. She thinks It's Jack Turley's writing. Jeff confronts Jack, who bad posed as a rustler though really a spy for one of the big ranch-men. ranch-men. Jeff kills Jack and sends the body to the chief of the big ranchers. Hart mopped his perspiring forehead fore-head with a bandanna handkerchief. "Never saw it fail!" he cried bitterly. bitter-ly. "Need a man and he ain't there." "What's wrong, Lee?" the girl wanted to know. "Wrong! Everything." The heavy-set, heavy-set, bowlegged man slammed his dusty old hat on the porch floor. "A bunch of wild Injuns is raidin' this country. They came bustin' down on my place with forty guns a-poppin'." "Indians?" the girl repeated incredulously. in-credulously. "Well, these Texas warriors the paper was telling about. They was chasing two guys. I lit out lickety-split." lickety-split." "Who were they chasing?" "I dunno. They're likely wiped out by now. They hadn't but one horse between them. When I took my last look they were making for my house to hole up." "What do you want with father?" "Well, we got to spread the news to'everybody. I'm headin' for Round Top. Someone has got to ride up the Alford road and let the settlers there know. Tell 'em to meet here. Send the cook if you haven't got anybody else." "No," Ellen said promptly. "I'm not going to get Jim mixed up in it." "Mixed up in it? You tellin' me yore black man is too good to work with us?" Hart snarled. "I'm telling you it is none of his business." Hart fastened his gaze on two horsemen coming down the road at a slow trot. In his eagerness to tell the news to Jeff Brand he forgot his indignation. He bowlegged through the dust to meet the riders as they drew up at the hitching-post. hitching-post. "Have you heard, Jeff? The big outfits have done brought a bunch of Texans here to run us outa the country. Paul Vallery told me this mo'ning. He got it from Lane Carey Car-ey who read it in the Denver Republican. Re-publican. Well, sir, I seen them comin' down the hill hell-for-leather and lit out just in time. They was chasin' two birds." Brand swung from the saddle to go forward to meet Ellen. "Chasing "Chas-ing who?" he asked over his shoulder. shoul-der. "I dunno. Couldn't wait to find out. I burned the wind getting away from there." "You don't know what became of the two men?" "They got into my house and forted fort-ed up, but I reckon they couldn't hold out long. Must of been a hundred hun-dred in that army." "Fifty-eight," Brand corrected. THE STORY SO FAR: EUen Carey, the postmaster's daughter, seems inter ested in two men, Jeff Brand, rustler, and Calhoun Terry, manager of a big ranch who is regarded inimically by both rustlers and small ranchers. Four CHAPTER XXIV A Texan led the packhorse back to the camp among the pines. "Couple of fellows brought some freight in for Mr. McFaddin and then lit out like the heel flies were after them," he said. "The other boys are chasin' them. They acted right funny." McFaddin and Ellison stepped forward. for-ward. "I'm not looking for any freight," the Flying V C man said. "But that's my horse all right. It has been loose on the range with a bunch of others." The Texan released the diamond ' hitch and whipped off the tarp. A j body slid to the ground. Those present pres-ent stood staring at what they saw. Ellison leaned over him. "It's Jack Turley,, one of our stock detectives," de-tectives," he said. "By God, they got the double-crossing double-crossing killer," McFaddin said bluntly. From the coat pocket Ellison drew the note Morgan had written. "Here is yore killer," he read, "come back to report." Collins looked at Ellison. "So this fellow was the killer." "That's a closed chapter," the No, By Joe manager replied. "Closed for Turley," McFaddin snapped. "Whoever did this has got his nerve, bringing the body to our camp. And how did they know we were here? It's supposed to be a secret." se-cret." They looked around at one another, anoth-er, startled. "We had better move fast," Gaines said. "After being chased off the map these two fellows must suspect sus-pect something." "Let's go," McFaddin said with a sardonic laugh. "We don't have to wait any longer for Turley to guide us. He's here. A little late for his appointment with us, but I reckon He couldn't help that." They were off to an inauspicious start. To most of them the arrival of Turley's dead body, with the crisp, jeering note attached, was a bad omen they found it hard to shake off. The regulators, as the invaders called themselves, looked to their cinches and mounted. From the prong they wound up through the pines into a country of open range too wild for homesteaders. The spread was too rocky and too hilly to invite settlers. Presently they would cross a mountain spur from which they would drop down into a district of gulches, -rock rims, and small valleys where at not too frequent fre-quent intervals a few nesters and cow thieves held the fort unmolested, unmolest-ed, except when posses, from the big ranches came hunting stock that was missing. On Ellison's list were the names of a dozen men who lived in this section. He and his allies "How do you know?" "We hid on a ridge and counted them," Morgan said. "A bunch of warriors brought in to shoot down innocent men!" Hart cried angrily. "We'll see about that. I'm on my way to tell our friends at Round Top." "No need," Jeff said. "We've already al-ready sent a messenger. Better stay and gather a relief party to ride over to your place. We'll need every man we can get." "When do you aim to go?" "We've got to get off right quick if we're going to save the boys they have trapped. Say inside of an hour." "We can't get together seventy or eighty men that quick," Hart protested. pro-tested. "Don't need more than ten or a dozen. We'll lie in the rocks above and shoot down at them." "Not me," Hart answered promptly. prompt-ly. "I just got out with my skin, and I don't aim to try it again." Jeff looked at the man contemptuously. contemptu-ously. "Go hide under a bed, you louse." The pale blue eyes of Brand burned into the man. "But not till you've done your job. Ride up the Alford road and send down all the men you can find. After that you can go jump in a lake." Jeff turned away and joined Ellen on the porch. He grinned at her. "Well, sometimes a newspaper piece turns out to be true," he said. Morgan joined those on the porch. "I'd better ride Deep Creek and warn the folks up that way. From what Lee says looks like these fellows fel-lows are headed there." "Yes. Better rope one of the horses in the corral." Jeff added casual information. "I'm going to Lee's place to see what has happened hap-pened to the two trapped in his house Maybe I can make a diversion di-version from the rocks that will help them." "Must you, Jeff?" asked Ellen in a low voice. He nodded. "Can't desert two of our men without trying to help them." His manner was cheerful and nonchalant. "Dave has picked the tough job. He's liable to meet a bunch of these Texans any turn of the road. But someone has to warn our friends." "I suppose so. But you don't have to go and attack fifty men, do you?" Brand's gaze followed Morgan as that young man swung on his horse to ride to the corral. "He'll do it, too, if they don't get him first. That guy will do to ride the river with." His attention came back to what the girl had said. "I don't see what you can do alone." "Can't tell till I get there. Soon as a bunch of the boys roll in tell them to hop over to Lee's place fast as their broncs will bring them." She watched him, always spectacular, spectac-ular, fling himself into the saddle without touching the horse. He waved his big white hat in farewell as he rode away. (TO BE CONTINUED) "We've got 'em!" Yelled McFaddin. 4 bullet tore through the calf of one of the Texans. The men who had pursued the cowman returned after a time. On account of his long start they had failed to catch him. This was disturbing. dis-turbing. It meant that news of the invasion was bound to get out. The leaders held a consultation. . "We can't fool away the rest of the day here," McFaddin said impatiently. im-patiently. "To heck with this siege stuff. I move we charge the cabin and wipe 'em out." "Losing three or four men!" Ellison Elli-son scofTed. "That would be dumb of us." Collins then made a suggestion. "You're both right. What say Clint stays here with ten or twelve men and attends to this business while I take the rest and sweep the hill pockets? I can get ' back before dark." After some discussion the Antelope Ante-lope Creek man's plan was adopted. McFaddin said he would ride with Collins. There were some thieves in this district he had been wanting to get a crack at for a long time. "Be sure not to let yourselves get cut off from us," Ellison cautioned. cau-tioned. "And don't waste any time. We've got about four hours, I would guess. Five at the most. By that time we'll have to be on our way, or we may not get out of here at all. Whatever happens, don't be tempted to swing too wide a loop. I don't like being so deep in the enemy's ene-my's country. I'll feel better when we reach Packer's Fork. Once there, it won't be so easy to cut us off from our own district." Collins promised to be back in time. CHAPTER XXV Ellen was making up a post-office report that had to be sent to Washington Wash-ington when she saw a horseman emerge from a fissure in the hills and come down the long slope to the ranch at a gallop. He was flogging flog-ging his mount with a quirt. Jim Budd was at the door, leaning against the jamb, resting from the exertion of having swept the floor. It was in his horoscope that he would go through life as easily as he could. "Seems to be a gen'elman in a hurry, Miss Ellen," Jim drawled. A faint unease stirred In her. Men did not usually ride like that except to carry bad news. . The rider drew up in front of the post-office and flung himself from the horse. The man was Lee Hart He spoke to Ellen, who had come out to the porch. "Where's Lane?" he demanded. "Father is down with the men fencing a new pasture," Ellen answered. an-swered. "About three miles due west from here ... Do you have to see him?" meant to wipe out as many of these as they could in a few hours and sweep on up to the neighborhood of the big ranches, where they would establish a base for operations. They straggled forward in no formation, for-mation, Ellison and McFaddin in the van. From a long, rocky slope they came into a little mountain park, not far from the summit, a saucer-shaped depression fringed on the far side with jack pines. Just beyond this was the backbone of the spur they were climbing. McFaddin lifted a shout of warning warn-ing and whipped up his rifle. Two men had appeared on the rim and started to ride down, but at sight of the large company pulled up and turned. One of them flung up a hand in protest as the Flying V C man's gun cracked. The echoes of that shot rolled across the valley, A sorrel horse stumbled and flung his rider, then raced across the slope with reins flying wild, fjthe . man who had given the Indian peace sign called to his companion. It was almost as though the dismounted dismount-ed man had bounced back from the ground, so quickly was he on his feet. He ran a few steps along the hillside and vaulted to the back of the uninjured horse behind his friend. Three or four Texans fired, but the horse and its double load reached the rim and vanished. Giving the cowboy's "Hi-yi-yippy-yi!" McFaddin brought his cow-pony cow-pony to a canter and pursued. The others followed him. From the summit sum-mit they looked down on a tangle of huddled hills, little valleys, and dark canyons. The terrain looked like ideal cover for outlaws. A man who knew the district might hide for weeks in unsuspected pockets. A roan horse, carrying two men, was traveling' fast down the side of the spur but was already showing signs of distress. "We've got 'em!" yelled McFaddin. McFad-din. "Come on, boys." Just ahead was a little clearing with a log cabin on the edge of a creek. A man had appeared from behind it driving a few cattle. He was at casual ease, in no hurry whatever. At the sound of the roaring roar-ing guns he swung his head, took in the situation, and instantly forgot there was such a thing as leisure in the world. While the fugitives were still a good two hundred yards distant he jumped his horse to a gallop and vanished up a draw. The hunted men flung themselves from the back of the horse and ran Into the house. The door slammed behind them. The pursuers dragged their horses to a halt and many of them dismounted. Frightened by the firing, the horse of the men in the cabin splashed through the creek and bolted. Ellison took command. He named lour or five men to follow the cowman cow-man who had disappeared up the ravine. The others he distributed about the place, most of them in or |