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Show ?! j VANUMT W.N.U. Release : I INSTALLMENT 7 1 THE STORY 8fl par. 2 ,um Cor had built 3y ranches hlch :ti , u Montana. King fl0ZZn,. Bill Bop-ft Bop-ft Hi. first step was to start cattle war In Texas. Ha made thla decision against the opposl-Uon opposl-Uon of Lew Gordon and the tearful pleading of hii sweetheart, Jody Gordon. Gor-don. With the aid of Dry Camp Pierce and other outlaw gunmen. Roper con-ducted con-ducted raid after raid upon Thorpe s herds. cieve Tanner, manawr of u plana. Boper'a lesources had dwln-came. dwln-came. And Thorpe eemed not to , , beL'tT !rick,e 0f ca' began to move toward the gather- g grounds on the Rod. The in- come from these sales helped . lit- fee. but the proceeds were principal- behalf of the individual ranches. The improvement In his situation which Roper had hoped for did not come. It was deep into March when Tex Long cuit. "Look." Tex Long said, "look." He did not talk easily; whatever ne said was matter-of-fact, even now. "I got to pull out of this game." Bill Roper looked at him. without expression. "All right. How much you figure I owe you?" Tex smiled. "Nothing." A very rare flush of anger came into Bill Roper's face. "Tex, what's the matter with you?" Tex Long made a quick, futile-gesture futile-gesture with his hands. "We used to be able to jump down on them. We can't do that now. The Bert Johnson place is studded with ri-fles ri-fles until a man can't take a step. Every place you'll find out it's the same. There isn't going to be anything any-thing more we can do. We went good for a while. But they got organized, or-ganized, now. We're through." Tex Long was only one of Bill Roper's picked gunfighters, but he was one of the best. As March drew on, Roper lost four more. Into the Big Bend, into the valley of the Nueces, Cleve Tanner had flooded such a power of gunfighters as Bill Roper would not have believed. be-lieved. He had supposed that he knows his cattle counts better than me. But I've been all up and down this country, and I don't lee but what he can." "Well, anyway," Roper said, "the border gangs are going good. We'll go on with it, and keep going on . . ." "Bill," Shoshone said, "how long can you go on, the way it's costing you now?" "Not much farther, I guess." "You going to have to quit?" Roper shook his head. "I'll never quit now, Shoshone; I can't quit. While I've got one rider left with me, or no riders, I'll still be working work-ing on Cleve Tanner. But I think we're going to beat him, Wilce. After Aft-er all, the border gangs we can count on them." Roper continued to count on his border gangs for two weeks more. Then, in the middle of February, he learned that Lee Harnish was through. The first word of difficulty came when Dave Shannon pushed a little bunch of seven hundred head through the river at Mudcat Turn, and found no vaqueros waiting on the other side. Shannon waited three days before he was forced to turn the cattle free and ride. The complete news of what had happened never really came. What Roper learned came in bit by bit, by way of random riders who had talked with a vaquero here, another there. Lee Harnish had been pressing south with a herd of twelve hundred head. He wao two days into Mexico, Mex-ico, and supposed that he was clear; he . had never had much trouble, once he was well below the line. to' 8 dr7gged out slowly. 3 , bold ey were. W h told. He had per-q per-q ti flrrt that auccess or I Kd upon whether or A I .S Thi. war with J fanner herds was one L, their captures into 5J ftlier another. Led that be could ini- I I drives to the north. "J found this out of the T l tb other hand, the 1 tad found themselves J I, that none of them If l, cattle of questions- jj Ltanner organization 1 1 ki problem; they took ! I Luted snd drove what r w means of their own I I I But Roper could now H I of cattle for the trail lebers known to be t y established men. le strategic purpose be-l be-l rehabilitation of the I which Tanner had orig-lind orig-lind which Poper had I into the hands of their ts. These re-established j not only the sympathy f eet of everyone who . about Texas cattle, le men Roper now had Le outlet for the cattle fory Camp's experts, I jifighters under such fc Liggett, Tex Daniels, l;k Tommy supplied a j protection until they 1 their feet lethod, promising as it L. Of necessity the Ijper backed were cow-I cow-I assets other than their I.n to their ground. 1 by mortgage loans, but lij silent partnerships, r.ow obtained interests L dozen outfits. They ! I been thriving outfits. Lund his money drain-li drain-li unforeseen swiftness, le of any financial reuse re-use trail should open in I Only the Mexican bor-lj, bor-lj, which depended upon r. continued to show a I of income through the lis. As spring ap-1 ap-1 per found himself near I ail string. I February, Shoshone I south seeking Bill Rop-U Rop-U him at the Pot Hook Jut anything?" Roper I Wee rubbed his badly I with horny fingers. "I (as you're going to like I good, Bill." l e the bad news first I Iw there's enough of it; I any other kind to be I do you want to know iHiorpe making out up l-m in Dodge City; he 12 money around with a '-ach hand. You know I I think he can go I rget Tanner, and write lie has in Texas right ft, and never know the could outplace and outsmart Tanner's Tan-ner's warrior outfits. But now his raiding forces met everywhere a stubborn resistance. Roper had discounted the quit of Tex Long; but now other news was coming in. The Graham outfit the first of all those that the Roper men had taken was again in the hands of Cleve Tanner; and Nate Liggett, assigned to protect Graham, had, headed for the tall without even a report Hat Crick Tommy was three weeks missing. The Davis outfit, left under his protection, had gone the way of all loose outfits, and Tanner's Tan-ner's cowboys rode the range. Dry Camp Pierce was almost the last to come in of those who came in at all. Harnish took to the brush and i the hills. But now, one moonless night, a band reported as of at least sixty men struck from no place, scattering the herd, and blazing down on Harnish's riders almost before they could take to the saddle. There had been a sharp running fight as Harnish and his half-dozen boys took to the brush and the hills. Unsatisfied with seizure sei-zure of the herd, the unknown band had spent three days trying to hunt Pierce rode into the Pot Hook Camp early in April. He was the same, small wiry man he always had been his eyes watery, his jaws poorly shaven. "Bill, I can't carry these camps no more. God knows we strung with you while we could. We've et beef, beef, beef without salt or flour, we've et bobcat meat. But Bill there's no lead in our guns, and there's no patches in our pants, and it's time I got to let the boys go. to make out any way they can." Bill Roper looked older than Dusty King had ever looked; his face was like granite, with hard lines cut into it by the weather. "Okay." he said. "1 understand how you feel, Dry Camp." Dry Camp's anger was gone as quickly as it had come. "Bill," he said pleadingly, "it's only it's only-" "It's only that you've had a lot of men out working for us," Bill Roper said more reasonably. "Near fifty men," Dry Camp said. "How many you got working now?" Dry Camp Pierce hesitated. "Not a damned man," Bill Roper said bitterly. "And now you quit Dusty King." "Look you here," Dry Camp said. "I've strung with you when I wouldn't have strung with any other man, let alone an upstart kid. I'll say this for you you've made a game fight. But kid, take my word for it they're too big, and they're too strong." ;1 his hands behind his stared at the ceiling, "t seemed to him that eak Tanner was like try-;? try-;? the Ri0 Grande with The apparently unices un-ices of Ben Thorpe in ntry and in the north, - rfthe south Texas war, ' vast reservoir which "Jlraw on without limit. Tanner himself making ie ben all up and down d east part of Texas; I1 s where we've ac-; ac-; damned thing." ;tfaiow what you're talk- w what I thik?" Wilce 1 think there's more cat-try cat-try than the world " Ior- I don't think you man any more, just lt0 his cattle." ;mf what you think. . you know." 'und and tried to find Tanner's bpcn ca tle on spring deliv- n 1 learn ,erythi No. 'Jjhing. But I got ! a hesitated, and J more until he had "tehroed. In the mid- ig afigar?tle he went )th,?uBt' and spilled the he had to start over toV1 'ast' "Cleve an he'sr'Ve mre cattle feton, eVer dr0Ve be" 5 we bunch alone he of I" thousand hed J,? ' J Red!" Mr, i Per sl"uteL "He , 'WiPosfible!" he can. He j down Harnish's riders. Lee Harnish himself, wounded in the first skirmish, had had a hard time getting clear; it was not known whether or not all of his riders were elsewhere accounted for. After an elapse of several weeks, an Indian-faced vaquero came hunting hunt-ing Bill Roper; he carried a written writ-ten message from Lee Harnish: "This thing is finished up. Don't let anybody tell you it was Cleve Tanners men busted into us. What hes done, this Tanner has put some bunches of Mex renegades up to landing on us, they work with the Yakis, and his Indian scouts have spotted where we make our crossings. cross-ings. Seems like theres anyway a dozen bands of them havent got anything any-thing else to do but lay watching those crossings, and wait us out. "About half of them is carrying new American guns and plenty ammunition. am-munition. They got our hide nailed to the fence all right and we are through." It was a long time before Roper saw Lee Harnish again. He did net accept Harnish's statements offhand; off-hand; but' when he had conferred with Dave Shannon, and others ot the border men in whom he believed, be-lieved, he was forced to accede that the border-running phase of the attack at-tack on Tanner was done. As February drew to a close, the big herds were once more being thrown together for the trail. From the eleven rehabilitated outfits in which Roper was now silent part- 5llllAI. it i' u-l"vfc:'i "You think so?" Bill Roper said. "I know so. I don't know what you had, made men like Lee Harnish Har-nish and Dave Shannon and Nate Licgett throw in with you, but they did-the damnedest wild bunch Texas Tex-as ever seen. Half the renegades of the Long Trail, and your part of King-Gordon, has gone into beating Cleve Tanner. And where are we now?" "Well?" We aren't any place! Kid, I tell you we're beat, and we're long beat!" Anril melted into May, and Roper had nothing to fight with any more Th ,se units of his wild bunch that nad not quit had not been heart from at all; he knew already hat he ones who had completely failed. Cleve Tanner prospered, seemingly; and all was well with Ben Thorpe. Bill Roper waited at the Pot Hook u trving to think of some way now, trying w that he had missed. King-Oor don denied him. and Lew Gordon Sressedly would advance nothing more against Dusty King's share of partnership which had been bro- |
