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Show lav. h? dtiP"ate but vain .(tempt to t him. Thorpe', men were attacked jodv T Roper'' cowb0 w t- "er find'" him was short Marquita. not Jody, was Roper's girl. Pony which knows that it has come to the end of the long trail. He drew a last drag from his ciga-rette. ciga-rette. and strapped on the gunbelt which he had laid aside. Unhurriedly, Unhurri-edly, he three or four times drew the iron from its leather, to be sure that it was running free. Then, with a purely unconscious motion, he cocked his hat over one eye and went down into the street He knew that Lew Gordon had gone into the Red Dog Saloon, and he walked toward it now. For a moment Bill Roper, raider, night-rider, gunfighter - dreaded name of the Long Trail experi- ' enced a twist of the heart, terrible, unbelievably acute. Then he shrugged, and walked into the Red Dog Bar. Lew Gordon stood at the bar of the Red Dog Saloon. The hard line of his jaw was blurred by a silver shag of whisker now, and his mustache mus-tache was silver, and his hair; but the clear blue eyes were unbelievably unbelieva-bly young, younger than Bill Roper had ever seen them before. His hands were folded quietly, one elbow el-bow on the bar; and so greatly did this silver-haired man dominate the space in which he stood that it was minutes before Roper realized that there was a bartender there at all. "So you came," Lew Gordon said. "Of course, Lew. Didn't you know , I would come?" "In one way," Lew Gordon said, "I'm glad you came. I want to say a couple of things to you, Billy, my boy. I done something wrong, INSTALLMENT 18 THE STORV SO FAR: tion of his sweetheart. Jody Gordon, and her father. Roper conducted a great raid upon Thorpe's vast herds in Montana. Mon-tana. He was captured by Leathers and Kane, two of Thorpe's men. Leathers' girl, pretty Marquita. loved Poper and him in the market fit to break them both, and finally he kills Lew's partner, part-ner, and still he keeps on." "Joe," Bill Roper said, "Joe-Walk "Joe-Walk Lasham himself is with Ben Thorpe!" "Well 1 ain't surprised." "But God Almighty, Joe, if he walks into a fight with those two, all hell can't save him! He's as good as dead, the minute he walks in there!" "That," said Old Joe. "is what I figured you ought to know." CHAPTER XXV It was very early; the sun was only just breaking over the winter-starved winter-starved prairie, that Sunday morning morn-ing as Bill Roper splashed through the creek that runs by Sundance, and rode into the little town. Overhead the sky was such a clear crystalline blue as Bill Roper had not seen since he left Texas, and underfoot his tired pony was sinking fetlock deep in thawed mud. The mud itself was predicting a spring which Roper believed now he would never see. Without sign from the rider. Roper's Rop-er's pony drew up before the Palace Hotel and Livery. With some difficulty Bill Roper roused a sleepy and resentful Individual. Indi-vidual. "Feed this pony, and feed him well." Casually Roper strolled along the corral where stood the loose horses It s' a L Corn had bulll S' inches. King was :1 " ? wis determined to iwiToftneopp:8 rEB XXIH-Contlnued a, ,d up. She felt suddenly ! Si world can be made ... live " she said. rSSBpwOl live ,a life whatever happen, to I leantime-I Eess he be- 1 fJarquita's stare for a turned and walked to open it, -he saw that ; cold gray of toe J ; was coming into the Montana. i bulk of the horse whose , a broken lay at her feet, f I from under it the coat : she had blinded It when i( '4 the door, and pulled it s :.er cold of the dawn was b penetrate to the bones. k( mcinched and worked 1 &ee, then the bridle. She i little as she shouldered ; and walked out toward S where other, living ponies i humped up shapes e snow. HAPTER XXIV er and Bob Stokes the a rowboy whom Roper :own-had finished their dressing of Old Joe's j were working on Jim Jim Leathers lay perfect-' perfect-' jj his eyes seemed alive, she feeling?" Bill Roper Srdon girl? She's all right, sit to look over the horses Billy." "You was right and I was wrong. You fought him; I tried to smooth things out. I'm glad I've lived to tell you this: you was right and I was wrong!" "Lew" Bill began. "I should have killed him, Billy," Lew Gordon said. "Lew! What are you telling me?" "I know I was wrong." Lew Gordon Gor-don said. Yet, somehow he did not seem unhappy. "Always I stood for law, for order the decent thing, the thing that would build this country into something my kid could live in. But I guess it wasn't meant to be. I should have swung with you when you tied into him in Texas, and again when you tied into him in the north! But I aim to square it all up today!" "You mean?" said Bill Roper. "He's coming to meet me here." "With how many men?" Roper asked again. "What does it matter?" Lew poured himself a drink. Outside, on the board walk of Sundance, Sun-dance, were sounding the heels of approaching men . . . :a better go see nothing's to Jody." 2i minute, soon as we're ! came in of her own ac-e ac-e that. She went straight ; terribly uncomfortable, I ;reat," Joe said with spir- o bunting for a vacation years, and this is my e!" irry, Joe. You'll never sorry I am. I tangled pretty badly, I guess." at wonderful," Joe told ii saved Bill's neck, all y bad him hog-tied like a and the girl, too, when in." Marquita a glance in out; light was a faint con-she con-she did not comment. :ng back to Miles," she "On the way I'll send and everything you'll I'll see that you're moved 6 wagon, soon as you feel X I appreciate what ne, Joe." ok," Bob Stokes began. ; be riding off like this in of the night!" ' ng daylight, fast. I'll be "I can kill him," Bill Roper said, "I can kill him even if I die." Lew Gordon's face changed swiftly. swift-ly. Suddenly he was the indomitable indomita-ble old man whom Bill Roper had always known. "Ben Thorpe is for me," Lew Gordon Gor-don said, "to make up for the quiet years . . ." And Bill Roper, looking deep into the young eyes of that ageing man, finally said, "Okay." And then the door darkened, and the approaching heels on the board walk were silent because they had arrived. The man Lew Gordon had sent for had come . It was Ben Thorpe who stepped quickly through the door, and one pace to the left,-so that his gun, already al-ready drawn, swept the bar. It was Walk Lasham who followed him through the door, stepping one pace to the right, so that the door was clear for the three unknown gun-fighters gun-fighters who tried to enter all at once. "Draw, Ben," Lew Gordon said; and then all guns spoke at once. In the blast of gunfire that followed, fol-lowed, no man could tell what happenedbut hap-penedbut Roper knew that all guns seemed to converge upon Lew Gordon, Gor-don, and frantically he threw the lash of his fire at Thorpe, at Lasham, Lash-am, at the unknown men at the door. For a moment the guns spoke in a smashing roar, and the powder smoke stung Bill Roper's nostrils; and then suddenly there was silence again. Thorpe and Lasham both were down as that gunsmoke cleared, and those other strangers in the doorway had disappeared, except for a boot heel that dragged almost out of sight, and then was still. Beside the bar of the Red Dog Saloon Lew Gordon still stood. Perhaps Per-haps it was his bullet in the heart of Ben Thorpe no man would ever know. He turned now. slowly, elbow upon the bar, and looked at Bill Roper. Thanks, son," he said. The hand that held the heavy forty-five sagged deliberately, then dropped the gun; it made a strange clatter upon the unswept boards of the floor. Then Lew Gordon's knees broke and he went down, and Bill Roper caughl him as hf fell. Thin and tinny across the squalia town across the thawing prairie, the church bell was ringing-a make shift church bell ringing, on Sunda rooming, as Lew Gordon died. fit) lit. mTinw J Bill Roper splashed through the creek that runs by Sundance. which were being boarded here. He was chewing a straw as he came back to the sleepy man who was now shaking down hay. "I see you have a SB horse there a good one." "Yeah?" "I figure Lew Gordon rode that horse in?" "And supposin' he did?" "Where is he stopping?" "How should 1 know? This dump is good enough for his horse, but it ain't good enough for him. He went to sleep with some friend or something, out at the edge of town." 'Til take a room facing on this street," he said. A little while later Roper sat at last with his heels caught in the window sill, resting as he regarded the empty street. That Ben Thorpe was here was known to every cattleman in the north country. Ben Thorpe had been here many weeks; it was to Thorpe that Bill Roper was to have been delivered, here, if a kid horse wrangler wran-gler following Jody Gordon had not shot Jim Leathers down. But, by the fine, hard-ridden 9B horse which Lew Gordon had ridden in, Bill Roper Rop-er knew that Gordon had not been here long. He judged that he had got here in time. Bill Roper sat there a long time. Seven o'clock passed, and eight, and nine, while he smoked and waited. Ten o'clock passed, and ten-thirty. Then upon the quiet main street of Sundance appeared a figure-the one he had been waiting for. It seemed to Bill Roper that Lew Gordon walked like a younger man than Roper had remembered. Bill Roper knew Lew Gordon by the flah of silver in his short beard, by the old hat. curiously like Dusty King s, which Lew Gordon had never changed. Buthehadtolooktw.ee to be sure that this man with the springy stride and erect bearing was the Lew Gordon he had known When he was sure, Bill Roper stood up and stretched; he filled h lunes with air. and at last let it go SL55. ii a whoof like that of a THIS IS t. i UNf FICTION in the gray light that r than the air, Jody 1 mounted as Bill Roper er stirrup. -stn't go yet," he told her ese boys are fixed as e as they can be; there's get help. You'll be coffee; and I have to a, Jody." 'interested in talking to 1 said without expression. Jdy look here" m Into this," Jody said, 'into this because I was a iad to get you out. That's I don't want to talk to or any time." ;lel her horse sharply, so rjo's sent up a scurry of ften she was gone, her ved by the cabin as she '3r& the trail. r;"ient Roper stood look-"er' look-"er' Then he stepped in- . here, Bob," he said, 'and ride after her; I'll slle ets to Miles." 1 Btoute," Old Joe said. 10 wait a minutel There's ;Us you gut to know." nothing else I need to 2im ain't in Miles!" re the devil is he? His - Jim Leathers, I note to Lew Gordon JJter was all right, but ent home jusjt yet. No-; No-; J,at n,1te. But it was ' from it that some Bn Thorpe-8 was hold-me hold-me PWe. So Lew Gor- "t Lew Gordon is (dyfpath himself? Hunt- '"'p8 afk'r it stralghter everybody knows Ben ' Sundance. Lew Gur-10 Gur-10 Sundance to tie into and his old gun is :J' at his side." CLfigh' ThorPe?" 4eThSlhat wame about that? Thorpe . aay at Lew Gordon 1 trail ?t0le his cat"e and bosses, and fought |