OCR Text |
Show SANUMAY W.N.U. Release VmJ Installment 3 THE STORY SO FAR: . ... Gordon were ,,st King-Gordon J from Texas to i!tlC 1 P hls ,trln(f valed King-Gordon In power and wealth, but he had gained hit position through wholesale cattle rustling and gunplay. Their opposing Interests came to a showdown show-down when the Government announced the auctioning of the valuable Crying 1 WoU land in Montana. King bid hlsh to beat out Thorpe. Bill Roper. King s adopted ion. raced home to tell pretty Jody Gordun the good new.. A rider soon brought the news that Dus'y King had been killed. 0 ' King five miles if eSethe Great himself had pi-riant pi-riant he would a !L7re in the open S eattle trail "1 of booh would f through the they Ped boul" it of the prairie himself fitted a 'ftiej the most dur- JJSiber available n done, and night everybody had i Bill Roper went Across and squat-ftj-t the Pile of ridden horse came . walk; and rf motionless, un-Sones, un-Sones, as the horse- ipped to the ground toward the cross, .:. Mf on his arm. "Then, by God, King-Gordon has come to Its split-up" Silence again before Dry Camp said, "And I suppose I'm expected to Just kind of stand aside and stay out of it and see how you work it out, huh? Well, I won't do It. Bill." "You're In this, Dry Camp." "How am I in it?" "I've got to have me an outfit. It's got to be made up of boys that aren't afraid of Ben Thorpe or all hell; boys that haven't got anything any-thing more to lose. I'll need near fifty men. But to start off with I want Lee Harnish, and Tex Daniels and Tex Long; Nate Liggett Dave Shannon" "Wow!" said Dry Camp. "You get those four or five in the same bunch, they'll eat each other alive." "That's the kind I want," Bill Roper said. "I want a wild bunch such as the West has never seen before." "And me what am I supposed to do?" "You you're heading south. You're going back to Texas and We're going to carry the war Into the other camp. Lew. For every outfit that Ben Thorpe has grabbed I by force of arms, he's going to lose I two; for every head that has come ! into his herds by rustle and raid, j two head of his are going to be j missing when he makes his roundup count. First thing, I'm going to break Cleve Tanner down in Texas. After that" Lew Gordon looked Bill Roper hard in the eye, smiled a little, and shook his head. His voice was slow and deep, stubbornly emphatic, as a granite cliff is emphatic. "No. We've never gone outside the law yet, and while I live we never will. We play the straight game always; and if we lose that's In the hands of things beyond us." Bill Roper angered. "I know how you feel about it," he said, keeping his voice down. "You swayed Dusty that way always. If you'd looked at it different, the guns would have been out years ago and It would have been Ben Thorpe that went down. As it is Dusty King is dead. Now you want me to drift on as we always drifted on, and I'm supposed to forget that Dusty's out there under un-der a pile of stones. Well, I'm not going to play it that way, Gordon." "While you're with King-Gordon," Lew said slowly, "you'll play it as I say you'U play it." "If you want to buy me out," Roper Rop-er said, "you can do it 8t your' own price. Because I'm going to do exactly what I tell you I'm going to do; I wouldn't run a sneak on you. Lew." "You figure," Lew Gordon said incredulously, in-credulously, "that you, one youngster young-ster on horseback, can smash up Ben Thorpe? You wouldn't last forty seconds longer than a celluloid collar col-lar on a dead gambler." "There'll be a few go with me," Roper said. "Who?" "rnr fan-in Pierre fnr one: Lee I -oh, he110' Dry piercs came and sat Bfll it the foot of the d out anything, in the - Camp repeated after uid they won't" i mighty sure. Dry jty jure because I am r Nobody saw Dusty ifte three men that In other man." hand shot out and Camp'i lean arm in a 'it i trap. "Who was lpj I Biiciiv v, r BiH said. : you haven't told any-had any-had any chance to talk Camp said. "I'm tell-. tell-. ain't IT" it!" sner; and Walk Lash-a Lash-a Thorpt" i took i match out of litii cowhide vest and -" he searched for his ijf, alter the manner ho are much alone-tied alone-tied his horse out back Star Bar, in the angle s shed. There's a kind 'ire, like you can't see my place, hardly; and s jetting dark" ere you?" Bailey's Harness Shop, ! law Dusty turn off the nlk back between the "i been watching for (I wanted to speak to Harnish, Tex Daniels, Tex Long; in all, maybe fifty men that I think I know where to get" Lew Gordon looked as if he would explode. "You're naming the most vicious outlaws on the plains," he said. "If you ever get those men together, it will be the most infernal wild bunch that ever" "By God," said Bill Roper, "I'll show you how to clean a range or break a range; I'm telling you I don't care which." Lew Gordon slapped his hand on the table; it fell with a dull and heavy wallop, but so hard it seemed the top of the table would split "No. No, by God! Not under my brand. Not in a hundred years . . ." "Then draw up the terms of the sale." Gordon was silent again, for a long time. He seemed very old, very tired. "Reckon you're man enough to make your own decisions, Bill." "You're In this, Dry Camp." you're going to start rounding 'em "What you offering these boys? "Horses and grub, and what other stuff we'll need. Not another thing." They sat silent for a long time more. "All right," Dry Camp said. "I'll E0" In the starlight Bill Roper swung down in front of the little shack which served King-Gordon as a loading-foreman's office at their Ogal-lala Ogal-lala pens. Within, Bill Roper found Lew Gordon sitting alone. 1 , A nn Rrinpr "I just talked to a man," Roper said, "that saw the killing." Gordon was instantly alert. "Who was it?" "He's a man that can't come forward, for-ward, because he's already an outlaw out-law In his own right. But Dusty was killed by Ben Thorpe, and Walk Lasham, and Cleve Tanner the three working together. Walk Lasham bore down Dusty's gun. They looked at each other for a long moment. This man that told you this-we've this-we've got to get hold of him; his story has to go to the authont.es. Bill " Roper shook his head. -He'll hang if they lay hands on him. Anyway, pobody would believe him agamst these three." Lew Gordon made a gesture at once impatient and weary. Wherever Wher-ever we turn we hit some snag of lawlessness," he said. There s too many men afraid to stand forwarded for-warded face out the laWj Seems Hke nothing is done open and above- board any more." f .Never was. since I remember, iiev couple of Roper said. I ve g"i r . g ways in mind right now. I m on the warpath, Lew. Gordon had been Addling w.th a name now; Dusty never attention to any other kin. Bu me Crying Wolf was where he Jgured for you to go and work. isn't any caD to change that. now. You can count me out of the Crying Wolf. Lew." -What do you want to do. "We're going to branch ouU way." Roper said. We re 8 have a warrior outfit And new boss." (t I don't get you. 't I went back through op, and I was just go-sck go-sck door. And then hell agon shed angle." it happened," Bill "there must have still light" 'i see by, all right. These is steps out of the shed JMt Dusty knew what 'gainst, all right. His it; but Walk Lasham a arm with his left hand fon like he was wras-foen wras-foen the whole works Is up, as all three of il They just stood and him, and it seemed w going to fall. Ben W two more shots aft-"down, aft-"down, and dead." B the story. Both of recognize that there stions to ask, nothing to this, Bill:" Dry " kst "I can't go up "gainst these men. You B 1 let it be known that's the finish of would be all hat court, that- we 1 klieve me against 'i' 'There isn't any-'. any-'. I don't suppose." ' ffiere s. There's one . I'll have to kind of fe' and make it sure; "1 to get me these three !V BiU R0per 8aid. at this thing a wrouble with you. 'Jftese three men as They ain't. They Z Wng of tough out-7. out-7. and they spread 'iman5eKRi Grande . . and beyond. We . whole works, if : w y place." '.J1 "'lent for several a you aim to do?" n Texas, where u Thorpe's breed- Ib Tn Bend 1 8im by piece, till 'mashed out of the rilon Wiii wm never Btand "Thanks, Lew." "But do me one last favor will you? Don't decide here and now. Take a couple of days to think it over. It's for your own good. But I'm asking it as a favor to me . . ." Bill Roper dropped his eyes, and for a moment or two he hesitated. "I'll take an hour," he decided in compromise. CHAPTER V Bill Roper walked slowly to the Gordons' tall house, on rise at the edge of the town, and let himself him-self in softly. He wanted desperately desperate-ly to talk to Jody Gordon; but i was nearly midnight, and he couldn t make up his mind to wake her As it happened, decision was unnecessary. un-necessary. In the fireplace some lengths of Cottonwood log stil burned, and before the fire Jody lounged upon a buffalo robe, wide awake. "You've been a long time. I know." He stopped beside her, half raised her in his arms, and 2J her lingeringly. Her arms and her lips clung, making it diffl-"ft diffl-"ft for him to think of the road he . .:. firelight than just talk. d ..Joay- King-Gordon is splitting UP;Lv brought herself up on one eioot 'Sr. Bffl-what do you ' Dusty's share comes to me a, i I'm taking it out ' yo.Cre-Bal.yo!f-ftbeiocor .Maybe. I'm going against Ben I ThS-but-" Jody was at a losS 0CS rusthng 'Jang, tot " 01 fr. directly hooked up will C0Unlr? could be proved. He'. S'tJ .ute's gone far " (jo BE COSTISVEDI |