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Show ISPERPd SMI f.i TrankH.SpeArman. BYADIc CVsc fly SYNOPSIS. the short turn on Van quick Horn, killing two men to rattle the Murray Sinclair and his gang of wreckall bears Sinclair's ear ers were called out to clear the railroad posse it tracks at Smoky Creek. McCl ud, a marks. He has gone too far. He has young road superintendent, caught Sin- piled up plunder till he is reckless. clair and his men in the act of looting He is crazy with greed and insane the wrecked train. Sinclair pleaded innocence, declaring it only amounted to a with revenge. He thinks he can galmall sum a treat for the men. McCloud discharged the whole outfit and ordered lop over this division and scare Bucks th'3 wreckage burned. McCloud became till he gets down on his knees to him. Dunning, a girl acquainted with Dlcksie pf the west, who came to look at the Bucks will never do it. I know him, wreck. She gave him a message for Sinand I tell you Bucks will never do it. clair. "Whispering" Gordon Smith told He is like that man in Washington; President Bucks of the railroad, of brave fight against a gang of he will fight it to the death. He would crazed miners and that was the reason fight Sinclair if he had to come up for the superintendent's appointment to iila high office. McCloud arranged to here and meet him single-handebut board at the boarding iiouse of Mrs. Sin- he will never have to do it. He put deserted wife. the clair, Dlcksie Dunning was the daughter of the you here, George, to round that man late Richard Dunning, who had died of a up. This is the price for your advancebroken heart shortly after his wife's demise, which occurred after one year of ment, and you must pay it." married life. Sinclair visited Marion Sin"It is all right for me to pay it, but clair's shop and a fight between him and McCloud was narrowly averted. Smoky I don't want you to pay it. Will you Creek bridge was mysteriously burned. McCloud prepared to face the situation. have a care for yourself, Gordon?" "Will you?" President Bucks notified Smith that he McCloud worked for had work ahead. "Yes." the division running and Anally got days "You need never ask me to be careIn fairly good order. He overheard Dick-si- e criticising his methods, to Marion ful," Smith went on. "That is my A stock train was wrecked by Sinclair. an open switch. Later a passenger train business. I asked you to watch your was held up and the express car robbed. shades at night, and when I Two men of a posse pursuing the bandits window were killed. McCloud wis notified that came in just now I found one up. It is Smith was to hunt t he desWhispering Bill you who are likely to forget, and in Dancing, a road lineman, peradoes. proposed that Sinclair and his gang be this kind of a game a man never forsent to hunt (he bandits. A stranger, ap- gets but once. I'll lie down on the parently with authority, told him to go ahead. Dancing was told the stranger Lincoln lounge, George." was "Whispering Smith." Smith ap"Get into the bed." proached Sinclair. He tried to buy him "No; I like the lounge, and I'm off off, but failed. early." CHAPTER XI. Continued. In the private room of the superintendent, provided as a sleeping apartto now know how get "Well, you ment in the old headquarters building Into trouble." ' "Every one knows that; few know many years before hotel facilities stood the only Medicine reached Bend, to out." how keep possessed the "You can't lay your finger on me at curio the WTickiup Lincoln lounge. When the car that any turn of the road." carried the remains of Abraham Lin"Not if you behave yourself." coln from Washington to Springfield "And you can't bully me." was dismantled, the Wickiup fell heir MurNo not. hard feelings, "Surely ray. I came for a friendly talk, and to one piece of its elaborate furnishif it's all the same to you I'll watch ings, the lounge, and the lounge still relic. Whisthis wheel awhile and then go over to remains as an early-dathe Wickiup. I leave first that's un- pering Smith walked into the bedroom derstood, I hope and if your pink-eye- and disposed himself in an incredifriend is waiting outside tell him bly short time. "I've borrowed one of there is nothing doing, will you, Mur- your pillows, George," he called out, ray? Who is the albino, by the way? presently. "Take both." You don't know him? I think I do. "One's enough. I hope," he went on, Fort City, if I remember. Well, goodrolling himself like a hen into the night, Murray." It was after 12 o'clock and the room double blanket, "the horse Kennedy had filled up. Roulette balls were has left me will be all right; he got Bill DanBill Dancing. dropping, and above the faro table the three from The dealers, cing," he snorted, driving his nose into extra lights were on. fresh from supper, were putting things the pillow as if in final memorandum for the night, "he will get himself In order for the long trick. At the Wickiup Whispering Smith killed if he fools around Sinclair too found McCloud in the office signing much now." McCloud, under a light shaded above letters. "I can do nothing with him," said Smith, drawing down a window-shad- e his desk, opened a roll of before he seated himself to de- He was going to follow a construction tail his talk with Sinclair. "He wants gang up the Crawling Stone in the morning and wanted to look over the a fight." Whispering Smith, breathMcCloud put down his pen. "If I surveys. am the disturber it would be better for ing regularly, lay not far away. It was late when McCloud put away his me to get out." "That would be hauling down the maps, entered the inner room and flag across the whole division. It is looked at his friend. He lay like a boy asleep. On the 'too late for that. If he didn't center chair beside his head he had placed tht fight on you he would center it his hunting-cas- e watch, The whole else. question somewhere as as an alarm clock, the kind a big is, whov4s going to run this division, railroad man would wind up with a Sinclair and his gang or the com- spike-mauBeside the watch he had to meet them pany? anaSjt is as easy on one poiiit as another. I know of laid his huge revolver in its worn no way of ma'tog this kind of an af- leather scabbard. Breathing peacefair pleasant. I am going to do some fully, he lay quite at his companion's and McCloud. looking down on riding, as I told you. Kennedy is mercy, man who never made a mistake, this Creek working up through the Deep never forgot a danger, and never took him. with men has three and country, chance, thought of I shall ride toward the Cache and meet an unnecessary him somewhere near South Mission what between men confidence may sometimes mean. He sat a moment pass." folded arms on the side of his with "Gordon, would it do any good to bed, studying the tired face, defenseask a few questions?" less in the slumber of fatigue. When "Ask as many as you like, my dear he turned out the light and lay down, I boy, but don't be disappointed if he wondered whether, somewhere in I can look wise, can't answer them. the valley of the great, river to which but I don't know anylhing. You know he was to take his men in the mornfellow This are we up against. what he should encounter the slight ing, has grown a tiger among the wolves, and reckless horsewoman who had and he has turned the pack loose on blazed so in anger when he stood beus. One thing I ask you to do. Don't fore her at Marion's. He had strugexpose yourself at night. Your life gled against her charm too long. She if you do." isn't worlh a coupling-pihad become, how or when he could not McCloud raised his hand. "Take tell, not alone a pretty woman but a care of yourself! If you are murdered fascinating one the creature of his in this fight I shall know I got you in constant thought. Already she meant and that I am to blame." more to him than all else in the world. "And suppose you were?" Smith had He well knew that if called on to risen from his chair. He had few man- choose between Dlcksie and all else nerisms, and recalling the man the he could only choose her. But as he few times I have seen him, the only drew together the curtains of thought impression he has left on me is that and sleep stole in upon him, he was re"Suppose solved first to have Dicksie; to have of quiet and gentleness. you were?" He was resting one arm all else if he could, but, in any case, on top of McCloud's desk. "What of Dicksie Dunning. When he awoke day it? You have done for me up here was breaking in the mountains. The man what I Couldn't do. George. You have huge silver watch, the she hadn't and the formidable had disbeen kind to Marion wh-a friend near. You have stood be- appeared. It was time to get up, and tween him and her when I couldn't Marion Sinclair had promised an early be here to do it, and when she didn't breakfast. want mo to helped her when I hadn't CHAPTER XII. the privilege of doing it." McCloud put up his hand in protest, but it was The Quarrel. unheeded. "How many times It has The beginning of the Crawling Stone been in my heart to kill that man. She knows It; she prays it may never hap- line marked the first determined effort pen. That Is why she stays here and under President Bucks, while underhas kept nie out of the mountains. taking the reconstruction of the sysShe says they would talk about her if tem for through traffic, to develop the I lived in the same town, and I have rich local territory tributary to the stayed away." He threw himself back mountain division. New policies in into the chair. "It's going bCrOBd construction dated from the same both of us now. I've kept the promise period. Glover, with an enormous y I made to her to do all in my capital staked for the new undertak-Ings- . to this settle gave orders to push the building thing without power bloodshed. It will not be settled In cm rv month in the year, and for the first time In mountain railroad build .liat way. George." 'Was he at Sugar Buttes?" Ing Winter was to be Ignored. The ftl not, his gang was there. Tht older mountain men met the innova get-awa- 's tion as they met any departure from their traditions, with curiosity and distrust. On the other hand, the new and younger blood took hold with confidence, and when Glover called, "Yo, heave ho!" at headquarters, they bent themselves clear across the system for a hard pull together. McCloud, resting the operating on the shoulders of his assistant Anderson, devoted himself wholly to forwarding the construction plans, and his first clash over winter in the Rockies came with his own right-hanman, Mears. McCloud put in a switch below Piedmont, opened a material yard and began track laying toward the lower Crawling Stone valley, when Mears said it was time to stop work till spring. When McCloud told him he wanted track across the divide and into the lower valley by spring, Mears threw up his hands. But there was metal in the old man, and he was for orders all the time. He kept up a running fire of protests and forebodings about the danger of exposing men during the winter season, but stuck to his post. Spring found the construction of the valley line well advanced, and the grades nearing the lands of the Dun-inmen had been ranch. working for months with Lance Dunning over the line and McCloud had been called frequently into consultation to adjust the surveys to objections raised by Dicksie's cousin to the crossing of the ranch lands. Even road-buildin- g Right-of-wa- ? atfrRs I three carried rifles slung across their and in front of them rode the Stranger. Fragments of the breakfast-tabltalk of the morning came back to Dicksie's mind. The railroad graders were in the valley below the ranch, end shi had heard her cousin say a good tkeul on a point she cared little about, as to where the railroad should cross the Stone ranch. Approaching the fork of the two roads toward which she and the cowboys were riding, she chicked her horse in the shade of a cottonwood tree, and as the part rode up the draw she saw the horseman under surveillance. It was Georv McCloud. as she caught a glimpse Unluckily of him she was conscious that he was looking at her. She bent forward to hide a momentary confusion, spoke briskly to her horse, and rode out of sight. At Marion's she had carefully avoided him. Her precipitancy at their last meeting had seemed, on reflection, unfortunate. She felt that she must have appeared to him shockingly rude, and there was in her recalling of the scene an unconfessed impression that she had been to blame. Often when Marion spoke of him, which she did without the slightest reserve and with no reference as to whether Dicksie liked it or not. it had been in Dicksie's mind to bring up the subject of the disagreeable scene, hoping that Marion would suggest a way for making some kind of unembarrassing pommels, e I Lance Dunning flipped the ash from his cigar. "Who are you?" "I am just a plain, every day civil engineer, but you must not talk false representations in any contract drawn under my hand." "I am talking facts. Whispering Smith may have rigged the joker I don't know. Whoever rigged it, it has been rigged all right." "Any charge against Whispering Smith is a charge against me. He is not here to defend himself, but he needs no defense. You have charged me already with misleading surveys. I was telephoned for this morning to con,o over to see why you had held up o lr work, and your men cover me with rifles while I am riding on a public road." iounave been warned, or your men haw;, to keep off this ranch. Your man Stevens cut our wires this morn ing I "As he oad a perfectirigqt to do on our right, of way." "If you think so, sPngen go ahead CHAPTER XIII. The Shot in the Pass. Dicksie walked hurriedly throngh the dining room and out upon the rear porch. Her horse was standing where she had left him. Her heart beat furiously as she caught up the reins, but she sprang into the saddle and rode rapidly away. The flood of her tern-pe- r had brought a disregard of consequences; it. was in the glow of her eyes, the lines of her lips, and the tremor of her nostrils as she breathed long and deeply on her flying horse. When she checked Jim she had ridden miles, but not without a course nor without a purpose. Where the roads ahead of her parted to lead down the river and over the Elbow Pass to Medicine Bend, she halted within a clump of trees almost where she had first seen McCloud. Beyond the Mission mountains the sun was settftig in a fire like that which glowed under her eyes. She could have counted hr- heajA-heat- e rimnoa ball sank below the verge o" the horizon and the shadows threw up the silver thread of the big river and deepened across the heavy green of the alfalfa fields. Where Dicksie sat, struggling with her bounding pulse and holding Jim tightly in, no one from the ranch or, indeed, from the could pass her unseen. She was waiting for a horseman, and the sun had set but a few minutes when she heard a sharp gallop coming down the upper road from the hills. All her brave plans, terror-stricke, at the sound of the fled from her utterly. She was stunned by the suddenness of the crisis. She had meant to stop McCloud and speak to him, but before she could summon her courage a tall, slender man on horseback dashed past within a few feet of her. She could almost have touched him as he flew by, and a horse less steady than Jim would have shied under her. Dicksie caught her breath. She did not know this man-- she had seen only his eyes, oddly bright in the twilight as he passed hut he was not of the ranch. He must have come from the hill road, she concluded, down which she herself had just ridden. He was somewhere from the north, for he sat his horse like a statue and rode like the wind. But the encounter nerved her to her Some resolve. leaden moments .passed, and McCloud. galloping at a far milder pace toward the fork of the roads, checked his speed as he approached. He saw a woman on horse-hacwaiting In his path. "Mr. McCloud!" "Miss Dunning!" "I could not forgive myself if I waited too long to warn you that threats have been made against your life. Not of the kind you heard today. My cousin is not a murderer, and never could be, I am sure, in spite of his talk; but I was frightened at the thought that If anything dreadful should happen his name would be brought into It. There are enemies of yours in this country to be feared. and it Is against these that I warn right-of-wa- y sentations?" aain, Ko i set foot on the Stone ranch and don't send any men here trespass, mark you!" mark you perfectly. I did not set I foot willingly on your ranch was dragged on it. Where the men are grading now, they will finish their work." ' "No, they won't." "What, would you drive us off land you have already deeded?" "The first man that cuts our wires or orders them cut where they were strung yesterday will get into trouble." "Then don't string any wires on land that belongs to us, for they will certainly come down if you do." Lance Dunning turned In a passion. "I'll put a bullet through you if you touch a barb of Stone ranch wire!" Stormy Gorman Jumped forward with his hand covering the grip of his "Yes, damn you, and I'll "1 'Cousin Lance amends. But slipped away was the new whom their such opportunities had unimproved, and here railroad superintendent, bluff neighbor Sinclair never referred to other than as the college guy, being brought apparently as a prisoner to the Stone ranch. Busied with her thoughts, Dicksie rode slowly along the upper trails until a long detour brought her around the corrals and in at the hack of the house Throwing her lines to the ground, she alighted and through the back porcfi door made her way to her room. From the office across the big hall she heard men's voices in dispute, and she slipped into the dining room, where she could hear and might see wlthoui being seen. The office was filled with cowboys. Lance, ypSBfitg, standing with a cigar in t's hand and one leg thrown over a corner of the table, was facing McCloud. who stood before him with his hand on a chair. Lance was speaking as Dicksie looked into the room, and in curt tones: "My men wen acting tin dei my orders." "Yon have no right to give such orders," McCloud said, distinctly, "nor to detain me, nor to obstruct our free passage along the right of way you have agreed to convey to us under our survey." "Damn your survey! I never had a plat of any such survey. I don't recognize any such survey. And If men had ever said a your word about crossing the creek above the flume I never would have given you a right of way at all." "There were never but two lines run helow the creek; after you raised objection I ran them both, and both wi re above the flume." "Well, you enn't put a grade there. I and some of my neighbors are going unob-serve- y mm , She stood In hei saddle habit, with her quirt still in hand. "Any affair that may lead my cousin into shooting is my affair. 1 make it mine. This is my lather'! roof. I neither know nor care anything about what led to this quarrel, but the quarrel is mine now. I will not allow my cousin to plunge into anything that may cost him his life or ruin it." She turned suddenly, and her eyes fell on McCloud. "I am nol willing to leave either myself or my cousin In a false position. I regret es pecially that Mr. McCloud should bs brought into so unpleasant a scenes because he has already suffered rude ness at my own hands " McCloud flushed. He raised his hand slightly. "And I am very sorry for it," added Dicksie, before he could speak. Then, turning, she withdrew from the room. "1 am sure," said McCloud, slowly, as he spoke again to her cousin, "there need be no serious controversy over the matter, Mr. Dunning. 1 certainly shall not precipitate any. Suppose you give me a chance to ride over the ground with you again and let us see whether we can't arrive at some conclusion?" But Lauce was angry, and nursed his wrath a long time. willgo." ilght-of-wa- b PpSSnd I "Oh, no! We won't have civil war not right away, at least. And if you and yo.rtr men have threatened and I browbeaten me enough for when the proceedings had been closed, a strong current of discontent set from the managing head of the Stone ranch. Rumors of Lance Dunning's dissatisfaction often reached the railroad people. Vague talk of an extensive irrigation scheme planned by Sinclair for the Crawling Stone valley crept into the newspapers, and it was generally understood that Lance Dunning had expressed himself favorably to the enterprise. Dicksie gave Slight heed to matters as weighty as these. She spent much of her time on horseback, with Jim under the saddle; and in Medicine Bend, where she rode with frequency, Marion's shop became her favorite abiding place. Dicksie ordered hats until Marion's conscience rose and she to supply any practically refused more. But the spirited controversy on this point, as on many others Dicksie's haughtiness and Marion's restraint, quite unmoved by any show of displeasure ended always in drawing the two closer to each other. One March afternoon, coming home from Medicine Bend, she saw at some distance before her a party of men on horseback. She was riding a trail leading from the pass road that 'followed the hills, and the party was coming up the bridge road from the lower ranch. Dicksie had good eyes, and something unusual in the riding of the men was soon apparent to her. Losing and regaining sight of them at different turns In the trail, she made out, as Bhe rode among the trees, that they were cowboys of her own ranch, and riding, under evident excitement, about a strange horseman. She gntMd in the escort Stormy Oorrun, the ferocious foreman of the rench. and Denlson and Jim Batigh, two of the most reckless of the men. Tle-s- jj T to dam up that basin, and the irrigation laws will protect our rights." "I certainly cau't put a grade in below the flume, and you refuse to talk about our crossing above it." "I certainly do." "Why not let us cross where we are, and run a new level for your ditch that will put the flume higher up?" "You will have to cross below the flume where it stands, or you won't cross the ranch at all." McCloud was silent for a moment. "I am using a supported grade there for eight miles to get over the hill I can't within a three-teuth- s limit. drop back there. We might as well not build at all if we can't hold our grade, whereas it would be very simple to run a new line for your ditch, and my engineers will do it for you without a dollar of expense to you, Mr. Dunning." Lance Dunning waved his hand as an ultimatum. "Cross where I tell you to cross, or keep off the Stone ranch. Is that English?" "it certainly is. But in matter of fact we must cross on the survey agreed on in the contract for a deed." "I don't recognize any contract obtained under false representations." "Do you accuse me of false repre- again!" l. i Jf mm J blue-print- S 1L mm mm Sws d - . l BOWLES ILLUSTRATIONS I illt put another!" "Cousin Lance!" Dicksie Dunning advanced swiftly into the room. "You are under our own roof, and you are wrong to talk in that way." Her cousin stared at her. "Dicksie, this is no place for you!" "It is when my cousin is In danger of forgetting he is a gentleman." "You are interfering with what you know exclaimed nothing about!" Lance, angrily. "I know what Is due to every one under this roof." "Will you be good enough to leave this room?" "Not If there is to be any shooting or threats of shooting that involve my cousin." "Dicksie, leave the room!" There was a hush. The cowboys dropped back. Dicksie stood motionless. She gave no sign In her manner that she heard the words, but she looked very steadily at her cousin. "You forget yourself!" was all she said. "I am master here!" "Also my cousin," murmured Dlcksie, evenly. "You don't underftand this matter at all!" declared Lance Dunning, vehemently. "Nothing could Justify your language." "Do you think I am going to allow this railroad company to ruin this ranch while I am responsible here? You have no business interfering, say!" "I think I have." "These matters are not fair!" of vour af- "Not of my affair?" The list' ' stood riveted. McCloud fell hlmsi If swallowing, and took a Step forward with an effort bs Dlcksie advanced. Hor bulr, loosened by h r ride, r t.,,-c- low upon her head. right-of-wa- - y a-t- h n hoof-beats- k you. Good-night'- "Surely you won't ride away without giving me a chance to thank you!" exclaimed McCloud. Dicksie checked her horse. "I owe you a double debt of gratitude," he added, "and I am anxious to assure you that we desire nothing that will Injure your Interests In any way In crossing your lands." "I know nothing about those mat ters, because my cousin manages It Is growing late and everything. you have a good way to go, so goodnight." "But you will allow me to ride back to the house with you?" "Oh, no, Indeed, thank you!" "It will soon be dark and you ai-- e alone." No, no! I am quite safe and I have only a Rhort ride. It Is voh who have far to go," and she spoke again to Jim, who started briskly. (TO UK CONTINUED.) |