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J mUlWIII 4 M w nr L vV "S ir fvV f w v ” — IWIl Jcsir-Lrf- r the scarred earth of camp sites When they halted for dinner and Young remarked that he might begin business around here Kimball said “Safer of course But the pickings ire better down where we’re going near the Cimarron” They pushed right along and bAre nightfall they forded Crooked Creek They pulled past a mud flat circled the wagons and made camp for the night near a grove of cottonwoods on a grassy plain bisected by a dry wash About fifty yards off they ran up a picket line and racked the hones He gave her a man not a storekeeper couple of weeks to hear about him from the people in town to prepare the way for him then he paid his respects She was friendly she was charming she was unattainable and typical of her to save his pride she said she would never mention that he had shown interest She announced her engagement to the - - — T'iy — — Tyv KB I 'mJ&i — -- — )Sf storekeeper The marriage was to take place in three months and every time Kimball went into the store and saw Young smiling and quick — this counterjumper e and who didn’t even know he’d beaten him — Kimball couldn't understand why she didn’t want a man She had heard how Kimball had flushed the four rustlers out of the box canyon how he ran a tremendous spread — a hundred of the stories that had made him the beau of the country around And still she preferred this man who kept an old shotgun and boasted that he had never fired it who entered the wrestling matches on Founders Day just to be one of the crowd lost three out of three and what was more important than muscle admitted that he didn't care because it meant so much to the fellow who had won Then the terrible thing happened which in all its horror he thought would change her Joe Broken Nose the renegade Comanche got drunk and murdered her sister and Kimball organized a posse to chase him into the hills In front of Nell Young refused to join tried to stop them from riding said it was Rangers’ business When they brought the Indian back to town Young tried to stop them again asked puppy-amiabl- the cook rousted up supper and after they had scraped their plates clean they squatted around the fire in the dry wash Kimball got son shells and drew some powder from the keg and explained to Young how to pack the extra charge Young was good with his hands He caught on quick “Just do it that good when things aren’t so quiet” said Kimball Ferris and Sholto the skinners were already wrapped and snoring Young said good night and Kimball put his head on his saddle hoping he would sleep yet dreading it if it meant more of the same dreams He wished he had never got into this He wished he had said no to Young He must have slept because soon after dawn a hand reached into his sleep and grasped him The sleep fell away like a wave from a rock and there was Juan leaning close frightened “Boss” he said “Look” The picket line was down and all the horses were gone y Kimball was in his boots in a moment He ran over and when he saw that the line had been cut he felt a queer little thrill It was a premonition come true He hurried back to the sleeping group scanning the empty horizon He woke the others roughly “Up and quick” he said Juan them to wait for the sheriff and in spite of jeers refused to attend the hanging A week later when Kimball asked the still hollow-eye- d girl what she thought of Young now she said gently “There’s more than one kind of strength Hugh HUGH KNEW NEL1 f j CALLED KIMBALL AND FIRED the marks were etched next to his eyes The brown skin was tighter than ever over the arrowhead cheek bones and he was no longer young “Good night you dashing caballero” thought Kimball and blew out the lamp He crawled into bed and could not sleep Whiskey and weariness were not enough The town kept And the coming back He had known a lot of girls down there had liked some been liked by a lot had He was tall lean and at twenty-foinherited a huge spread which he bossed without a quaver Then Nell Faraday had arrived in a wagon train of settlers from Tennessee Her girl ur f TWO INDIANS WENT DOWN father had died on the trip vest and she and her mother and sister laid out a little farm on the edge of town and did all right The moment Kimball saw her he knew that all the past had been nonsense There rest was only one girl in the world The Now and away could crumble It wasn't that she was es pea ally pretty It wasn't a although she was beautiful voice or not matter of individual qualities: was the was she face or grace The person person he wanted In the same wagon train came the Young arrived at the family and by the time they Nell and Faraday if Brazos Walter Young be going steady not engaged were said to He was a Kimball That didn't frighten and told them what had happened “But who’d V done W AS THE OISE GIRL it?” asked Young He had thought he do tlvtt to “Who’d would get drunk on their stranded?” him leave and man another wedding day but he didn’t he just worked Sholto a whisker little fellow snorted harder worked bigger men into the ground “Someone who didn't like him sonny But that was the last day he worked hard Someone maybe with paint and feathers” He lost interest in the ranch because the “But we're not twenty miles from town” more he worked at it the more it bound “That don’t seem to bother them much” him to this town where she and the said Kimball quietly nodding at the horihusband lived He couldn't stand zon There were six riders on the top of a seeing them hearing about them He had rise about five hundred yards off to move on “Cheyennes” whispered Sholto He sold the place and rode north Drift“Get your guns” said Kimball “and get ing A queer thing had happened to him behind the wagons” The others hurried to He had lost the urge to settle down and obey Kimball got out a Winchester and build There seemed little point in it now handed it to Young “Can you use it?” The courage and the will to do it had been package-wrappYoung was pale but he smiled “Not cheapened by a very good” who had beaten him “Today’s the day to learn” said Kimball When he reached Kansas he drifted into buffalo hunting The money was good IIe took the buffalo gun and tripod and there were no ties of any kind and it gave behind a wagon “They won't kneeled you a chance every day to prove you were a dose for a while” he’ said too come man this gun is pretty good up know “Indians There were three wagons in Kimball’s a mile” of a to quarter outfit and Young gladly accepted the “What do they want with us?” asked assignment of driving the third Kimball Young his eyes straining at the motionless rode ahead on his dun cow pony and they horsemen cut southwest out of Dodge “Our guns maybe Maybe they’re just As they rolled through the brown grass fighting mad for no reason at all” there was plenty of sign that the hunting Continued on next page bones here had once been good— scattered apron-weari- ijf j7- -- barrel-pushi- ng ng er 77 1 b ’ y |
