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Show Ha FlgMSsig TaimileBrg w L By William MacLeod Ral:se Copyright by William MacLeod Rain WNU Service which extended around three sides of the hall. From this gallery oxieued the sleeping rooms. Hough slabs and logs had been used Instead of sawn lumber wherever possible. In time the Englishman Eng-lishman expected to decorate the walls with big game heads, trophies of the chase to be brought down by himself and his partner. He had come to the West to enjoy himself. If he could make money at the same time that was all to the good, but he did not Intend to take business too seriously. O'llara passed the bunk house and stopped a moment. "Did Mr. Steelman say anything about that bunch of Bar B Y cows?" he asked Quantrell. "Said he'd buy at a whack up If he could, but lie wouldn't pay any big price. It's a sorry herd, cutbacks most of 'em. The Old Man said he wouldn't look at 'em twice if they weren't here already clutterin' up the range. At that, there's some good cows wearin' the Bar B Y. Kinda uneven, scrubs an' nice stock mixed. You'd be buyln' a bone yard to start with, but they'll take on flesh If they're put on a good range." "More trouble than they're worth, I'd think." "Maybeso." Quantrell showed his prominent teeth in a grin. "Up to you an' the Old Man. I ain't paid to do THE STORY Garrtt O'Harti, younpr lawyer, on hia way to practice at Concho, wild western town. Is xhot at from amou.-ih by Shep Handera-m, who iniMaKes him tor JudK Warner, whom certain call la Interests wish to prevent holding court. Barbara Steelman, who thought the shot was directed di-rected at her, warns Carrett not to k to Concho because of the bltf cattle war. In town Sanderson San-derson picks a li;:ht with Carrett and Is KCttins the worst of It when Ingram, cattle baron, Interrupts. In-terrupts. -Steve Worrall tells Carrett about the cattle war between be-tween Ingram and Steelman, father fa-ther of Barbara. Carrett tells Ingram he desires to remain neutral, but the latter declares there can be no neutrality. Hob Cjuantrell. youni; killer for In-uram, In-uram, saves Carrett and an HriK-lishman, HriK-lishman, Kinith-lieresford, from foolntf shot by Sanderson. The threft become frionds. Carrett accidentally witnesses a meeting between Uarbara and Ingram. They are lovers. Carrett and the EnRllHhman buy a ranch with Steelnian as silent partner. l'Mtch, Steelman man, kills an Ingram In-gram follower. A posse starts In pursuit and Fitch stops at the "tenderfoot ranch." The posse, Including Quantrell and Sanderson, Sander-son, capture and hang B'ltch. Sandoraon starts a fight at the ranch and Garrett and the Englishman Eng-lishman are wounded. Ingram and Barbara appear and put an end to the light. Quantrell changes Bides and Joins with the two "tenderfeet." "Hired killers," Steelman corrected. "By (t d, some one will pay fur this."' His eyes swept the room and rested first on Smith-Beresfurd then on O'llara. Of the latter he asked a question ques-tion : "Both of you shot?" "Both of us,'' Garrett answered, a gleam of wintry humor in his eyes. "I'm a botched job, but poor I.yulph is hit in the chest. Afraid he'll have a hard time of It." "Who did it?" ".Sanderson and his friends. After we had been shot we backed into the house and stood them off." Bob Quantrell laughed. "Not the way I noticed it. You picked the belted earl up an' carried him in. You stood us off by yore lone. Never saw the beat of It. One tenderfoot, some shot up at that. A dozen gunmen on the prod. An' by cripes ! he stood us oil two-three hours. He's sure the most eat-'em-allve pilgrim ever drifted into the San Marcos." "I notice you're not worried about the health of any of the posse, Steelman," Steel-man," the leader of the other faction jeered. "But just so you'll get the record straight I'll tell you that yore young pardner here killed 'Brad Sowers, Sow-ers, shot up Pankey so bad he won't live, probably, an" wounded two other young desperado. "I supjio.se, in a way of speakin', you might call them yore patients." "No, sir. I reckon not. The band began to play before I got here. Credit Shep with the Job. Hoes he get another an-other notch on his gun?" "Too early to lell yet. The only notch up to date goes to innocent Mr. O'llara." Quantrell laughed, slowly and Insolently, In-solently, "lie sure tamed a bunch of wild wolves so's they was willin' to eat out of his hand. My hat off to you, Mr. O'Hara. You're a sure enough wolf tamer." "You ought, to be gratified, O'Oara. This is iraise from an expert," Ingram In-gram said grimly. "What do you want here?" Barbara demanded. "Why have you come?" Quantrell swept the sombrero from Ills head. "Don't you worry, miss. I'm through with that bunch of wolves. I'll throw In with yore paw if he needs a top hand." "Why? You fought these men. Half an hour ago you were tryln' to kill them." "All in the way of business. Fact Is, I like the way they called the turn on Shep's crowd. They've got sand In their craws, these two birds. A man can swap bosses, can't he?" tlon. This was only the beginning, the first battle of a war. There would be lively times on the San Marcos. CHAPTER VI A Trip to Town After the battle at the Cress ranch there was a lull in the Jefferson County Coun-ty war, as the conflict between the Ingram and the Steelman forces come to be called In later days. It was as though both sides were waiting to get their breath again. The less dangerously danger-ously wounded men were afoot within a week. I'ankey and Smith-Beresford hung for a few days between life and death, then very slowly began to mend, edging away from the gulf into which they had almost been plunged. Meanwhile talk swept the countryside country-side as a fire does a dry prairie. There were some amazing aspects about the Cress ranch battle. Old-timers found the facts hard to reconcile. That O'Hara had stood up to the blazing guns of Sanderson, Sowers, Deever, and others, had driven these notorious gunmen back out of range, and later had fought off the entire posse for hours could be classed only as a miracle, but a miracle made possible by the coolness, the courage, and the accurate fire of the tenderfoot. In a community where gameness was a matter of course, the one essential quality of anyone not a weakling, Garrett Gar-rett O'Hara had become set apart as one who had fought his way to fame. The defection of Bob Quantrell from the Ingram faction was another detail that received much comment. Few knew that the callous young desperado desper-ado had liked Smith-Beresford from the first, that he admired the courage of both Smith-Beresford and his partner part-ner O'Hara, and that he had signed up with them as a rider in order to protect them as well as he could. "A queer bird, young Quantrell. Eh, what, Garrett?" the Englishman said to his partner one day as he sat in the pleasant sunshine in front of the cabin. His eyes were on the young desperado, des-perado, who was sitting in front of the bunk house whittling out of wood a horse for little Bennie Ford. Bennie Quantrell's Eyes Took on a Far-Away Far-Away Reminiscent Look of Satisfaction. Ingram made comment. "I'll be glad to write to yore father, Barbara, rec-ommendln' rec-ommendln' Quantrell's faithful services," serv-ices," he said. The young killer's pale hlue eyes rested on the cattle man. He understood under-stood the spirit of the remark though it was not obviously ironical. "Meanin' anything in particular, Mr. Ingram?" lie asked, very gently. The older man was not afraid of film. Ingram's courage had been tried and never found wanting. It took nerve to rule the lawless bunch of which he was leader. But, on the other hand, he could see no profit in a duel with this cold machine-like vehicle vehi-cle of death. It would not be an even match, since he considered his life far more valuable than that of Quantrell. Quan-trell. He smiled. "Let it ride as it lays. Bob. Like you say, a man can change his boss. No law against that. Since we're here we better make ourselves useful. I've sent for a doc. Till he shows up I'm suhbin' for him. Take a look at yore patient's shoulder here. Nice clean flesh wound, wouldn't you say? Ought to heal in no time." Quantrell looked at the wound. "Seems like it ought. Not my patient. Ingram. Shep gets the credit, like I done told you." "So you did. I forgot. Well, the main thing is that he'll be rollin' his tail high as ever right soon." "Shep ain't what I'd call a top hand at his trade," Quantrel' drawled. "That's twice now he hasn't cut it. He don't live up to his rep. I can't see how he reads his title clear to call himself a bad man from the Panhandle. Pan-handle. If I was his boss I'd read him the riot act." "I'll take yore advice," Ingram said. "That bandage pad "ready yet, Barbara?" Bar-bara?" They busied themselves over the wounded man. The sound of horses' hoofs came drumming down the wind. Barbara stepped ,to the door. She spoke quietly, as though what she was mentioning had no special significance. "Father's here." Neither Ingram nor Quantrell made any comment. They were tying a members of the posse. All this whilst he was resistin' arrest, you understand." under-stand." "Resistin' arrest what for?" "For aidin' an' abettin' the escape of a murderer wanted by the law." I "That's the way you wrop It up. Different here. Tom Fitch was murdered mur-dered in cold blood. As for O'Hara here. I'm with him till the cows come home. If he did all you claim he did he's the best fightin' man on the San Marcos an' I'll be proud to ride the river alongside of him." "Here, too," chimed in Quantrell. "Bob is thinkin' of takin' you on for a boss, Steelman," Ingram drawled. "Glad to give him a recommend." "I can speak for myself, Ingram," the boy said. "Far as that goes I don't reckon yore recommend would help me much with Mr. Steelman." "Not none." Steelman spoke with emphasis. "An' comin' down to recommendations, recom-mendations, Ingram, I'll make one right now. Get out. Hit the trail. Or my boys might follow the example you've set an' do some hangin' their own selves." Coolly Ingram looked around. Steve Worrall had come into the room, and at his heels were Texas Jim and young Curt Steelman. Worral spoke up. "Mr. Steelman does not mean quite that, Dave. Still an' all, that's good medicine about takin' the road while it's open." "Good of you to have my interests at heart, Steve," the cattle man jeered. "I'll go when I'm ready to go an' there won't be any hangin', either." "Not while I can fan a gun," Quantrell added. "We've come to different forks of the road, me an' Mr. Ingram. But I don't reckon anyone better get on the prod yet, not about today's rookus. He wasn't here during the trouble an' when he came he stayed to fix up these boys." "Well, he's fixed 'em up," Steelman replied roughly. "After his hired men shot 'em. Nothin' more to stay for. I'm part owner here, an' I say he goes." Barbara spoke in a low voice to Ingram. "1 think you'd better go." Ingram smiled hardily at her. "I'm comin' to that same notion myself. Looks like I'm being handed my hat. Adios, Miss Steelman. So long, Wes. See you later." The boss of the Diamond Tail sauntered saun-tered to the door; spurs jingling as he moved. He passed through the group of cowboys as though they had not been there, superbly indifferent to them. When he reached his horse he swung to the saddle and rode leisurely leis-urely away beside the man he had left with the two animals. A hundred yards up the trail he met CHAPTER V Continued 6 With a glance of careless contempt Ingram's eyes swept the room. "Well, I told you what would happen if you Ktayod In this country," he said to . O'llara. "Did you tell him what would hap pen to three or four of your killers when they tried to murder him?" Bar-barn Bar-barn asked, her eyes flashing indignation. indig-nation. Ingram looked at her with an expressionless ex-pressionless face., "Are you in this, Klrl?" "Yes, I'm In It. They're my father's friends. Your hired bad men shot them for no cause." She stood straight and slender, quivering with indignation indigna-tion nt the man whom she hold responsible, re-sponsible, with sympathy for the two victims of the outrage. "Tried to obstruct a posse In performance per-formance of Its duty. If they got hurt, don't blame me. They carried arms In defense of a criminal wanted by the law." "I don't believe It and what's more you don't, either, Dave Ingram. Would two young tenderfoots attack a dozen armed ruffians? It's not reasonable. rea-sonable. That scalawag Shep Sanderson Sander-son an' his friends started it." "They got excited when these scoundrels scoun-drels here shot up three-four of them. Who wouldn't? Why, it's common report re-port that both these men here have been practlcln' with guns ever since they came into the country. They were spoil in' for a fight. Dangerous killers like they are ought not to be allowed loose on a decent community." Barbara read the faintest flicker of ironic mirth in Ingram's eyes. "You don't believe a word of what you're sayln'," she flung hotly at him. "I'm not going to argue with you. What do you want here? Why have you come? I've got to get help to look after-these wounded men. But I can't leave them like this." "I've sent to town for both doctors. One of 'era can come here. Even criminals crim-inals are entitled to medical attention. atten-tion. I'll look after them till he comes. Bring me fresh water from the spring." Ingram rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and washed his hands before he approached Smith-Beresford. With his pocket knife he cut the shirt and undershirt from around the wound, then bathed it, using the cold water Barbara had brought from the spring. "I'm afraid he's awf'ly sick," Barbara Bar-bara murmured, her troubled eyes on the delirious patient. Ingram turned to Garrett, "now about vou. vouns fellow? Get vore was the five-year-old son of Mary Joe Ford, a young widow who had come to do the cooking at the ranch. He was a favorite of Bob Quantrell's and ordered or-dered the boy-gunman about with implicit im-plicit confidence. Garrett shook his head. "Too much for me. There he sits, gay and good-natured good-natured and full of the milk of human kindness. You feel he Is utterly dependable de-pendable and loyal. I'd trust him in any crisis or with any amount of money. I get to thinking of him as just a nice boy and then that gory record of his jumps to my mind, coldblooded, cold-blooded, and deliberate killings done without mercy or apparent remorse." "By Jove, you know, sometimes I rub my eyes and wonder if it isn't just a bally dream." "It's real enough, old chap. I dare say you know that when you feel your wound. Better not stay out too long and get tired. I'll trot along and see how they're getting along with the house." "Don't let Matson cut down the size of the fireplace, Old Top. His notion is all bally rot, but he's a stubborn mule." The Circle S O ranch, as the Cress place was now called, had become a hive, of industry. Cattle in large bunches had been shifted to the contiguous con-tiguous range and had to be worked. At all hours of the day and night cowboys cow-boys drifted to and from the ranch. Just now half a dozen carpenters, imported im-ported from Aurora, were camped In the pasture. They had been engaged to build a new house. The Lodge, as Smith-Beresford called it, was to be a commodious structure, rustic in type. The hewn-log hewn-log walls were already, up and the roof on. One of the chief features was to be a large open hall with an immense im-mense stone fireplace at one end. This hall extended to the roof, but a stairway stair-way wound to a second-floor gallery the buyln'. My forty per comes to me for forkin' broncs an' being an alleged top hand with cows." "In about an hour I'm ridin Into Concho. Want to go along?" "Sure do." The cowboy got to his feet with one lithe twist of his body. The two men saddled and dropped down out of the hills. As they rode Quantrell unexpectedly began to talk about himself. He blamed the law for starting him on his troublous career. From his infancy in-fancy he had fought his own way in the world. His father he had never known and he had lost his mother when he was seven. At the age of eleven he had been arrested for breaking break-ing into a store and stealing a gun. "Didn't have a thing to do with it. Wasn't anywheres near there when it took place. But the kid who did it got scared an' traded me the gun. The marshal found I had it an' the prose-cutin' prose-cutin' attorney wished the burglary on me right off. Why not? I was only a kid an' had no parents who could vote. So he aimed to send me to a reform school. Got me in his office an' tried to bully me into sayin' I did it. Grabbed me an' shook me. I cut him with my pocketknife an' lit out leavin' him yelpin' for help. "Two years ago I met that fellow In a saloon in El Paso, an' I went right up to him an' asked him if he remembered remem-bered me. Didn't know me, of course. Didn't want to. I was only a kid cowboy cow-boy who had drifted to town outa the barranca. So I kinda reminded him." Quantrell's eyes took on a far-away reminiscent look of satisfaction. He relapsed into silence. (TO BE CONTINUED.) "I'm Not Goina to Arctue With You." coat oft an' let's see where we're at." Barbara helped the lawyer remove the coat. The cattle man washed and examined ex-amined the wound. "Pain much?" "I'm noticing it." "Thought so. Bullet hit the hone likely. You're lucky it's no worse. From what the boys tell me a lot of good lead was wasted. If anyone had told me that Quantrell an' Deever an' Sanderson an' a whole passle more of willin' lads would have cut down on you with their hoglegs with nothing to show for it but one ornery li'l flesh wound I'd 'a' said it was a story that listened line an' for some one to tell a better one." "They nearly murdered my friend, if not quite," O'llara said bitterly, in a low voice. "Isn't that enough to give you a little satisfaction?" "Young feliow, if you know what's good for you don't insinuate that they did it by my orders," Ingram answered harshly. Then, curtly, "Fix me up a pad for this, Barbara. We'll not monkey mon-key with the lead pill till Doc comes." A shadow from the doorway fell across the sunlit floor. Ingram looked up quickly and as he did so his hand slid toward his right hip and rested tbero. Bob Quantrell leaned negligently negli-gently against tlv j; nib. "Come to see h')W yore sick friends are gettlo' along, Bob?" the owner of the Diarvond Tail brand asked ironically. iron-ically. bLs steady eyes on those of the Doctor Holloway. "Did Doc Mauley go to my ranch?" Ingram asked. "Yes, sir. I understand some one has been hurt here, too." "Two wounded men, one of 'em shot up pretty badly." The doctor looked down and saw some men carrying a body on a door. "That one of them?" he asked. "Not that one." Ingram's sardonic smile flickered for a moment. "rou can't do a thing for him. There was a necktie party, an' that fellow was the hangee. as you might say." Doctor Holloway was a fat, jolly little man with a red face. He looked quickly at the cattle man, started to speak, and thought better of it. "Expect I'd better be gettin' along to my patients," he said. "Who are they?" "Couple of pardners of Wes Steelman Steel-man the belted earl an' that pilgrim O'Hara." Holloway wt i a born gossip. He itched to know just what had taken place, but Dave Ingram was not the man upon whom to push home his curiosity. "Well. I guess I'd better drift on down," he said. "Do," the cattle man agreed. "An' when you're through ride over to the ranch. Doc Mauley may need some help. We've got quite a hospital there, too." As the doctor descended toward the cabin his mind ranged over the silua- strip of linen around O'Hara's shoulder to hold the bandage in place and they continued to work on this. But both of them shifted positions in such a way as to face the door. The galloping horses pulled up. A voice asked sharply, "The boys hurt, Barb?" Barbara spoke quickly. "Mr. Ingram In-gram is lookin' after them.'' Wesley Steelman pushed past her and stood in the doorway. He glanced at Ingram and in a voice hoarse with anger demanded, "Who did that?" His finger was pointing toward the body swaying in the wind. Hard-eyed, Ingram met his furious gaze. "I wasn't here myself. A sheriffs posse, I'm told." |