Show r a I 1 aa IL A aw X W fit aw ak bomb in RAW a A 14 ica CHAPTER van lla behland marians tha shadow doAd id silhouette the window glass itself shattered as ai if ishad it had exploded inward out in the brush sounded founded the ringing track crack of a rifle then there was sl ol lence and the window against which marian had stood was empty except for the lamp lit gleam of its shattered glass wheelers breath jerked in his throat he dropped to the ground and raced for forthe the house in the dark beside the shattered window douglas was holding the sirl farl in hla his arms and though she cl clung ungto to him wheeler taw saw that the wagon bosk boat was holding her up he heard beard douglas say are you hurt are you billy wheeler cried out in gods name mome marian marians Mn riana voice said ald shakily im sill U right you bit no 06 get a gunt said val douglas trazile era tra we wa was standing here find and somebody took a shot st at P wheeler turned and ran for the bunk house half way he almost crashed into tulare callahan whits up get the boys out wheeler told him to hell with saddles Bad dies but get ropes and guns somebody fired into the layout welve weve got to try to stampede over him in the tha brush behind the 94 04 layout tho the buck brush stood rigged ragged much of it shoulder high to a mounted man in its crooked brakes the hard sandy candy ground showed barren in the light of the near stars with some difficulty billy wheeler restrained gil baker and steve hurley from spurring their ponies headlong into the brush as if they were trying to jump a bunch of steers stick together move slow and keep stopping to listen wheeler said our only I 1 chance they trailed In into tha bush slowly single file wheeler inthe in tha lead lie he had bad accidentally mounted a horse that believed in ghosts and it moved sidelong delong al stretching its nose warily at the brush shadows blowing long uneasy shoots repeatedly they halted to sit listening V cor oran an hOurt fourthey hour they bey com combed edthe the dark aara brush t alternately walking their borses and listening not until they camhout came out at the toot foot of a barren rise did they realize that they had wandered almost a mile from their starting point when you have seen one thicket of by starlight you have seen them all they had pushed through 8 hundred thickets in which a man could have hidden under the very feet of their hors horses esyet yet in that mile of country there were a thousand thickets more the riders were grini grim and tight mouthed horse dunn met them at thedor the corrals lie he had been prowling all over ahe place rifle on his arm ile he spoke poke low voiced but no one of them 1 I 1 dont believe lie ile knows a horse track from froma a hounds lJ ear would hove have crossed him then any imore than they would have tooled fooled wit with a 14 hand ills his words came cama out as hard as pieces of rock go on and turn in he told them this is most likely all for or tonight once they were inside horse de banded ot of wheeler what the devil got into old man coffee whatever it was got into him its going to cost us plenty 1 I dont believe belleve he knows a horse track frum rum a hounds ear car dunn duim declared angrily ile he puts me in rhind 0 of some old moss harn hughe he paws and blows blown and hollers boilers but he know about it when he gets through nothing im n not so sure billy wheeler said laid name ono one thing he found outi I lie he inured out that the murdered man inan wat riot not magoon r erse snorted in disgust 1 1 I dont beleau be leVu 11 ll it cuffee thought he be had to say lay something so he said the first thing come into his hl head every sign we got points to the fact that lon magoon was wan killed in his own saddle and on his own horse and at short crick im thinking now said billy wheeler that we w can prove that one way or the other right hero here and now how weve still got his saddle addle we its ita still under my bunk let me see sec it horse dunn stared at him irritably for a moment then picked up a lamp with a jerk and led the way to the clean bare room in which lie he lived by the yellow light of the lamp the one fine old saddles on their racks against the well wall glinted cleanly from and steel dunn sat eat down on a box and hooked booked his bis elbows on the table behind him horse how big a man is this lon magoon about my size hell not not mot by eight inches Littles ehon horl wiry feller put you in mind of a grasshopper or a flea wheeler hauled out magoonis Mag saddle billy measured the length of the stirrup leather with lits arm arm stirrup in armpit angers upon the tree 1 I stand five eleven wheeler said yet these stirrups are too long for me to ride horse the man that rode this saddle was wai over six feet tall horse came across the room in two stat cles and dropped to one knee beside billy damn it I 1 know magoonis Mag halll you mean it was magoonis Mog Mag hull bull you can soa see ahe the short rig bends worn into the stirrup leathers but since then the leathers have been lot down long and laced faced there with rawhide whang 11 horse dunn measured mpa the stirrup leathers against his own arm then he ie forked the saddle where it lay his feet ino the stirrups tall as me he breathed ile he stared at the saddle incredulously credulously v for several moments do you reckon he said at last that internal infernal old lion hunter would ct down those stirrups just to got get us balled up look at anc amear wear on an tho the stirrup leather thi the saddle has been rid den since the stirrups were jet down I 1 horse dunn got up slowly and went back to his seat on the box or a long time he sat staring at floor when at last he drew a brea breath thuna and getup got up his move ments were those of a man preoccupied Hs he got out aroll a roll of adhesive tape pulled oil A a bottand boot boo tand and woolen sock and began to tape up the outside oi of his ankle bone which appeared to be ba skinned ive got to take a hammer to those spurs he be said his mind on other things seems like they horse coffee was waa righta the man that died in this saddle was not lon magoon suddenly dunn stood up a shaggy towering figure staring at billy wheeler then in gods name chos dead wheeler regarded him without expression within the hour a shadowy hunch had come over him he knew that he had no proof for the thing that was in his mind yet somehow it stood clear and plain tie he went to the fireplace and picked up an old branding iron that had been in use as a fire poker lie he squatted on his heels and with this sooty iron began to make marks on dunns clean swept floor door saying that the 84 94 to Is here he said marking a cross and short crick over here then her lies that broken badlands called the red lied sleep seems to ms me there used to be a trail across the red hed sleep leading over to yes sure dut but horse dunn waited billy wheeler studied the noor floor where would a 8 man be coming from passing over short crick toward the 94 maybe could horse admitted dubious ly that little railroad rall rood spur ends there sometimes horse Dunn made a sudden contribution lon MB ma goon has shipped a few ew stolen beef cpr cassca out of wheeler nodded from gahran agat the spur runs down the little minto manto to plumas then let me see cheat creek monitor sikes crossing dunn supplied i and so to the main stem and so to the malli mali stem wheeler repeated repealed and maybe an old timer a saddle man working toward the 04 by train would figure it was better belter to come by gm galand and there ther eplek pick up a horse they were silent and the back ground of the outer night seemed uncommonly still perhaps because old man Colte cs hounds were gone A saddle minded annn wheeler repeated coming from say Flog flagstaff staff ile threw the branding lion into the fireplace it sent ti up a pull pd of white ash against the black alark opening horse where was bob flagg last heard from dunns dunna votes voice came out cut thickly flagstaff he said aid CHAPTER IX horse dunn sat relaxed staring morosely at aj the floor in his eyes a dark fire glowed wheeler wondered what ugly and shadowy things the old man wis was seeing perhaps wheeler thought he would not wish to see in his life the like oi of what horse dunn was seeing as he be sat fat looking at the floor finally horse dunn jerked to hi his feet with an abrupt Impat impatience lente this is all pipe pip smoke esmoke he said for a minute you threw roe me up in the air with that bunk but belli you figure bob come here bera a way no man would ever think of coming i theres better than a hundred million people in this country and bob flagg is one of lem em so go you figure that maybe it was waa him got killett kill edt well we might anyway check up at there lant so ao much travel up the little minto but what we could find and out if bob flags flagg came that way var 11 ill send val Doug lasover there tomorrow I 1 sure dont aim to leave any stone unturned but it if a guess li Is an inch long you sure lumped jumped amile a mile 11 maybe wheeler admitted horse dunn took a turn of the room and the fighting spirit that had flared up in his eyes burned low and smoky again this count rys gone ganeto to hell bell in a hand basket ive never asked for tiny any more thantus tha than justice and ive dealt out nothing less but where can you get it now A mans man hands shands are tied there was more honesty in the old six gun than in a thousand courts of so called law id give em cm ith their air cockeyed cock eyed country id wash my hands bands of the whole works and good riddance if 11 it for the girl it always come cam comeback eback back to marian the ithe old man dare lo lose sebe ibe cause of whit what it m meant eanotto to the girl chehad he had labored for her too long in years that for an any other man would have hava been the twilight years of his t life she I 1 came before wheelers eyes now n ow between b tween himself and horse dunn almost ost as clearly as lt it vie she had really been in the room dunn was saying know what id like to t p do id like to cut out for the argentine where a mans cows cowa have a chance to turn around by god id P argentine belll billy exploded at t him it if id been running this outfit this situation would never have come up or started to come cupl 1 I suppose have sold out cut dunn salda said a hard edge on his voice maybe and maybe not but I 1 haye have gone cow crazy range crazy until I 1 afford to work my stock strangely horse did not anger wheeler saw that the old man thought his tirade was merely based on youth and ignorance which he had seen in unlimited quantities before f ore maybe dunn said now have kept the fla a little one horse spread in the best of shape but that aint the question now were where we are and theres no use fighting over what went before i 1 I can save me it yew yet wheeler told him rashly 1 I can throw a hundred thousand into the 94 11 1 I know you could swing that much you got it billy what I 1 got of lt iti 1 can get 00 horse dunn studied him sadly a long time an offer is it he said at last on one condition that you give me a free hand to hire fire buy or sell land or cattle for three years 1 I believe said dunn id even do that its a deal then no you and meu mell never nave r make a deal like its if your your out wheeler told him ind and lt iam your only out let me take the finance and the outfit and all the other ruction falls to pieces and now horse home dunns eyes blazed again and anahis his voice crack led never put a dime in this brandl it its her brand wheeler remind ed cd him you willingto willing to let it bust up and go down and I 1 the girl and her mother without a cent let ier er bust before it ever bangs bangson son on your dought but dam damnation nailon why yo you ll 11 want to know why ill ten tell you why I 1 because you want that girl I 1 you want that girl you think im blind but the she dont want you i this pretty early you sleep id no nos sooner put her in your debt than id sell her to you outright youre youie only makini making the offer because youre in love with marian youre u I 1 r crazym im making the after foffo e b because d ai I 1 wk think I 1 can come 1 N 1 ou out t on it t 1 you want the girl horse persisted I 1 I 1 you old fool wheeler held his voice down do you think id ever expect to gether get her that way do you think id want her on the basis of anyway all over and done two years back wheeler lied once she could have had me body and soul but all over I 1 tie myself up not now to her or anyone else you lie said horse calmly horse it let me take P never adaime a dime of your money in her brand horse said with utter finality wheeler turned in that night feeling old andi grim etwas it was stu dark as billy wheeler let himself noiselessly into the cook coak shack and lighted a lamp he found himself cold biscuits and in a huge pot on the back of the stove he found bitter coffee above a banked fire he had about finished washing down his cold biscuits when he was annoyed to discover that another early riser was about someone was walking quietly toward the cook shack hurriedly he blew out his light gulped down half a cup of dregs and let himself out of the kitchen anxious i to be on his way without conversation then rounding founding the corner of the cook shack he almost ran into mar ian morning billy he saw that she was wearing belted overalls and boots this pretty early you sleep TO BE CONTINUED |