Show A JACKSON ACKSON GREGORY J IT we k RELEASE I 1 CHAPTER I 1 I 1 old early bill cole knew full well in the fullness of hig his years that his days held by some filled with iniquity and general hell raising were numbered and his sands were run ning fast he had known for six months and with a sort of devilish flicker of glee in all that he hb did had gone about making the final ar range ments ile he was a rare old lone eagle and in him was us a stripe tripe of satan a yard wide at ih infrequent frequent times something almost and on many a joyous occasion a d dash ash of santa claus even if I 1 got to die like other fool folks he consoled himself irr irn going to get me my mite of fun out of it hells bells yes sirl sir with his preparations pretty well in order early bill cole of the king cole ranch still estimated that his course had a few weeks to run but that was before this particular morning had blossomed in chinin shinin 9 9 gold old out of the pleasantly cool shadowy 1 L dawn it was always his habit to be astir before the new day he had no great fondness for the night time the things he loved with all that wild old he heart artof of his were the good earth eaith and green things growing and the earliest hours with the last stars winking out rather like the twinkle in his old hard steely blue eyes and the little dawn breeze and the sunup and the glorious unfolding and of late he was up and out of his enormous old adobe ranch house each morning earlier than was even his habit he want folks to see him and realize what he was up to for each day he was telling some part of his wide spread acres the whole of his world a last adios for many the year he had inhabited all alone the ancient picturesque tur esque adobe building which long before lils his days had been the home of tile the spanish california estradas at first being younger and even wilder then than at tiie the end he had always had a house full and very efery colorful accounts of proceedings under the red tiled roof and within the thick white earthen walls leaked out but now no A quarter of a mile from the old adobe beyond a big grove of cottonwoods cotton woods were out buildings stables and corrals and barns and quarters for hired d h hands his latter years he wanted to be alone like an old wolf except when he himself went out in quest of company thus this nic morning ining he should be sure of going about whatever his 0 wn own business might be with ith no fear otia spying eye he stepped along under the fading stars with his 1 horny thumbs hooked into his hii c cartridge ar belt his ba batto tiered old black hat pushed far back on his thatch of white hair his high hoelck boots r stepping briskly he was darned I 1 if hed crawl about like an blaman old man seen or unseen the house was on a gently bos 1 omed jp with big lg oaks all abou tit to the west miles away towered the mountains between the horse hoise and the mountains were little rippling green hills remany a dball tall pine arid niah m a ny a tight clump of young pines grew xe he walked va aked toward the he nearest hill with the three nobly tall pines onit on its crest here was a vantage well eai above the slopes idge where chaparral a and nd manzanita wai wove themselves into thickets for rabbits to hide in it was still half dark daik when he came to the ond one p pine 1 I 6 which with no one in thelea the t if it he had loved with a deep still fragrantly romantic love for nearly forty years there was a re reason aon locked away in his own hea heart rt jn in the half dark and with no efesto eyes to see gee he pulled off his hat and looked up at the one star still bright laughing down at him through the branches tr anches H put his long thin sinewy armi arms as far as he could about the tree he pressed h his Is griz aled cheek against the bark so rough yet to ibis feeling so tenderly soft then a rifle shot clear and vicious cracked through the still loveliness of the hour and old early bill cole felt a stab of pain for a moment he clung to the pinetree pine tree tripping gripping it tight for hub support port then quick and erect he stepped free of it and as he did so dragged both of his old guns almost as old and worn and deadly as s himself up from their loose leathers his shrewd old wintry eyes bare ly y discerned a puff of smoke like a wisp of vanishing mist hanging above the thicket where a fiercer animal than brush rabbits was hiding this morning and not waiting jor for any sure target he started blazing away with both guns what amazed him was that no second shot was winged his way so still was the hour that tha t small sounds carried far and distinct he heard beard a man crashing his way through the bushes and prayed through clenched teeth for a fair sight of him none was afforded however until his assailant having imn run to a horse tethered under the crown of the slope went up into the caddle ea ead addle dle the distance was great tho tha light none too good early bill leaned against his old pine and steadied himself and was very deliberate liber about his next shot and th then en with a catch in his throat he laughed there were times when the old man could laugh like i a wolf snarling he had come within an inch or two of shooting the other man through the head he had shot his hat off oell I 1 what made early bill contending with the pain of abu a bullet t in him laugh the man thre threw up his hand and by alicky a lucky chance caught hl his hat in the air and thin then departed like something shot out of a gun early bill bolstered his weapons set his long lean back against his tree and cursed and when old bill cole cursed in such rage as now his words would have drawn rapt attention from a congress of mule skinners what made him rhad mad so much having a man t try r V to dry gulch him hells bells he had been used for a target more than once in his stretch of years but that a man should sneak up on him and hide and spy on him when he thought himself alone with memories and an old pine it was a wickedly wrath wrathful Tul early bill cole making his hii staggering lurching way back to the house the return over the brief distance which had taken him some few minutes required a tortuous hour he got his door open ope ngot got halfway into his living room and fainted faints ed after a time it must have been upward of an hour for the sun was glancing in at his windows he heaved himself up moved then quick and erect he stepped freeouf it ily to a e big chair slumped down with a grunt and closed his eyes presently he stiffened will and body together and got his shirt open he had lost a lot of blood that he could not afford to lose the wound was through his side down low through the lower ribs lucky he judged that ife he already bled to death without getting up he ripped off lif his shirt and with badly shaking hands contrived a bandage of sorts then half swooning he sat for a long time i feeling light headed yet as grim oi of determination ai as he always I 1 was to get the better of a bad deal finally he rose and made his way vay like lukea a drunken amanto anan to the door opening upon the old spanish patio whence he could lo 10 look ok down to the cottonwood grove just beyond which the out buildings were ile he s saw a W a faint smudge of smoke above the tree tops he filled his lungs and tried to yell he snorted though feebly ir in i disgust it at the result he dragged out his bis guns there was a shot left in one two I 1 in n the other he fired all three shots spacing them and let the guns slip out of his hands then he sat down on the old green bench to wait though the earlier shots had evidently gone unheard the distance now was less les s and the hour later and he had hopes it was one of his mexican fiands 1 young gaucho ort ortega ega who carne came I 1 slouching up the slope won wondering doring w what hat was afoot and found him for the love of godl god I 1 cried the boy in his native tongue old bill licked his lips and beck boned the boy closer get on a horse gaucho he said thickly I 1 and ride into town tell doc joe I 1 want him real bad now wait 1 darn you cant you stand sti still 1 I until a man finishes then you find the judge I 1 want him too isi si sl si fenorl cried the excited boystun boy STU ride slim jim 1 and ill go iy ay wf ivymay ivy My like the wind I 1 but fenorl the first thing I 1 must got get you to bedl bed look you gaucho said the old bill ol of a sudden patient taking consideration the boys youth and excitability it if ive got to cash in 1 I can do it standing up and if I 1 m 9 going to live what the heck would I 1 want a bed for now get out of here A wry grin twisted his hard haid old lips and he added ill be here when you get back the little town of bald eagle squatting untidily in its place in the th 0 sun with the cattle country lying to the south and southwest and the hectic beetle mining country in the broken lands to the north was as lively a as s any cricket most nights and many a gala afternoon but profoundly somnolent before what was coave conventionally antion termed first drink time this morning you have leave seen a horse tied t ed to any of the hitching rails nor a puff oi of dust in the road not playfully stirred up by the halfhearted half hearted morning breeze nor would you have heard beard anywhere the echoing thump and jingle of spurred boots on the crazy wooden sidewalks but on the porch of the bald eagle hotel two old men sat in their rocking chairs and smoked their after ir breakfast stogies and looked with mild complacent eyes across all that was to be seen of their towns stark ugliness these were the two men for whom early bill had sent they were alike in many respects and ansome in some were vere like old bill cole himself though they never could measure upA up toa ohis his stature younger than bill they were were too by some same few years doc joe who had bien been christened joseph jodeph daniel daniiel dodge the judge for foi the other bald ea eagles agles one and only lawyer at the moment banker besides and christened arthur henry pope like old bill though some inches below his six foot two they were lean ry and gray doe doc joeaas joe was as baldas bald as a door knob the judges glinting white hair was long like a mane and both wore fashionable flowing white chite inu mustaches staches one an old bachelor the other a widower for so many jears years that it liias was as thought though he too had bad never known a home life they lived at the hotel had their three meals together and did their porch sit sitting in n the h Q wo 0 tang zon chairs which the community n unit j conceded were their particular prop property eity by right of home homesteading they were sitting brooding smoking and digesting their hearty breakfasts when the mexican boy from the king cole ranch came racing into town he saw them as he turned into main street and began yelling at them ahem before they could hw hmira a word that he said hafl grunted doc joe something th ing must have hake bit I 1 him its that halfbreed half breed from early bill coles place the judie judge said with his shaggy brows perked up and hes riding old bid bills favorite favora te saddle horse ho arse 4 must be something wrong joe else bill let any breed that aver ever lived fork slim jim gaucho slung himself out of the saddle and poured out hi his ls story in a deluge of words the two old ola men stir say a thing until he had finished then doe doc joe said quietly take it easy gaucho now tell me and this time he got the essentials ile he land and the judge regarded each other with poker faces and for a time no one spoke gaucho jerking about started to tell the whole thing over when doc joe interrupted him heres four bits kid 10 he said you go buy yourself a drink want to let your horse bl blow ten minutes ua es then you ride back to the ranch andrell and tell your boss that tha were coming pronto kid sl si senor said bald gaucho and touched his hat and moved away and still the two old men sat as still as the ancient hills behind bald eagle they look at each other again the judge cleared his throat sounded as though some of that dust had settled in it he tossed his cigar r away only half smoked tho though ugh it was and gnawed off a hunk of f his plug cut looks like the old buzzard must be in pr pretty etty bad shape and knows it he offered well the old foll fol have much longer to live any how I 1 always told him id outlive him fact is weve got a bet on it 1 I 1 know muttered doc boehe looked his cigar over carefully but bu t instead of throwing it away started chewing it if same with him and me weve wee got a bet bei five hundred like yours then chedid he did stand up and hurl ills his cigar clean across across the street ill go get my little old black poison bag he said cheerily you better fetch pen and ink and papers and any other legal junk a dying min man might want PI then belet out a whoop calling back gaucho ortega ortiga who had progressed only as far as the nearby near by saloon door get alon along 9 first to the livery stable gaucho tel teal luke to let me have those two young grays to dolight light buckboard 1 kt f U F t |