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Show fevW-w F -J W stavict 5 v lu fti.-ji W-r.-if'X Copvrtakt bu Alan LeMi CHAPTER VIII 10 NOT more than half an hour could have passed when he was Jerked broad awake by a fluttering flut-tering knock upon his door. Before Be-fore he could answer It, the door opened half hurriedly, half In stealth, and Jean's whisper came to him through the dark. "Kentucky, "Ken-tucky, are you there?" "Here, Jean." He Jerked 'a match ont of his pocket and struck It Into flame with his thumb nail. As he stood up she came close to him, her eyes very big and dark In her pale face. "Jean what Is It?" "Kentucky somebody Is walking all around ns Just as quietly as one of Joe St. Marie's ghosts." "All around us? What do you mean?" "I mean around the layout here near the house." "How many of them?" "I only saw one. He was prowling prowl-ing through the shadows I saw him plainly, not more than ten horse Jumps away. He was carrying something some-thing on his shoulders. Then I thought I heard a walking horse." "Where did you see this?" "From the window of my room. I couldn't stand It alone there any more. Sometimes I think I'm going crazy." .-v "Let's have a look." Kentucky picked up his gun belt "Be quiet," she cautioned him. "Whoever It Is doesn't want to be seen that's certain. If we're going to find out who It Is, he mustn't know that he's been seen." "O. K." She groped for his hand and led the way through the cold dark of the long ranch house. Jean's room had two windows, one of which was wide open. At this window she knelt, peering out, and he dropped to one knee beside her. "I first saw him from my bed," she whispered. "He went behind . that dwarfed spruce. For a while 7 "he stood there behind It as If he was watching the house. Then he went on, walking as quietly as as nothing human. As he went out of sight I got up and came to the window; and I watched him until I couldn't see him any more. He went toward the pump house, and out of sight." "I don't see any sign of him now." Jean seized him arm, and he heard her breath In her teeth. "What's that? There, close In the shadow of the pump house?" Kentucky looked hard where she pointed. As he stared, straining his eyes against the bad light, he pres ently began to believe that he could make out the crouching figure of a man. For what seemed a long time they knelt there, their eyes fixed upon the shadow against the pump house. When the telephone broke Into abrupt outcry In the house behind them the sudden burst of sound struck across their tense nerves like the crack of a whip against flddle strings. Jean Jerked violently; violent-ly; then, pulling herself together, whispered, "D n 1" The telephone continued to ring. Kentucky whispered. "One of ns will have to answer that I think you'd better go. Til stay and watch the shadow here. If It's for me. please take the message." Jean Ragland hesitated, then silently obeyed. With his eyes riveted upon their mark, Kentucky listened for what seemed a long time to the low murmur of Jean's rolce, two rooms away. Presently, alone, and with his eyes accustomed to their work, he saw the secret of the mysterious shadow dissolve, so that he finally recognized It for what It was a bash, s wagon spring, and s broken backboard wheel. Whomsoever Jean bad seen prowl the layout, and wherever he might be now, he was no longer In the shadow of the pomphouse and had not been, since they had watched together. Disgusted, Kentucky rose, stralght- enlng his cramped knees. One long ' step from the window stood Jean Kagland's bed. He sat down upon It. careful to avoid a creaking of the springs. Her bed was still warm to his hand, where Jean had lain and tried to sleep; and for a moment he mar-reled mar-reled that the toss of circumstances Should have brought him so near to this !rl, even for so little time. Then he noticed something else. Something was wrong with the mattress upon which he sat. Un-mlstakably, Un-mlstakably, there was something within that mattress that bad nothing noth-ing to do with sleep. Suddenly Kentucky Ken-tucky dropped to one knee beside fie bed and thrust his hand between tie mattress and the sheet Burled in the mattress bis fingers found the polished wood of a rifle stock; and beside it, dismounted, the cool smooth steel of the barrel. bar-rel. For a moment his hand rested on these while something turned over in the pit of his stomach and refused to go back Into place. He withdrew his hand and sat down limply on the edge of the bed. He was not ready to say what the discovery dis-covery meant; but he knew Instantly Instant-ly that Jean was more deeply Involved In-volved than he had supposed perhaps per-haps far more deeply. "Dear G d," he whispered, "what have we here? What have we here?" The murmur of Jean's voice within with-in the house had ceased; he heard the faint stir of the door as she came Into the room. He stood up, overwhelmed with such pity for this Ill-situated girl that he was the victim of an unaccustomed timidity. She came close to him and her hand touched his arm. "That shadow was a misdeal," he whispered. "There Isn't anybody In that shadow. I don't believe there's anybody out there any more." She said, "Oh." He felt Infinitely gentle toward her, and compassionate. Presently he knew that he would have to ask her why that gun was concealed In her mattress. He was unable to ask her yet "What was the phone call?" he asked. "That was for you," she told clogging snow at the run. this time to the house; here he got his hat and his coat, his gloves and his spurs. After that he went to the stable, and put a loop upon the pony which he believed would come the nearest to matching the clay-bnnk's clay-bnnk's performance tonight a wiry, almost under-sized steel-dust pony, strong with the markings of Indian blood. Kentucky had the blanket on and was swinging his fifty-pound saddle aboard by the horn as Jean, coming out from the house, reached his side. "What where are you going? What's happened?" A sudden crazy auger came into Kentucky, like a stroke of white lightning. At its Impact all the compassion, all the tenderness he had felt for this girl seemed to vanish, as If she had held him under a hypnosis, the spell of which had snapped. He turned on her furiously. fu-riously. "What Is It to you where I go or what I do? Men put their hands in the lion's mouth for you, and you tell them nothing not even enough so that they can take care of their own lives !" She stared at him a moment In utter bewilderment, and one hand went to her throat. "Why, Kentucky why, Kentucky I've told you more more than " He said, "You trust no one, you work with no one; everyone trusts you, and you let us all ride blind." He turned furiously to his horse and drew the latlgo up with a snap that Jerked a grunt out of the animal. ani-mal. And he set his teeth in his lip lest he utter the belief which had overwhelmed him; that Jim Humphreys Humph-reys had died because of the reticence re-ticence of this slim girl, now standing stand-ing beside him In the snow. "But but " Jean Kagland's eyes looked enormous In her white face. Kentucky Jones loomed above her like a tree, so that even In his anger he saw that she was a pitiful and desolate figure. Yet he was seeing Jim Humphreys' face as he had seen It last, staring with unseeing eyes at the first stars; and, believing that Jim Humphreys' death could have been prevented had Kentucky known what this girl SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS At the Inquest into the death of John Mason, banker, Jean, daughter of Campo Ragland, owner of the Bar Hook ranch, where Mason met death, surreptitiously sur-reptitiously passes to Kentucky Jones the bullet which had killed Mason, she having abstracted it from the evidence. Kentucky goes to work on the Bar Hook ranch. The Mason verdict is accidental death. Bob Elliot, owner of the "88" ranch, adjoining the Bar Hook, drives his cattle on the Bar Hook land. Lee Bishop, Ragland'i ranch boss, expostulates, and Bill Mc-Cord, Mc-Cord, Elliot's foreman, Insults him. Bishop and Jones are astounded by Ragland's Indifference to Elliot's action. Jones tells Jean Elliot knows she purloined the bullet at the inquest, which Jones has got rid of. Her reaction re-action mystifies him. Zack Sanders, cook at the Bar Hook ranch, 1b found dead, murdered. Sheriff Hopper, investigating Sanders' death, announces his knowledge that Mason also was murdered. In a gun fight with riders of the "88" ranch Jim Humphreys, Bar Hook cowboy. Is killed, and Billy Petersen badly wounded. Jones sends for fighting cowmen, but Ragland countermands the order. Jones seeks to trace the ownership of a gun found on Jack Sanders, which he Is confident has a bearing on the mystery. Jean sells him her share in the Bar Hook ranch, thus giving him a free hand In any controversy with Elliot. him. "It was Mark Ferris, that gunsmith gun-smith at Waterman. He's trying to trace Zack Sanders' gun for you." "Yes? Quick! What did he say?" "He said " Jean was shivering so violently that she could hardly control the chattering of her teeth. "Wait a minute." Kentucky picked her up, sweeping her off her feet with an arm under her knees, and laid her on the open bed; then pulled the blankets over her, and pressed the edges close about her throat "Now go on," he said. "He said that he has a record of such a gun. He sold It second-hand about a year ago." "In G 's name, woman, who did he sell It to?" "To Joe St Marie." For perhaps half a moment Kentucky Ken-tucky Jones was completely still. Then he sucked In a deep breath and began to swear between his teeth with the vicious Intonation of a man who puts his whole heart Into It He had suddenly become aware that he had perhaps put off the formation of one theory for a little bit too long. Suddenly he whirled to the window, win-dow, crouched low to avoid the sash, and vaulted the sill, racing for the bunk house. A match was already la his band as he thrust open the door; be struck It on the logs and with quick efficient motions lighted one of the hanging lamps. "St. Marie " he said aloud. Joe St Marie's bunk was empty. Kentucky swore again, blew out the light and left the bunk house on the run. He headed now for the corral nearest the pump house, and sprang half way up the corral fence. The half dozen horses In the corral cor-ral were huddled together near the empty feed box. The ponies moved and shifted, but by the time he had counted them Kentucky knew which horse was gone. This Information In-formation only verified, however, how-ever, what Kentucky had already guessed. Joe St Marie, leaving stealthily, as Kentucky now knew Jean had seen him leave, was certain cer-tain to take the best-conditioned horse upon the place. In this case a raw-boned claybank. Kentucky leaned against the fence and pressed the palms of his hands against bis eyes. He was picturing pictur-ing to himself the lay of the conn-try, conn-try, and the probable Intricacies of Joe St Marie's mind. Immediately he came to a conclusion which he had no reason to be certain was sound, but which was the best he could form from what information be bad. Once more be drove through the must know, he could not forgive her. "I've been taken for a fool and used as a fool," he said. "But I tell you this: I'm going to ride this thing clear through to the end, regardless re-gardless of what the end Is. You hear me? And when that's done I'm through. I'm going to try to cut off St. Marie at Hightman's gap. If I don't get him there, I may or may not go on. I haven't decided yet "The man who put the gun Into Zack's hand Is the man responsible for the death, Just as surely as If he shot Zack himself and that gun was St Marie's. I'm going to have me that man. When I've got him, I'm going to turn and get me the man that killed Mason. And I don't care who It Is, or how close to home, or If It splits the rlmrock wide open when he's caught" It had been on his tongue to tell her that she might shield whom she wanted to, lie to whom she wanted to, conceal what evidence she wanted to, but he would see the killer of Mason hung, In the end; but he bit It back. Still Jerky and explosive with anger, he vaulted vault-ed into the saddle. For four miles he held steadily northward, then turned and swung a broad circle, seeking to cut a trail which would verify the supposed direction of St Marie. He was far to the eastward when he at last cut a straight-drawn track made within the hour. He Judged that the bronc rider was pushing northeast north-east at a cat-trot, trying as Jones had guessed for Hightman's gap. The hours passed and the pony tired, and It seemed to Kentucky Jones that that ride was perhaps the longest and loneliest he had ever made In his life. He could not keep Jean Ragland out of his mind. He remembered the strong sharp pressure of her fingers, and the touch of her cheek, and the pliant yielding curve of her body In his arms; he could see the stir and drift of her loose hair as they had stood In the corral. This girl had become the center of all living, as a waterhole Is the center of a range, or a fire the center of a camp. He had never been called upon to admit ad-mit this to himself, until suddenly circumstances had asked him to accept ac-cept also the certainty that she had betrayed them all. For he could not avoid recognition recogni-tion that Jean's concealment of the rifle had a different meaning than had that extraordinary feat of hers at the Inquest when she h.nd lifted the bullet that killed Mason from nnder the very nose of the sheriff. Her concern with the bullet had told bim that she was shielding some one if not the killer, then ai least some one who might other wise have been open to an unfair suspicion. Although. In the case ol the bullet, she had availed hersell of his help, he had been able to un derstand that he remained an outsider out-sider here, who could not expect to be told In what sort of thing he hud assisted her. But in spite of Old Man Coffee he had assumed that she was at least co-operating with the Interest of her father and her father's brand. But the discovery of the hidden rifle told him at once that she was co-operating with no one; that, incredibly, in-credibly, she was playing an utterly utter-ly lone hand at least, he reflected bitterly, as far as the Bar Hook was concerned. For certainly no man had had anything to do with hiding a rifle In a bed. Only a woman would select a cache so close under the light She was acting, then, without cooperation co-operation with her father, or any other of the Bar Hook personnel. The association of this fact with the circumstances of Jean's rendezvous with her father's enemy was unavoidable. un-avoidable. To this unhappy situation the revelation of St Marie's connection added a sharp immediacy. He believed be-lieved now that the materials for solution had been under their hands; and were now perhaps lost to them because Jean had concealed con-cealed the very signs that would have shown the trail. Because of her concealment of evidence, the Bar Hook had moved uncertainly, helpless In the dark ; and the result was that a good tall boy was dead, and others would perhaps Join him before It was through. In his present state of disillusionment disillu-sionment and the dregs of anger, he was supported by no particle of faith. He could not put her out of his mind. But she seemed to him to be like a mirage, which lures all the sanity out of a thirsty man, yet contains nothing of honesty, nor sincerity, nor faithfulness, when finally It Is reached. He pushed on steadily, counting upon the toughness of his pony. His hope that he would be able to make Hightman's Gap before St Marie was very like a prayer. He had a stubborn ugly urge to throw bullets Into something alive, and blow It off the face of the earth. He hoped fervently not only that he would head Joe St Marie, but that St Marie would fight Then, unexpectedly, he found that he was In country that he knew; and In three hundred yards more he recognized the trail Into Hightman's Hight-man's Gap. He approached with caution, stopped his horse and swung deep out of the saddle, not daring to set foot to the ground. Carefully, with ungloved hand, he explored a section of the trail inch by Inch, until he was satisfied that no man bad passed this way before him In the last twenty-four hours. He proceeded Into the gap, Ice crackling under foot where the snow had been crushed by passing hoofs. A little way above the trail, in a twisted bunch of Junipers, he easily found cover for a man and a horse. Kentucky Jones brushed the snow off a bit of rock, rolled himself a cigarette, and listened to the quiet. He had time for a second cigarette, ciga-rette, and a third, leisurely smoked, with long waits between. He presently pres-ently began to think that he had misread Joe St Marie's purpose, and that the man had taken some other way. But there was nothing to do but wait When at last he heard an approaching ap-proaching horse It startled him, It She Came Close to Him and Her Hand Touched His Arm. had come so close before he heard It at alL He rose cautiously, freed his gnn In Its leather and put his left arm around the pony's head to hold down Its nose, preventing Its whinny to the stranger. Around a shoulder of rock seventy-five yards away the rider appeared; ap-peared; and he recognized the broad-banded black and white Mack luaw that Joe St Marie wore. (TO BE COXTIKUED) Meaning of "P. P. C." "P. P. C" on a visiting card means that the card wu gent or left to notify the friend that the person was leaving town. "P. P. C." stands for the French words, pour prendre conge; literally, for to take leave. |