| Show G U N LO C K AM N C N by ripa 11 SPEARMAN 0 copyright frank H spearman ce CHAPTER XII continued 18 why yes gus admitted bull halt angly but good natu I 1 believe iou ou did you believe I 1 did dial I 1 echoed van cambel enraged how did sl st e get a horse out of my corral why aby she come down here to get her pony up herself so I 1 helped her a little the veins in van cambel s huge neck swelled grabb n ng bull with his pow erful hands he fastened his iron fin gers on the old mans man s throat and choked him pitilessly pouring on him as he did so a torre torrelt it of curses heard by quong quon who ran to the I 1 itchen lichen door to I 1 ste sten only by struggling for his very life was bull able to wriggle free from the deadly grip in doing so he fell backward to the ground scrambled to his feet and ran into the barn it was inside the barn that bull bulls s voice was heard beard by the china boy beg ging for mercy why cus he urged I 1 jane s a nice girl don t tal e it so hard I 1 ve worked for you a good many years off an on you alwaes found me ine honest you van cambel uttered no word he ile had pursued dull bull to the farthest cor der of an empty stall and filled with silent murderous rage caught up a brol en wagon stake and swung it over his head bead don dont t hit me wa with th that gus cried the man A low fearful imprecation from van cambel answered him now III give boj yo N bats comin to youl why gus you ain aint t a coln to kill met mel grunting and mad for blood van cambel struck at the cowboy and rained blow after blow on him till he sank to the floor then suddenly he be dropped the stake and bespattered with blood staggered out of the barn and over to the house quong watch ing stealthily fled in terror for town in the cubbyhole office of mcalpine ns livery barn in sl sleepy epy cat rob scott and mcalpin sat on three stools silent and absorbed in a three cor bout at poker the frightened quong trotting and walking from gun lock and crossing the bridge reached lI mcalpin cAlpin s in pit labi c throw ing his hands against the glass glas panel office door he burst in and fell sprawl ing almost on top of the intent play ers the gamesters jumped to their feet mcalpin broke into ang angry gr y exclamation what the devil I 1 can t we have a friendly game in my own quarters without a drunken bum chargin in on us head first less intent on saving his money and chips had turned quong quon partly over it its s a chink boys there must be a tong war nar on bob scott coolest of the trio bent to scan the intruder intruders s features who Is it bob exclaimed pin it its s quong the cook out at fit gun lock boys if I 1 im in not ml mistaken staken an from his br eathin I 1 guess he s run all the way in must be so methin doln up at Guil gunlock lock laid I 1 aid out on the hostler hostlers s little bunk quo quong s eyes opened and closed what Is it quong what s wrong asked scott with his eyes popping from his head quong managed to form a word baill he exclaimed hoarse and pant ing bull page i what quong bull pagel page I 1 he says bull page explained scott what s a matter with bull quong quong s eyes rolled in terror gus IN who ho gus yes gus what about gub gus he kill 1111 him what do you nean bull killed gus no nol I 1 gus kill 1111 bull who told you that quong 1 I see gus kill 1111 bull well III be damned exclaimed it looks like a straight story beys that why you run into town quong the china boy nodded the trio consulted together A team was hitched bitched to a three seated demo crat wagon quong was vas helped into it and with mcalpin driving the four set out for the jail to pick up bill Par daloe Par daloe was in bed they routed him out and drove over to the hotel to pick up doctor carpy two hours later the party halted be fore the dark s lent ranch house at gunlock in the stall farthest from the door they found van cambel a victim in credible as the possibility seemed to carpy poor bull left alone had dragged himself out of the stall and lay on his back carpy held a lantern over him his face and head had been battered al most beyond recognition he ile s close to dead boys exclaimed carpy low voiced to his companions companion get him to the kitchen while I 1 im in working with him look for van tim tam bel be they e aried bu I 1 to the kitchen door scott entered carefully and grop groping in the darl a match and 11 lighted h ted the lamp bull breathing was laid on the table Par daloe tried the door lead ng to the dining room it was locked he rapped on it he ile rapped again loudly but the summons brought no reply stand to one side lob murmured Par daloe 1 im I in coln to bust it he ile thre v his shoulder against the door As it crashed open Par daloe followed by bv scott walked val ked into the din I 1 g room TI tie e door to the 11 living in g room stood open this room inspected inspected re healed no sign of d st of the two bedroom doors off this room the door one leading to van nan cambels s bedroom was closed setting the lamp on the table in the mid lie of the room Par Vloe knocked on van V an cambels s door and getting no reply tried it the door was as loci loel ed Par daloe called nut if you re in there gas gus unlock 3 so 0 r door I 1 im m here to ta talk ik with you Par daloe a abated a ted in fr s lence a le from within there NN was is none Par daloe threw I 1 aselt into the door it gave so easily that he sturn stumbled bled across tl tle e threshold the bedroom ras dark scott relight ed tt 11 e lamp Par aalop alop I 1 eld it above aboe his head and followed by scott walked into tre the bedroom they saw the huge figure of a man lying across the bed Par daloe passing the lamp to I 1 Is companion put his hand on the man mans s ler saw that he was nas unconscious and peering closer turned the face toward him it was as van cambel call carpy quick bob muttered Par daloe lies iles unconscious when carpy stalled stall ed into the room saudy with alth him the doctor aided by 7 C if doctora Doc torl she exclaimed faintly he hes a dead I 1 Is companion turned the body partly over and examined it how Is he doc doe whispered par daloe dead already seized by the excruciating pain that cost him his life van tarn tam bel had left his victim and staggered in his distress to the house it was a quick call boys said carpy to those around him transfixed by agony the cruel tea fea tures could not be softened nothing more to be done here said carpy in the living room take bull over to the bunkhouse now and lay him on his bed the clatter of hoofs was nas heard in the yard its it s the boys back from town said looking through the window carpy turned to parda loe go out and tell them what s hap bened and not to touch a thing until after the coroner comes out doctor carpy came into breakfast late next mornin jane who had fin dished her breal rallied him as she rose I 1 am late he admitted night work tie ile nod led standing beside tre tle table she was looking over the newspaper Deis piper he ile put I t Is arm aroun I 1 her sit don down n a minute jane I 1 ve some thing to say sav tc fr you news tor for you she blanched a bit pit about bill doc tora tor she asked anxiously not a thin thing in the world about bill its about your father oh ob I 1 know hes he s terribly angry 1 carpy shook big his head not now jane he s not angry with anabo anybody dy now doctor what dc you mean have you seen him he ile nodded yes last night you know how sick a man he hes s been doctor she exclaimed faintly hes he s dead I 1 he ile died last night she hid her face in his arm and brol e into tears jane your father had lived his life there was nothing for him to look ahead to this makes males a great change in your life girl I 1 guess III take you up to the hospital bill must know this now I 1 ve got good news tor for you and no fooling you have a big surprise and a happy one coming at the hospital I 1 took the bandages off bills bill s eyes yes berday to examine them and his eyes are much better it if we can only hold it now bowl I 1 CHAPTER XIII cull bull page rage was only a broken cow boy but bull v was as loved in sleepy cat let even eien resentment resent mert at the name nami of nan an cambel in sleepy cat was softened somewhat when men heard of janes unremitting attention at bulls s de in the hospital van nan cambel was burled buried mccrossen ossen took charge to janes jane s infinite relief bull ered and went rent back to gunlock at the ranch there was mas an air of cheer when tane jane was nas Install el every body on tiptoe to render service ale crossen crosscut was especially eager to please well ivell jane I 1 guess you know whit nhat ever I 1 can do to tal e care of things Is goin to be done twenty four hours a day if need be he said III you I 1 ave to do Is to leave it to me I 1 shall depend on you for en every cry thing sl e returned everything jane he echoed smil ing as if to invite a confidence jane was vas not caught everything connected with running tie tle ranch she said evenly but it became In creash gly evident as the daas dav s went by that the erier et c foreman still re glided himself as a suitor for por a fortnight nothing further oc burred to b break rea 1 the routine of ranch work nork and mccrossen slid said no more the general impression in town was that denison as fir far as jane was con berned was out of the tine jane it wis anis argued would never marry a blind man and the consensus of gossip x was a 9 that r 11 s sa s1 sight lit was gone no excitement occurred in sleepy cat until one day john I 1 defever was reported arrived at thief river with a her of cattle for the te reservation saw dy who ito had gone to work at gunlock when lefever left for texas rode do v n to thief river to help lefever check he tl e herd in at cuqlock agency and to give him the big sleepy cat news ners but lefever too brought news the two cronies sat down to compare notes and celebrate the end of a long drive I 1 want to tell you so methin I 1 ran into bearin thief river said I 1 ef defever en er cleres tl ere s a little slaughtering terin ranch a mile south of town run by our old friend clubfoot the butcher kemem her how he skinned us on the file horse race while our herd was headin for the river I 1 stopped for a few minutes where a couple of his boys were load in a wagon with hides for shipping I 1 happened to know one of the boys he ile wrangled for us comin up once and I 1 noticed all the hides I 1 siw saw him atvin up had a gunlock brand hows how s this I 1 says does van cambel peddle his steers down this way he ile winked at me an laughed this bunch says he was vms poker st steers rs it looks like mccrossen Is oti oh gunlock cattle to pay his pol er debts said when lefever had made his delivery he be marched with up to the hos pital to call on their disabled side partner denison bill had bad been promoted from a dark room to a shaded one if I 1 knew I 1 was going to lose my eyes boys said he that would be one thin thing t I 1 could end it all or settle down donn to makin making baskets tor for a living but doc doe keeps leeps telling me hes going to save my eyes and that beeps keeps me hoping so the days and weeks hang on all the same its tough when you never were laid up before in your life whit s the news with you fellows the il v talked about the d e ery ry lefever had made of the hides at 1 alef I river the half blind ranchman listened in bentli not with any noticeable excite ment B it imagined he could see denison lighting up see n you re not fixed up just right yet Is there anything you d like us to do about if ed why yes there Is just do one thing what s that keep your mouths shut till I 1 get out of here I 1 guess you both know I 1 ve got a long score to settle with that I 1 ird he ile was mixed up in burning up my ranch house a d burning me up attend to mccrossen myself some day he repeated slowly in my own on way 1 e two men iett the hospital somewhat uneasy they laid their story be fore carpy the doctor heard it unmoved well he commented that s not the first bunch of steers al crossen has stolen and it wont be the last not the first in lefever but it s the closest anybody ever came to tu it on him I 1 don t think thin he should be left there to rob tte tle tt e girl right along added carpy are you coln to tell her asked lefever I 1 1 I am today she ashes s coming to town and will be in to see me they told him of their talk with den ison it left us leery doc doe said sald saw dy if bill gets worked up too strong over mccrossen hes liable to bust out on mccrossen before his eyes are in shape to give him an even break breal doctor carpy waved his hand keep your worry for something else saw dy his ees got secre scorched hed but when I 1 let go of the boy keep away from the small end of his gun 9 jane you 11 think I 1 don t bring you anything but troublesome news I 1 the doctor began but this really news I 1 ve known for months two or three years in fact that Alc mccrossen Crossen was stealing gunlock steers but this Is what john I 1 defever brought up from thief fiver river today now there s nothing to get es ex cited about observed carpy after he had finished the story for its noth ing new but it I 1 were you I 1 would get rid of Alc mccrossen Crossen TO BE CONTINUED |
