Show f. f I 1 11 BEEF r s HAROLD HAROLD CHANNING CHAN N I ING N G WR WIRE WI RE t J sl I RELEASE rf i 4 LEW BURNET riding back to southern Texas from his Wyoming W ranch In la the ther r I of 1875 meets an old oM trapper I WILLY NICKLE who tells him that the bank at Ox Bow h has s been robbed He Be also says that TOM ARNOLD owner of the Cross T ranch Is planning to move 4 his herd to Wyoming and hints that Tom j J will wID need a trail trall boss Willy voices his I dislike f f t CLAY MANNING ranch fore fore- man On the night of the robbery Willy j says gays be he saw Toms Tom's son STEVE ARNOLD AR AR- 1 NOLD riding with four strangers Willy j also mentions that some gang Is stealing S 1 J 1 horses from the Cross T herd Lastly Willy tells Lew that JOY ARNOLD has 51 R I not yet married her fiance dance Clay Manning CHAPTER II i i 13 Jt Ill Lew reflected that he needed only 7 1 cattle or money to stock his Wyoming Wyo Wyo- Wyoming Wyoming t ming ranch That brought him himI back to Tom Arnolds Arnold's letter puzzled puzzled puzzled I and wondering sure of one thing Toms Tom's jm's promises were never small You come south and boss this trail trail drive for me me the letter said and an d' d Ill I'll make you a proposition M As always when riding the Little s Comanche certain familiar land- land landmarks marks rose ahead each one with a 1 special meaning and he could see in In them the ten years he had spent I. I here ever since he was a homeless homeless homeless home home- less drifting kid of fourteen and Tom Arnold had taken him in He could see those growing years of school and ranch life and the a close wild companionship of Three Apaches himself Apaches himself and Joy and Steve In his young way then he had bad thought it would go on like that t i 1 as long as they lived The three of oft t them would always be together le 1 Even earlier in that evening of the Ox Bow dance a year ago there y had been nothing to warn him That was why it had struck so hard 11 He remembered Joys Joy's strange silence silence si- si lence tence on the ride home with Clay Manning holding his horse close to her stirrup his talk and laughter usual and even even more gusty than then the secret that had burst from 7 him him- against Joys Joy's sudden protest I Not yetI r No uNo Clay yet ril But Clay had said Why not Ill I'll tell the whole world honey youre you're going to be my wife I He remembered how that word t wife had struck into his brain She was only a little littIe girl girU But then he had looked across his saddle at ather ather her in a new way brought by that st 1 word and she was no longer a little girl she was a woman nineteen already ready to marry a man ml Something had ended for him that 1 tit night something he had taken for forT T granted and counted on unknowingly unknowing unknowing- ly until it was suddenly gone He Hel Heui ui l E had tried to fill that gap with a aCAl anew CAl At new life l e in Wyoming and knew now that he never could It was not n l only Joy he realized It was what the three of them had had together himself and Joy and Steve Nii lT Guardedly with all his alert senses centered on the dark choked CI a growth of Crazy Womans Woman's mouth he heu u moved across the narrow entrance at a slow pace watching for sign Then in a sand wash below the j f opening he came upon a a. a swath of tracks and halted to read them with witha a detailed care They were all of horses unshod all ali going into Crazy Woman none coming out That would have been the bunch he judged which old f Willy Nickle had told about last 1 night At least twenty in the herd D He urged his black horse forward I D and in another hour when a patch of of willow at Ten Mile Spring blocked the way it was his eagerness that of made him cut into an opening is through the trunks instead of going around He knew instantly it was a mistake Nothing had warned him This t was an isolated five acres of growth I 1 on n the barren valley floor But it was was also he saw at once an ideal t lookout post for the men stationed t here Jv His first urge was to rein back rJ and make a run Yet it was already too late for that Four men had t spread out in a little clearing dil dili di- di l li iL v ahead of him hands close to their holstered bolstered guns And then even nl 1 as the urge ran through him and was gone he knew that whatever tit ti game j he was to play here on the 1 rJ cs Little Comanche would have to open some time He might as well open it ilY I V it now 6 He rode in and stepped down from I I S his saddle while the outspread four I closed in again to face him across jj the ashes of their camp He nodded nod- nod ded How are you gentlemen Had my eyes peeled for bucks and feath- feath ers Glad to see white men again He jerked his head south Maybe I I you can tell me how far to Ox Bow you town I It t That eased them It placed him himas as a stranger He saw the tight fJ e readiness readiness go out of their arms a acl cl 1 little l T One asked You headed for Ox OxBow J cal Bow And beyond he said He pulled put out his pipe and md loaded it explaining explain explain- 1 L v ing Been coming down the trail e t t Squatting he searched the ashes be es for a live coal He found the ashes warm with a bed of fire underneath L So these men had cooked a noon o o r meal here and were waiting waiting for for b 1 what wha W Wo o rf Rising he faced the one man who j had spoken the brand on d this range GoI o J. J The answer came gruffly Cross T. T Know it l' l He shook h his s head New to me Sc The man was hard to place squat and powerfully built black-bearded black over a pugnacious jaw shrewd gray eyes There was the look of the cattleman about him except for his hands Even gloves could not have protected them so much from the calluses and burns of a cowman's rope They were soft the skin above his wrists was white The squat man asked What outfit outfit outfit out out- fit Circle Dot Lew said naming a brand far to the south He saw the gray eyes hold a moments moment's mo- mo moments moment's moments moment's mo mo- ments ment's speculation move to the other other other oth oth- er three men and pause and there seemed a silent question asked and answered They came back then veiled behind drooping lids You looking for a trail job No not yet I aim to get my old one with the Circle Dot He knocked out his pipe and put it in inthe inthe inthe the side pocket of his rawhide coat standing there afterward with the thumb of his right hand hooked over the pocket edge If youve you've been north three times and know enough the man suggested suggested suggested sug sug- maybe you can get a better better better bet bet- ter deal here What routes do you know My own he said and smiled faintly And that knowledge comes high Keep it then Sure Im I'm not asking you for a job Puzzled he turned away He had thought this was a camp of horse thieves The decision decision decision deci deci- Well Ill I'll tell you sion came slowly still with a guarded guard guard- ed reluctance We need a good man Were We're shorthanded on a herd starting north tomorrow The right kind can draw seventy a month That was almost double the usual wage Lew grinned wrong with the the color of your herd Nothing It goes out of here with witha a clean bill of sale Were We're traveling fast that's all Im I'm willing to pay for a man who knows some short cuts I see He had his information a abig abig abig big herd going north tomorrow to i S a 1 t tr 1 r i ref r I r S Nobody asked yon you to talk so much Now then schools school's out I I I Ogallala or beyond He turned himself himself himself him him- self a little facing squarely toward the four bunched men Its a tempting offer But I guess not He saw their quick suspicion and the move that all four started to make But his own right hand hooked on his coat pocket had only to drop slightly and the gun came up in the curved grip of his fingers I Under its level aim the group froze Dryly he said Nobody asked I you to talk so much Now then schools school's out Moving backward slowly he reached around with his left hand for the bridle reins of his horse He Hewa wa watched the four men They held heldI their hands rigidly away from their guns His H s groping fingers touched the I reins' reins smooth leather He heard the I animals animal's nostrils rattle in a snort I felt a quick pull yet could not take his eyes from the men He started started started start start- ed to say Easy boy boy boy- when a rope slapped out of the air behind him pinned his arms and jerked him over backward to the ground I Afterward coming out of the sudden sudI sudden sud sud- den darkness that a downward blow I against his jaw had brought he felt first the dull ache where he had been I struck and anU then the tight rope that held him He was lying off oft at one side of the camp where they had bound him with the thoroughness of experts ankles together hands tied behind his back a length of rope snubbing him close to the trunk of a tree All five were crouched now atthe at atthe atthe the ashes of their fire again in that attitude of waiting It was as still another moment beI before be- be I fore he caught the drumming run i j of a horse Unchecked the rush of aimed in toward the willows willows wil- wil j lows slowing only when they I reached the outer edge Then the rider entered with no signal some signal some someone one wholly familiar in the camp He twisted his head for a better look but could see no more than adim a adim adim dim shape of man and animal blended blend blend- ed together A voice growled Youre late The blended shape moved a lit lit- lite tle tIe The riders rider's answer seemed forced out of him in a desperate way Youre lucky I came at all I told you last night there'd be no nomore nomore nomore more I Something cold and hard tightened tightened tightened tight tight- ened down the long length of his body Hed He'd recognize this voice any any- where Clay Manning I Ive filled your bargain Im I'm through I You think k so sot sol There was a shifting movement of the dim figures figures fig fig- ures standing on the ground We dont Quit now and you know what happens what I rode to tell you Clay Mannings Manning's voice and the blurred whirling of his horse came in the same instant Not tonight One of the group yelled Stop him himl and a guns gun's yellow flame streaked across the dark But the crash of Clay Mannings Manning's horse through the willows continued d and then he was running free down the valley floor The men made a quick shuttling movement among the trees Lew heard the slap of saddles and cinch leather Then someone came and bent over him jerked at the knots testing them and without a word ran back The horses were visible now and the shapes of the riders swinging up He heard a moments moment's mutter of talk like a plan being made and changed and suddenly decided upon Bolting from the camp they too aimed their headlong headlong headlong head head- long run toward the south Twisting he made another savage attempt to loosen the ropes until the breath went out of him in a gasp of their cutting pain And when he dropped back again face up a man was standing over him himI himin himin I in the dark Thought so I said old Willy Nickle and came silently forward Fixin to get yourself rubbed out so you were Dont Don't you never take an old coons coon's advice no sirree The sharp blade of his scalping knife parted the loops of rope Forcing his stiffened body up onto legs that had gone numb Lew said I had to know He threw open the camp bedrolls until he found one where his gun had been hidden So you did old Willy admitted He wiped the knife on his greas greased d' d sleeve Seems like I was watching watching watching watch watch- ing from the rims Saw you come comein comein comein in here Never saw you come out But didn't them five in a hurry And what for You dont don't know Lew asked His horse was in the willows the pack mule near by He was up in his saddle when old Willy answered say Was a fire off south I after sundown too far to tell what Lew nodded The horse was ing Behind him Willy Nickle warned lift your hair yet boy You better watch I IThen Then the blacks black's strong lunge carried carried carried car car- ried him beyond the spring and he was out on the open valley floor running with the mule trailing somewhere in the dark He was soon at the Cross T. T His sense of everything wrong here settled upon him with a heavy heavyweight heavyweight heavyweight weight the empty corrals the silence si silence si- si lence ence the absence of Cross T men The faint slit of light widened a lit lit- tie tle Who is it The demand came quick and sharp hardly more than thana a tight whisper He didn't move Joy Joyl Lew I The door swung sting sw ng back She made a small dark figure rushing toward him He caught her and her arms went around him and clung with something something something some some- thing desperate and almost fierce in their grip Lew I she said again And then I cant can't believe it Holding her all aU the month-long month ache was swept from his body His tiredness was gone It was like hunger satisfied She moved first drawing away and he asked Joy what's happened I dont don't know knowl The fear he had quieted broke into her quickened voice again Our grass stacks were burned late this this' h and a little while ago Clay rode in and said something to Dad I didn't hear But all the men went with him Where Down the valley Our trail herds herd's been gathered there on the flats He took her hands Are you alone No uNo Owl-Head's Owl here Then Ive I've got to go I can help She gripped him But I haven't even seen you youl Wait Lew Wait a little little little- A sudden burst of gunfire rattled in the distance A rumble like far- far off thunder trembled up from the valley mouth In the first moments of running his horse beyond the ranch buildings he couldn't place the direction of that low rumble He veered ofT off to cut in at the head of the stampede drawing h his hii s gun A dust fog rolled roBed out to meet him the clack of horns and hoof and the heavy breathing of perhaps four thousand animals swept every other sound TO HE RE CONTINUED |