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Show nM0i Ernest Haycox Mif .,,niyAi.' Lr-iv,tj vAklli. 17 Bullets squashed into the 'dobe wall beside Morgan, causing him to shift slowly. THE STORY SO FAR: clay Morgan -has decided to play a lone hand against Ben Herendcen, a rancher bent on running run-ning the cattle country his own way. The two men have been enemies for years, having first fought over Clay's w.fe, Llla, who died hating him and believing be-lieving she should have married Herendcen. Heren-dcen. Morgan is a solitary figure, devoted de-voted to his nine-year-old daughter, Janet. Jan-et. Although two women, Catherine Grant and Ann McGarrah, are in love with him, they know he cannot forget Lila. Of his former friends, only Hack Breathitt had not gone over to Heren-dcen's Heren-dcen's side. Now Hack is dead, shot by Hcrendeen's foreman, Charley Hill-house. Hill-house. Gurd Grant, Catherine's brother. Joined Herendecn when he discovered that Catherine had been to Morgan's ranch, but the cold bloodedness of Hack's murder has made him break with Herendeen. Warned by Fox Willing, Will-ing, a "nester" he once befriended, Clay discovers that Herendeen Is stealing his cattle. He goes to Herendeen's ranch for a showdown, but Herendeen Is ready. He hasn't a chance of getting out alive, when Llge White, one of Herendeen's friends, rides up. like Gurd Grant, he Is fed up with Herendeen's high handed methods. Risking his life to save Clay, he persuades him to take a chance on riding off. He doesn't think Herendeen wiU dare to shoot. The bluff works, and they escape. Now Clay and his men are driving the cattle back into Government Govern-ment VaUey, his range. Herendeen has followed, and there is certain to be a fight. Now continue with the story. CHAPTER XVII Lige White, considerably disturbed by his interview with Morgan and pretty much at sea in his own mind, traveled over the lower spur of the Haycreek Hills and came down on the Grant house at a fast clip, the sound of his arrival bringing Catherine Cath-erine to the door. He said: "There's hell to pay around here. Where's Gurd?" "Upstairs. What's the trouble, Lige?" White called: "Hey, Gurd, come down right now." He rolled himself a cigarette while he waited and made a sketchy explanation to Catherine, Cath-erine, nervousness catching at his words. Catherine said at once: "If there's any help needed from Crowfoot Clay will get it, not Ben Herendeen." Gurd Grant looked sick and desperate. des-perate. He put his shoulder against the doorway. He said: "Lige, how did we get into this mess? I'd give a thousand dollars " Catherine turned on her brother. "What's bothering you, Gurd?" Gurd dropped his eyes. His face, normally so light and cheerful, held a sallow unhealth. It was hard for him to talk and he pulled himself together with an effort. His hands shook; he noticed that and shoved them into his pockets. "I was over with Charley Hillhouse, on Breathitt's Breath-itt's trail. We trailed Breathitt all morning and found him asleep in the Potholes. Of course I thought Charley meant to take him into town, to jail. What else would a man think? How was it possible for me to figure that Hillhouse, who had been Hack's friend for fifteen years, would " Charley Hillhouse brought up Breathitt's horse and lashed the dead man to the saddle and took him back to Three Pines. When he came to describe the affair to Herendeen Her-endeen the words seemed to stick in his dry throat. It puzzled him, that it should be so hard to make a simple story of it. Too, there was" an odd look in Herendeen's eyes and something queer in his voice. Herendeen Her-endeen said slowly: "All right, Charley." Char-ley." Nothing more. Hillhouse said: "I'm takin'. him into War Pass. That's where his people are buried." He drove through War Pass. When he backed against the office door of Doctor Padden, who was also coroner, Jesse Rusey came by. Hillhouse Hill-house said: "Give me a hand, Jesse," and the two of them carried car-ried Breathitt into Padden' s office. Padden wasn't around but there was a side room with a long table in it; they left Breathitt here. Rusey said: "A little trouble?" "Yeah." Rusey said, "Too bad," and went out. The marshal's province was War Pass, not anything beyond; and he had seen too much death to show much curiosity about one more dead man. Hillhouse delayed his departure, depar-ture, both hands lying on the table beside Breathitt Breathitt's face was gray and dirty, but it was still the face of a man who had looked on life as a game to be taken as lightly as possible. Hillhouse suddenly removed his own hat, placed it over Hack's face and turned from the room. He drove the wagon as far as the Long Grade, here stopping for a drink. The barkeep made some casual cas-ual remark about the weather which Hillhouse accepted in dour silence; thereafter the barkeep held his own council. Hillhouse paid for the drink, went out and climbed into the wagon. Jump murmured: "They're going to try something." Powder smell settled around Morgan. Mor-gan. A small, definitely cold thread of wind hit his face and there was a telltale smearing of the shadows in the open area by the far building. They were running wide, Herendeen's Heren-deen's men, and now they were on foot, firing as they moved away from the dobe. Jump said: "I'm goin' after those horses," and scurried forward. Bullets squashed into the 'dobe wall beside Morgan, causing him to shift slowly. Horses plunged around him, knocking him backward; somebody's some-body's shoulder hit him and then he saw Herendeen's men rise out of the earth's massed darkness, into their saddles. The ruffle of Herendeen's horses diminished on the desert and, standing stand-ing slack and tired in the open, Morgan knew this night's fight was done. He knew something else, as well. It was Herendeen's crew which had given way, not Herendeen. Heren-deen. Vance Ketchell called: "Lige's been hit." Morgan went over at once. Ketchell Ketch-ell knelt on the ground, his knee propping Lige at the shoulders. Morgan drew back from the party, par-ty, quietly calling Fox Willing. "Fox," he said, "I wish you'd ride over and bring Mrs. White to the ranch." Fox cut away at once. The rest turned north, reaching Long Seven an hour later. Coming into the yard Morgan saw Catherine in the doorway. door-way. When he got down to help Lige White from the saddle' he turned to look at her again, framed as she was jn the light, tall and still and straight-shouldered; and he felt the tug of strange, old excitement. excite-ment. Lige could use one leg only and had to brace himself between Ketchell and Morgan. Catherine stepped aside to let them pass, saying: say-ing: "Put him on a bed, Clay," and followed the men upstairs into an extra bedroom. There was no travel on the road. It wound with the foothills, it looped beside a creek, passed over a small divide and entered a scattered belt of timber. By the Dell Lake trail, he observed that three or four horsemen horse-men had recently come off Mogul; far up near Mogul's rim he caught the transitory motion of a rider. All these things he automatically noted, missing nothing of the signs or shapes or color of the land. Four miles from town he broke the neck of the bottle of rye over the brake-handle brake-handle and took a long drink. A mile beyond this point Cache River cut nearer the road and a small grove of cottonwood lay hard by the stream. Charley turned through the grove and let his horses water at the margin of the river. He wrapped the reins around the brake-handle and got down, holding the whisky bottle. Charley Hillhouse spoke aloud: "I wish you'd seen it my way, Hack. I wish you had." He walked steadily forward until he faced a cottonwood. He drew his gun, holding it only a foot from the tree, and fired at it. Afterwards, stooping a little he studied stud-ied the hole made by the bullet with a strange care. He held the bottle of rye in his left hand and now, knowing it would do him no good ever, he gave it a long overhand heave into the river. As long as he was alive, nothing would cover up his thinking. Excitement whetted Morgan's nerves to a sharp edge as he stood there and heard Ben Herendeen say: "Come on. boys!" A man yelled, "To hell with this!" Morgan, waiting a more definite target, tar-get, saw one rider swing wide and rush in. Suddenly all of Herendeen's men were wheeling around the beef, running for the dobe building near by, as though to circle it Vance Ketchell called to announce himself: him-self: "It's me, Ketchell and Lige White." They raced down on Morgan. He had to step aside, barely bare-ly avoiding a collision. Vance was out of the saddle, beside him and grumbling. "Damned near too late!" Lige White, still mounted, turned away. He called: "Herendeen cut this out!" One of Herendeen's riders plunged straight on and fired once at Lige White's high-placed shape. Morgan and Ketchell laid their shots on this man. They caught his horse and watched it sink, they saw the rider free himself and seem to flat- cii aga;nst the earth. Catherine breathed out: "Gurd!" "Sure," said Gurd Grant, sullen and full of self-hatred. "Hillhouse simply lifted his gun and killed Breathitt I tried to stop it. It didn't do any good." Lige White threw, away his cigarette, ciga-rette, finding the flavor gone out of it. He looked away from Gurd, suddenly sud-denly unable to meet the expression in the other's eyes. "What could I do, Lige?" Catherine said: "You never should have gone with Charley Hillhouse. There was your mistake." Lige said: "Stay out of what's coming. That's the best you can do for Clay now. We all got caught in Ben's net. I was a fool not to have known what he'd try to do. Now we wiggle out. I'm going to town." Catherine watched him go. When he passed the far rim of the meadow mead-ow she dropped her arm for Gurd and faced him. Her tone was soft and cool. "You went after Hack because you wanted want-ed to hurt Clay. I know that. You thought Clay and I . . ." He showed a reviving flash of anger: an-ger: "The night Ben and Lige and I went up to Clay's place you were there. I walked to the end of the porch and saw your horse around the house. You were hiding inside. If you had nothing to be ashamed of, why hide?" She said: "Because I had gone up there to tell Clay what you and Lige and Herendeen had said that night. You were leaving Clay out of it, and I couldn't stand that. Ben had both of you convinced. But I didn't want Ben to know I was taking Clay the information." Gurd, stung by his mistakes, still remembered he had given his word to Herendeen. It was the one thing to which he could cling. So he said: "We can't go against him. I'll do nothing, one way or the oth-er." oth-er." She went on, as though not hearing hear-ing him. "They have quarreled too often They'll meet." She stared at her brother, cold as ice. "If Clay should die, I think I'd kill Ben. Is it so horrible to say? Perhaps it is. But I can't help it." She walked from the porch to her norse standing by. Gurd said. "Wait a minute-where you going?" She iHn't answer. Swinging up a hand .he left the yard, bound towarJ Mo-ill's Mo-ill's i i m The room was dark and they had a moment's trouble getting Lige on the bed. Morgan heard Lige grit his teeth together as they laid him down. Catherine found a lamp and lighted it and by this yellow glow all of them saw the whiteness of Lige's face. His hair came down on his forehead and sweat oiled his skin; his lips crawled back, forming form-ing a smile. "I sure as hell broke something. You know. Clay, if it wasn't too much trouble, I wish you'd send for Grace." "Already have. I'm going into town for Padden. Vance, you better bet-ter get his clothes off." Lige White said: "I guess you don't know the whole story yet, Clay. Hillhouse cornered Hack and killed him. The man's a fanatic. I'm warning you about that, if you should see him in town." Morgan's eyes dropped. He stood like this, quiet and cold and too weary to feel the full shock of the news. He said, after a while, "I'll meet him, sooner or later," and left the room. He turned to Janet's room. When he came beside the bed and looked down through the shadows he found she wasn't asleep. She reached for his hand, saying: "Who's hurt, Daddy?" Dad-dy?" "We had a fight with Herendeen's ranch, Janey. Lige White was hurt I'm going after a doctor." She murmured: "It is too bad. But I'm glad it isn't you." The pressure pres-sure of her hand was warm and confident con-fident She was pleased to have him sit here and talk with her; it made her expand and grow confidential. "I wish I had been here. Daddy, when you were young and danced with Catherine. I bet you were the best dancer of all. She is pretty." "Wait till you get old enough to dance. I'll stand by and remember when you were so small you walked under the table." She was silent seeing the picture of herself dancing and pleased by it; her lips softened and there was a glow in her eyes. Afterwards, in a faintly reserved tone, she said: "She isn't like I thought she was. Daddy." "What did you think?" "She likes me, Daddy. I didn't think she would." (TO BE CO.Tl.LEDJ |