Show wa N EK RANG GEFROM ANG CHAPTER VIII continued 10 the murmur of 0 jeans voice within the house had bad ceased he heard the taint faint stir of the door as she came into the room lie stood up overwhelmed with such pity tor for tills this ill III situated girl that he be was the victim of an unaccustomed cus tomed timidity she came close to him and her hand touched his arm that shadow was a misdeal he whispered there anybody la that shadow I 1 dont believe theres anybody out there any more she said oh lie he felt infinitely gentle toward her and compassionate presently he knew that he be would have to ask her why that gun was concealed in her mattress ile he was unable to ask tier lier yet what was the phone call he be asked that was for you she told him lt it was mark ferris that gunsmith at waterman ties iles still trying to trace zack sanders gun tor for you ayes yes quick what did he say ohe he said jean was shivering so violently that she could hardly control the chattering of her teeth walt wait a minute kentucky picked her up sweeping her off tier teet feet with an arm under tier 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 90 on he be said ile he said that he has a record of such a gun ue ile sold it secondhand second hand about a year ago in G ds name woman who did he be sell it to to joe st marle for perhaps halt half a moment kentucky jones was completely still then be sucked in a deep breath and began to swear through his teeth with the vicious intonation Inton arlL of a man who puts his whole heart into it he had suddenly become aware that he had perhaps put off od the formation of one theory for a little bit too coo long suddenly he whirled to the window crouched low to avoid the sash and vaulted the sill ile he heard jean speak bu name came behind him but he was racing oil 4 she came close to him and her hand touched his arm for or the bunk buck house 4 match was already la in his hand band as he be thrust open the door be struck it on the logs and quick efficient motions lighted one onel of the hanging lamps lamp st marle he be said laid aloud joe st SL marles maries bunk was empty Xen kentucky tucky swore again blew out the light and left the bunk house bouse on the dead run ile he headed now for the corral nearest the pump house and sprang halt balf way up the corral fence the halt half dozen horses in the corral 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 only verified however what kentucky had already guessed joe sr marle marie leaving stealthily as kentucky now knew jean had teen him leave was certain to take the best conditioned horse upon the place in this case a rawboned raw boned claybank kentucky leaned against the fence and pressed the palms of 0 his hands against his eyes ile he was picturing ring to himself the lay of the country and the probable intricacies of joe st maries SI arles mind immediately he came to a conclusion which he be had not reason to be certain was waa sound bound but which was the best he be could form from what information he had bad once more he be drove through the clogging snow at the run this time to the house here he got his hat and his bis coat his gloves and his big spurs arter after that he be went to the stable and put a loop upon the pony which he believed would come the nearest to matching the clay banks performance tonight a wiry almost undersized under sized steel dust pony strong with the markings of indian blood kentucky had the blanket on prid and was swinging his fifty pound saddle aboard by the horn born as jean coming out from the house reached his big side ide what where are you going happened A sudden crazy anger came into kentucky like a stroke of white lightning at its impact all the compassion all the tenderness he be had bad felt for or this girl seemed to vanish as it if she had bad held him under a the spell of which had snapped ue ile turned on her furiously by ALAN LE MAY copyright by alan lomay what Is it to you where I 1 go or what I 1 do men put their hands lo in the lions mouth for you and you tell then them nothing not even enough so that they can take care of their own lives I 1 she stared at him a moment in utter bewilderment and one hand went to her throat why kentucky wily why kentucky ive told you more more than lie ile said you trust no one you work with ith no one everyone trusts you and you let us all ride blind lie he turned furiously to his horse and drew the latigo up with a soap snap that jerked a grunt out of the an animal imal and he set ills teeth in his lip lest lie utter the belief which had overwhelmed him that jim humphreys had died because of the reticence of this slim girl now standing beside him in the snow cut but but jean na Ra glands eyes looked enormous enormous in her white face she shivered the snow beyond the corral poles was no whiter than her blue veined ankles or her knuckles as she held the robe close at ar her throat kentucky jones loomed above her like hice a tree so that even to in his anger he saw that she was a 8 pitiful and desolated figure yet he be was seeing jim humphreys face as lie 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 arl must know he could not forgive her ills his low uncompromising voice cut hers down ive been taken for a fool and used as a fool he said but I 1 tell you this im going to ride this thing out im going to ride this thing clear through to the end regardless of hat the end Is you hear bear me and when done im through jean Ra glands face contorted tragically exactly as it if he had cut her with his quirt she managed to say what are you gorog going to do im going to try to cut off st marle marie at night mans gap it if I 1 dont get mm him there I 1 may or may not go on I 1 decided yet you think you think he s the man mail who put the gun into hand Is the man responsible for the death just as surely as it if he shot zack himself and that gun was st SL marlea maries im going to have me that THE STORY FROM THE OPENING CHAPTER at the inquest into the death of 0 john mason banker jean daughter of 0 campo ragland kagland owner ot of the bar hook ranch where mason met death surreptitiously passes to kentucky jones jonea the bullet which had killed mason ason hen kentucky goes to work on the bar hook ranch the mason verdict Is accidental death bob elliot owner of the th adjoining range drives his cattle on the bar hook land lee bishop Ra glanda glands ranch boss ex postulates and bill mccord Elli elliot foreman insults him bishop and jones are astounded at Ra glanda glands indifference to elliots elliote Elli action bishop urges kentucky to try to influence jean to arouse her father he does so no unwillingly and her reaction mystifies him zack sanders banders bar hook cook Is found dead murdered sheriff hopper announces his knowledge that mason also was waa murdered jones seeks to trace the ownership of a gun found on zack sanders as having a bearing on the mystery jean V tells ails him her shire share in the bar hook ranch thus giving him a free hand with elliot allot in a gun eun fight with riders of the 88 ranch jim humphreys bar hook cowboy Is killed and his partner wounded jones sends for fighting cowmen but ragland countermands the order jones finds proof that jean has concealed concealed evidence connected with masons death and his faith in her Is shaken man when ive got him im going to turn and get me the man loan that killed mason and I 1 dont care who it iso Is or how close to home or 1 if it splits the rimrock wide open when hes caught it had been on his tongue to tell her that she might shield whom she wanted to lie ile 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 be bt bit this back bach still jerky and explosive with his anger he vaulted into the saddle ile he did not cot look back but as be slammed out of the bar hook layout he somehow knew that she was still standing there in the snow as sho shi watched him as far as he could be seen and he be wondered it if it was impossible for this girl to go to pieces like other women and lose herself la in tears 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 SL marle he was tar far to the eastward when he be at last cut a straight drawn track made within the hour ue he judged that the bronc rider was pushing northeast at a cat trot trying as jones had guessed for gap the hours passed and the pony tired and it seemed to kentucky jones that that ride was perhaps the longest and loneliest lie he had ever made in his life ile he could not keep jean ragland out of his mind lie he remembered the strong sharp pressure of tier her fingers and the touch of her cheek check and the pliant yielded curve of tier her body in his arms he be could see the stir and drift of her loose hair as they had bad stood in the corral this girl had bad become the center of all living as a waterhole Is the center 0 of f a range or a fire the center of a camp ile he had never been called upon to admit this to himself until suddenly circumstances cum stances had bad asked him to accept also the certainty that she had bad betrayed them all for he could not avoid recognition that jeans concealment of the had a different meaning than had that extraordinary feat of hers at the inquest when she had lifted the bullet that killed mason from under the very nose of 0 the sheriff ner her concern with the bullet had bad told him that she was shielding someone it if not file lie killer then at least someone who might otherwise have been open to an unfair tug mus clylon although Althou fb la in the th case cas of the bullet she had availed herself of hla his help he had been able to understand that he remained nn an outsider here who could not expect to be told in what sort of thing he had assisted her cut but in spite of old stan man coffee he had as fumed that she was at least co ing with the interest of her father find and her fathers brand bur the discovery of the hidden rifle riffe told him at once that she was cooperating with no one that incredibly she was playing an utterly lone liand 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 line in a bed only a woman would select a cache so close under the light she was acting then without cooperation with tier her father or any other of the bar hook personnel the association of this fact with the circumstances of jeans rende rendezvous with her fathers enemy was unavoidable to this unhappy situation the revelation of st marles connection added a sharp immediacy ile he believed now that the materials tor for solution had bad been under their hands and were now perhaps lost log to them because jean had concealed the very signs that would have shown the trail because of her concealment of evidence the par bar hook had moved uncertainly helpless to in the dark and the result was that a good tall tali boy was dead mad others would perhaps join him before it was through in his present state of disillusionment ment and the dregs of anger g he was supported by no particle of faith U ue 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 ile he pushed on steadily counting upon the toughness of his pony ills hope that he would be able to make night hight mans gap before st SL marle was very like a prayer until now the smash of six guns had never been associated in his mind with anything more desirable than the raw sickly smell of blood but now for once in his life he had a stubborn ugly urge to throw bullets into something alive and blow it off the face 0 of the earth he hoped fervently not only that he would bead joe jo st marie but that st SL marie would tight then unexpectedly he found that he was in country that he knew and la in three hundred yards more he reco recognized the trail into night mans gap lie ile approached with caution stopped his horse and swung deep out of the saddle not daring to set foot to the ground carefully with ung loved hand he explored a section of 0 the trail inch by inch until he was satisfied that no roan man had bad passed this way before him in the last twenty four hours he proceeded into the gap lee ice crackling dg under foot where the snow had been crushed by passing hoofs A little way above the trall tr allin ln a twisted bunch of junipers juni pers be easily found cover corer for a man and a horse kentucky jones brushed the snow oft off a bit of rock rolled himself a cigarette and listened to the quiet quiel he had time for a second cigarette and a third leisurely smoked will long waits between lie he presently began to think that he be had misread joe st marles purpose and that the man had taken some other way but bur there was nothing to do but watt wait his bis brain tired out A with ith its own running like the horse when at last he heard an approach ing horse it startled him it had come so close before he be hoard heard it at all lie he rose cautiously freed his gun in its leather and put his left arm around the donys head bead to hold down its nose preventing its whinny to the stranger around a shoulder of rock seventy five yards away the rider appeared and he recognized the broad banded black and white mackinaw Mackl naw that ae st marie wore kentucky jones could see now why he had been so late in hearing st maries approach st marle was riding not dot to in the center of the trail but in the rougher going at the side avoiding the ice fee formed by the hoof snow in the trail itself even then kentucky had a moment of adralia admiration tion for the horsemanship of this man under joe st marles the sleepiest slee old plug always looked alertly awake and spoiled horses with mouths tougher to the bit than the grip of a mans hand took on an unexpectedly decent sensitivity it was as if something about st marie put into horses the tear fear of god st marle was now within the awen ty five yards he be was leaning a little sideways in the saddle peering into the junipers Juni pers so go directly that kentucky thought the brone bronc rider was looking him straight in the face yet tet st SL marle marie came on kentucky drew his bis gun and waited until st SL marle marie was waa almost be low him mis voice was low as he spoke but bui coming omos unexpectedly out of the quiet from within ten yards it lifted st SL marle lile like a fired gun just a minute joel joe I 1 the result was as if kentucky had snapped a strip of hide from st menrie horse with a bull whip the animal snorted and went forward to la a great bound as st marles maries spurs struck joe st marle himself in the same instant flung himself half out ont of the saddle and behind his horse lie ile had hooked his spur on the side nearest kentucky into the cantle of his saddle and was riding low on the tar far stirrup but the effect from where kentucky stood was wa as if he had disappeared Kentuck ys horse horses startled tarrIed by the others stampede halt half freed itself with a great stamping of feet throwing kentucky on off bal balance ce as he fired but the shot caught st marles maries horse in its third jump As the gun spoke the horse went down on its knees nose into the snow as it if it had hit bit the end of a rope kentucky gun in band sprang across st SL marles maries downed horse to where the rider lay iny st marle lay on fils back his hands above his head one efthem of them still |