Show 1 N T 4 fl 1 t 1 A r 04 v ALAN LE MAY WN U A by alan CHAPTER X continued 13 jean called out sharply la Is that you kentucky are you hurt they hit lee bishop jean she slid out of the saddle saddie tossing the relm reins over her donys head ani and 1 came to the edge of the coulee whores wheres lee drop down and ill take you to him lie ile held up his arms armi and she let herself drop droll into them but freed herself immediately Is he hit bad ile he whispered ile he can hear us from here I 1 think I 1 dont know but what finished him jean iles hes shot in ID the side of tile the back and lord knows where here the bullet stopped you have come here bere dont you know that somebody had to come campo my father Is back from waterman but bill harry wilson quit when campo bring out more riders you and campo and I 1 are all left and now poor lee poor lee he led her down the cut to where bishop lay the range boss opened his eyes and turned his face toward her Is that you jean she dropped on her knees beside him yes tes lee know but what I 1 might be hearing things wheres campo iles hes making a sweep of the u upper bench trail lee you yon must be plumb frozen 2 pretty near bishop admitted jean slipped oft off her coat and carefully wrapped bishops legs then she scrambled out of the cut ran to her horse and loosening the cinch jerked her blanket from under the saddle when this was placed to suit her she made ready to go its sure a shot to lleces out outfit fit you yon bought into kentucky that deal Is off he told her 1 I own oo no share in the bar hook nor any part of a share jean looked at him but there was no expression in her foce nor la in her voice as she answered so youre quitting too no ko nor noc quite yet kentucky told her grimly im ID just going ahead in blittle little different way than we figured I 1 was going to all ail jean dropped beside lee bishop again and for a long time studied the mask of his face yellow in the firelight he seemed asleep irrepressible tears teara appeared on jeans cheeks glinting la in the light of the fire she bent over lee bishop and kissed him goodby lee she gald bald softly ill be back pretty quiet lee bishop smiled faintly take your time kid jean caught Kentuck ys wrist and led him a little way down the c cut ut do you yon think theres any chance ot of moving him 1 I dont doat linow know as we better try jean when you yon get back to the house phone to waterman for doc hopper then 11 4 is that you kentucky pack a horse and come back get hold of a tent it if theres any on thu tho place and all the bed rolls that come chandy and grub and bandages and stuff you know what well need jean ragland scaled the side of the cut re cincher cinched her saddle and rode off at a sharp trot lee bishop said there goes a great girl kentucky youre lucky all right lucky me shed rids ride her horse square off the rim lee bishop said it if you yoa told her to he was talking in a queer and somehow childish tone ot of voice which kentucky had bad never heard beard hloi him use listen kentucky get this can you bear we nil all right 1 I can hear he ar you lee youre worse oft off than you think kentucky campo believes you killed mason kentucky said slowly 1 I dont know but what campo hns has almighty good reason to know better than that lee what if he has lee demanded what lou dont know Is hes hea been gathering up stuff against you tracing guns and the like ot of that in a I 1 pinch hell turn on you campo will but believe in that girl she believes believe in you and shell stand staid by you the pinch will come quick now kentucky said but shell not be with me lee lee bishop said in a curious hoarse whisper shed jerk the heart out of her if you needed it it botn got a faith in you that you dont have for her falth faith kentucky repeated savagely it if shed trusted me only halt half way only quarter way you and I 1 be sitting here tonight lee bishop looked at kentucky a long time and his mind seemed to be turning vague you aint licked kentucky he said at last in it ft weak voice you can beat this game yet sure ill beat it kentucky assured him film lee ill beat it in spite 0 of herl her I 1 lee bishop said in a queer voice you you go against that girl kentucky id sooner cut oft off my right hand lee but ive got to go square against her now for another long moment lee bishop fixed staring vacant eyes upon ken buckys face ace you love her huhl hub kentucky jones shivered he felt as if the grip of the night cold was getting the better of him so that his body had a core of tee ice ile he covered his face with his bis hands bands 1 I think he said 1 I hate her as ive never hated bated any living thing in my life lee bishops words jerked out of him incoherently but unexpectedly sharp and strong god help you kentucky dont say that I 1 all right lee jean ragland made the round trip and loaded a mule at the other end la in a little over tour four hours which was wonderful time on those night trails but she might as well have saved he her r animals for an hour before she reached trap canyon lee bishop was dead when kentucky had packed the body to the bake pan camp of the bar nook hook where he placed it with that of jim humphreys he faced his horse into the steep switchback switch back trail up the rim and started for the main ranch kentucky had agreed with jean ragland hagland that to take lee bishop to the bake pan camp was a shorter and more corive convenient pack and kentucky had seized upon the opportunity to release jean from the mournful procession and send her home lie ile now put his horse up the trail atIf stiffly fly climbing fast he felt no weariness but only a black temper now that lie he knew for the first time what set of ugly circumstances he be was up against he knew what he had to do it was not easy and he wanted to get it behind him the voices of the guns and the circumstances cum cuni stances of lee bishops death had brought him bin an odd new alertness an almost painful consciousness of everything that moved within the limits of the rimrock horizon it was as a it if he had found himself returned to the days of his forefathers when an awareness of far off details had a lot to do with keeping on a mans scalp and long before jean ragland came in sight ho he knew that two horses were coming toward him along the trail that they had but one rider and that the second horse was not driven but led for a moment after jean came in sight he was absorbed by the sight bight of her she rode a little dark pony and her short white storm coat was in key with the snow hardly anybody ever saw jean ragland kagland ride without following her with his eyes as a man looks after a bird that la Is a bright living decoration against the snow and now the girl and the pony she rode looked better because the led horse was rawboned and mud colored with only a sharp well tracked leg action to suggest that it might be more horse t than ban at first it seemed As they net met in the trail he saw that her face was quiet with the resignation tion which had characterized it for the last two days but her eyes were alive there was a touch of feverish light in then them which told him that she was waa still lighting though what she was fighting or how he was no longer sure that he knew ive brought you a fresh horse she said immediately maybe it look like much horse but it la Is a whole lot of horse pretty near any bar nook hook horse would give down under you before this plug would 1 I 1 suppose I 1 kind of ought to appreciate that tha kentucky said gald but jean how bow come you think I 1 am going to need such a long traveling horse horant kentucky she lr wd said kentucky she drew her hand across her eyes as if what she was trying to say was wa almost beyond her ability look here ive asked a lot of favors ot of you kentuck a lot more thau I 1 ever had any right to ask I 1 havi hav to ask you one thing more if do this one thing more tor for me ill be grateful to you all my life and I 1 swear ill never ask anything of you again jean girl kentucky said happened here take this horse and the mule and such of the stuff as you need I 1 dont need to tell you where to go or how to get ge t there nor how to get along but oo do as I 1 say bayl I 1 go ii a long way and go fast and lose yourself and never come back until some day this ghastly thing Is over with and forgot forgotten tent 1 kentucky jones stared at her a long time studying her face but her eyes did not flinch from his at last a crooked one sided smile changed his mouth 1 I know this Is a terrible sacrifice for you jean said 1 I ask you this kentucky I 1 swear I 1 it if I 1 so positive that theres no other way believe this ill be your friend always it may be later that I 1 can help you and send your money to you or something like that that will work out later all I 1 can say now Is that id rather be dead than sitting here telling you this but there any other way why do you ask this kentucky said curiously kentucky god forgive me 1 I 1 I cant answer that but I 1 tell you that there any time to losel not an hour not even I 1 cant tell you any morel I 1 can only m have to tell me I 1 think kentucky said ills his face was hard and the fatigue that she had bad been unable to detect before now had carved lines about his mouth emphasizing the crooked line of his broken nose tod youve got to do what I 1 say she told him passionately without any question of why about it you hardly expected me to do that I 1 think he told her jean cried out sharply dont 1 take the horse and go kentucky as you yon love me but you dont love me I 1 know that 1 I think he be said just now it matter a whole lot who loves who or who there was a touch of hysteria in her voice as she answered him no not to you I 1 think you dont care anything about anybody in the world 1 god help the man who does he said As for taking that horse and making a run of it im sorry not to do something that you ask but I 1 cant imagine anything on the face of the earth that would make me do that no now then she said quickly ill tell you why you must my father my father it seemed for a moment as it if she were unable to go on but she pulled herself together and spoke evenly her words distinct and quick you know by this time why bob elliot Is swamping the bar nook hook range you have eyes that see things I 1 dont think anyone can hide from you what a thing means you cant make me think that you dont know why elliot has as no tear ear 0 of campo ampo nor the e bar ar hook no he be said bald slowly 1 I pretend that I 1 cant see that ner her words tumbled out of her incoherently herent ly its because bob elliot was close to the bar nook hook when mason was killed poor lee bishop knew that though I 1 dont think he be knew that he knew it I 1 r kentucky jones said bishop told me that he knew and now said jean now ive got to tell you that ive known this all along almost from the first and I 1 youre sure you want to tell me this jean 1 I have to tell you you make me tell you that was a strange meeting there on the trail in all that dazzle ot of sun whipped snow while all the sharp sad hidden things that this girl had never meant to tell a living soul came trembling out of her in a panicky disorder perhaps he should have wept or gathered her in his arms but lie he could not all right he said what exactly la Is bob elliot holding over your father somehow hes guessed the truth that whoever killed mason killed him with ray my fathers rifle I 1 knew that when I 1 put the bullet into your hand band at the inquest ive known for days that you must know that too though you said nothing to me yes he be admitted 1 I figured out that 11 and bob elliot knows it im certain he knows it though I 1 swear I 1 dont know how he Is so sure but you yourself are sure that it Is true that the murderer used your fathers rlue rifle the the yes im virtually certain of that and my father knows it ile he have you talked this over with him no how could I 1 IT its changed him so I 1 hardly know him ile he used to have a terrible fighting temper but where Is it now 7 lie ile dare come to a showdown with elliot hes bes afraid of the effect the shock would have hare on my mother and on you on my mother she repeated repeat id no ile dare face it out because of her but just as he wont light fight elliot because of that something la in his makeup keeps him from protecting himself too nothing would bring ii him I 1 m to hide evidence though that evidence might turn against him as well as against the true murderer he be must hay known y then gald bald kentucky his chis alibi about being somewhere else at the time mason was killed Is not go be good as some people have been led to suppose lie ile any testimony in support 0 of it but mine discount that because im his daughter even even it if they dont break my testimony in some other way lie ile did not stop to tell her that he knew by this that her support ot of campos alibi had been perjury instead he asked her now how many people know that campo your father set out to kill bob elliot the day mason was killed 7 she cried out with a shudder in her voice you even know that bob elliot told me that he said shortly jean ragland looked dizzy and sick then who can tell how many people bob elliot has told kentucky jones stripped off hla his gloves and made himself a cigarette and how many people kentucky said slowly do you think can tell a eving man from a ghost her voice quavered irregularly no k 41 it what do you mean longer fully under her control what do you mean there used to be a picture hanging banging la in the bar hook book ranch house bouse iken kentucky said A picture in a dark wood frame that picture was stolen because somebody thought it had something to do with the mason case when you saw that picture was stolen you yoo were panic stricken and hid the empty frame from your father now rna im going to tell you what that picture was you cant you never saw it was a picture of a man on a horse when you first looked at that picture it seemed to be an enlarged snapshot of bob elliot only when you looked close it was not elliot but john mason po you deny that jean no sald said jean miserably you too see its just as I 1 said nothing escapes you nothings able to hide itself away from you that the rest of the case against my father lee bishop know who it was he saw near the e bar ar hook 00 w when en he e t thought t he saw mason and joe st marle marie only thought he saw masons ghost but when they rested sideways in their saddles with their faces hidden a long way oft off or in the dark anybody could could mistake bob elliot for mason or he said gald an angry man might just possibly ml mistake stake mason tor for el liot she drew a deep breath and pressed her gloved fingers against her eyes but did not reply its my belief kentucky said that it was the sheriff who searched the house or had it searched in which case he be must have that picture 1 I think youre right about the sheriff he must have been looking for the gun to match the mason bullet he take the picture ot of mason because I 1 took it myself you did but you looked so go seared scared 1 I hide frame and all at first because it left a pale spot on the wall that dad would have noticed I 1 meant to slide some other picture into the frame but I 1 forgot it and then with dad hunting all through the house to see what had been taken I 1 thought hed notice the empty frame and I 1 was terrified and that rifle he paused watching her and licked shut hla his cigarette the rifle she burst out jerking jerkin her hand away from her eyes who knows where that Is now how do we know that bob elliot have it himself sheriff Sherlf lt hopper has the other bullet it if ever the bullet Is fitted to my fathers gun a no he ha said bob elliot have the rifle her voice rose hysterically how do you know he because he told her that rlue rifle Is dismounted and hidden in the mattress of your bed she |