Show M 0 by bv LAN LE MAY release Rc lease i installments installment 2 THE STORY SO 80 fart FAB I 1 y dusty king and lew gordon were joint owner owners odthe of the vast i king gordon range which stretched tr etched from bom texas to montana when building up this string ol of ranches they had to fight the unscrupulous aben ben thorpe thorpe CHAPTER 11 an hour spent in the wells fargo office with the deputy commission er filling out forms signing papers ended as dusty king and bill roper stood with lew gordon on the board walk it was the first time the three had had a word alone alon since the crying wolf had passed into the hands of king gordon well said dusty king we got her maybe gordon said I 1 this is our chance maybe now we can get the cow business on a sound basis ere in the north and have some mer d er and decent law never get a sound basis until ben thorpe is bust dusty said laid what law enforcement we got to in the west Is rotten through and through with office holders that thorpe owns someday some day gordon said slowly ben thorpe his has got to go 90 some day lew weve got him beahl kings exuberant mood of victory was not to be dampened you want law and order h he chortled well show lem em law and order I 1 that puts me in mind said gordon A teller feller passed me this here to give to you he handed dusty king a little twisted scrap of paper torn off the corner comer of something else dusty untangled it looked at it a moment showed it to the others five words were penciled on it in sprawling black letters IN IM GODS NAME LOOK OUT chos this from lew tep ordon a lips moved almost W endlessly ulessly dry camp pierce roper knew that name without knowing what lengths of outlawry had bad brought dry camp pierce to where he was today rewards backed by ben thorpe were on dry camps scalp over half the west probably it was as much as his life was worth to show himself in ogallala now this note not dusy dusty king tossed it off with a shrug oh 1 I suppose thorpe is getting drunk some place and spouts spout ing oil off about what all hes going to do to me when he catches up dustus teeth showed in his infectious grin 1 I suppose dry camp thought I 1 ought to know about it hes right dusty lew gordon I 1 said we do want to look out all fahys s all the time fu awe we always had to look out us usty scoffed be the more so now there anything in the world ben people will stop at dusty let 1 em m come on we w want ant to look out gordon said again isyou if you feel that way about it said dusty what was the idea of your working through that law we cant wear guns in town bill roper said we could have brought it to an open shootout shoot out five years ago agaten ten years ago better it if we had gordon shook his head bead nothing ever gets fixed up with guns dusty king pulled his hat a little more on one side si deso so that he be could wink at bill roper unobserved but he be said hes partly right bill BID ben thorpe just bust one man any more walk lasham cleve tanner any one of a dozen others could step into his shoes its la a whole rotten organization has to 6 be busted up ben thorpe downed and they 11 qu bill Roper thought ben thorps Thorpe down and its only begun dusty countered get it out of your you bead that you can fix anything up by downing ben thorpe not while this organization stands in one piece might be a good idea remember that bill in b e aby anything thing happens dusty bill BIH said it if ever they get you by god ill get ben thorpe U its the last no said dusty you hear roe me no if they ahey get me remember what I 1 said you remember youre fig fighting ming a thing and a big one not just one man his face crinkled in that familiar contagious grin forget III 11 dry camps spooky 1 all he hooked an arm through his partners partner sand and went swaggering off ten paces down the walk he stopped turned and came back he leaned close to roper if anything should happen kid kemem ber what I 1 said Cli APTER III HI it at lew gordon gad bad a daughter not t so surprising as that he had only no one single minded he clung alkhis all his life to the memory of the th wife he bi had lost when their first child was horn born jody gordon was twenty now dow she I 1 ilant exactly run lew gordon nobody did that but it was fairly apparent that bis hi Is stubborn s bid tor for supremacy in western cattle was intended in her I 1 behalf and without her would have been irean meaningless ingless to him because gordon wanted bis his g alil irl filtering around through the t rivaled king gordon la in bower power ind and wealth but he be had gained hll his position through wholesale cattle rustling ml and gunplay their opposing interests interest came to a showdown when the government announced the auctioning of the crying press ot of ben lans at the auction getting his own boys into fights fight jody gordon was wag waiting here for or news 0 what had happened to the crying wolf bill roper vaulted the foolish little picket gate scuffed the mud off his boot boats on the high front steps and let himself in he sent ii a comanche war gobble ringing through the house but jody was already flying into the room did you get it did you get it all of III jody flung herself at hm him and kissed him so sweet so vital so completely feminine that he wanted to keep her close to him but she broke away again as he tried to hold her how much did it cosi seventy cents gold dodys breath caught can we come out on it sure we can come out on it not a cent less turned the trick dusty jody sat on a walnut table that had come all the way from st louis and swung her feet the story seemed to tickle her tn in more ways than one 1 I can just see you all I 1 ol 01 14 r FF beal but she broke away as he be tried to hold her she said standing around making an impression on each other he turned from the window and she was laughing at him as he had bad thought her mouth smothered with her fingers come here a minute he be said going toward her she twisted from the edge of the table a as s if to put it between them but she s e was too late his rope hard fingers caught her wrist and held her as easily as if he had dallied a calf to the horn listen he begged her listen ile he caught her up clamped an arm behind her head and kissed her hard hard and tor for a long time so long as she was rigid in his arms fighting him he held her but when she stood limp neither yielding nor resisting his arms relaxed and jody tore herself free I 1 she lashed out at him like a little mustang striking him across the mouth her face was white all that quick irrepressible laughter gone as tor for a moment she looked at him A trickle of blood ran from bill ropers lips and made a crooked mark on his chin then she turned and fled when she was gone bill roper stood still sucking his cut lips after a little while he went to the window instinctively turning to open space for his answers an answers he could remember jody gordon as a little towheaded tow headed kid before her hair had darkened into the elusive misty brown that it was now or as a colt legged girl with scratches on her shins from riding barelegged bare legged through the sage or as a peculiarly tempestuous uncertain thing neither child nor woman but this latest phase he understand at all he picked up his hat and tor for a little while stood turning it in his hands then he threw it in the corner and went searching through the house jody was in the tallest of the tour four foolish towers from here you could I 1 see the town and the slim glittering line of the railroad connecting these far plainsmen plainsman plains men with a world hungry tor for beet beef jody said matter ot of factly weve got to have i more ore loading pens bill blus bills face broke into a slow grin abruptly he laid hard hat hands ids on disused sashes rashes and broke them open wolf land in montana bill roper king adopted son ion had inspected toll this territory and found it to contain an almost unbelievable wealth ot of gross grass bidding wen went t higham high at the auction but king beat out cut thorpe to gain control of the land into their little cubicle flowed the sweet air of the open prairie sweep inspiriting with the fresh smell oi of the new grass she said tell me about your new lob job it new they said that be the new boss of at the crying wolf it we got it jody said inid for more years than he could remember he had been working toward this opportunity tho the chance to take two years or three with such and such cattle on such and such h land and show that he could pay out on market deliveries in po pounds ands of beet beef but now a million n horns and hoots hoofs seem to mean so much I 1 something was here something that any place else not on the long trail not in the wild terminal towns he knew now he had to tell her that and he dreaded it because she probably would think it was tunny funny he look at her as he spoke because he want to see her laughing at him 1 I dont know as im so much interested te as I 1 was he said why billy not inte interested ested in the crying wolf nearly five hundred square miles ot of feeder landl come over you 1 I guess maybe im tired of riding alone bill said alone with all the outfit have I 1 call it alone e 1 I would grass country is lonely country he said now as I 1 onely lonely as the dry plains you get to wondering what the everlasting cattle add up to in the course of a life then some night you know you dont care what they add up to and you think damn tat fat beef why y billy why billy none of it means a damn without 0 t youre you re there he told her working cattle mean anything because always have all the cattle you need anyway and no long trail means anything without youre at the end of it im sick of long drive trails empty of you at the end there was a long motionless silence he kept his eyes on the ilia far sand hills as presently she leaned forward to look up into his face you really mean it dont you jody said dodys words came very faint and blittle a little breathless why you say so before he looked at her then and she laughing in her eyes was a new grave light such as he had bad never seen a warm light a beloved light better than sunset to a weary day rider who has worked leather since before dawn timorously but b t very willingly she came into his arms and he held her as it if she were hot only a very precious but a very fragile thing for a little while it seemed that one trail a trail longer than the long trail itself had come to its end cant believe he said at last his lips in her hair youre sure enough mine all yours all all they had one hour there in the prairie lookout tower discovering each other getting acquainted as if for the first time the sun went down in a gorgeous welter of color jody shivered a little 1 I wish dad and dusty would come especially dusty why he has so many enemies some of them are dangerous as diamond backs it worries me when hes due a and nd get back Tu dustyn Dust yU take care of himself bill roper chuckled and held her closer one hilf half hour more up from the town came a crazily ridden horse splashing mud eaves high under the urge of spur and quirt hell lame his pony if he goes down in that slick bill commented now what do you sup suppose pose the rider tried to pull up in fro front nt of the house and the frantic pony swerved and slid mouth wide open to the sky its shoulder crashed the fence taking doan a dozen feet of pickets the rider tumbled off ran up the steps to hammer on the door roper went clattering down the stairs pulled open the door now nomi listen you dusty mr king he bill roper froze and there was a if long moment of paralyzed silence spit it out man roper shouted at him bill hes daido Who aho who dusty kings daid bill they gunned him they gunned him d down own I 1 who did taint known mr gordons there he bill roper walked out past the cowboy stiffly like a man gone anc blind without knowing what he did he walked down d 0 wn to the gate an and d stood gripping the pick pickets ets with his two ha hands ads I 1 TO BE CONTINUED |