Show ma y M by LAN LCMAY delease aust busty king end and low lew gordon were joint owners of the vast king gordon range rang which stretched irons from texas to montana when building up this string of ranches they continually had bad to fight the unscrupulous ben thorpe thorpe ri I 1 CHAPTER IV they burled dusty king five miles south of ogallala beside the great trail which he himself had pioneered one ered a they thought he would want to rest out there in the open plain near near enough to the cattle trail BO that the rumble of hoofs would sometimes ome times come to him through the grois ground sid over his grave they piled boulders after the fashion of the prairie men bill roper himself fitted a cross of railroad ties the most durable and massive timber available I 1 at ogallala after that was all done and night had come on and everybody had bad gone back to town bill roper went back to that lonely cross and squatted on his heels against the pile of tone stone aai after a 4 while a ridden horse came toward the cross at a walk and bill roper remained motionless lessl unseen against the stones as the horseman ca came m up p ilu the r rider 0 stepped to the ground and walked slowly toward the cross the reins of his pony on his arm queers quiers es roper said oh hello dry camp dry camp pierce came and sat down beside bill at the foot of the stones find out anything in the tawni hell no no dry camp repeated after him no and they wont you talk mighty sure dry camp t 1 I talk mighty sure because I 1 am mighty sure nobody saw dusty killed except the three men that done it and one other man bill ropers hand shot out and caught dry camps lean arm in a grip that bit like a trap who was that me there was a silence sharp and hard before bill bau said how is it you told anybody this had any chance to talk to you dry camp said impell im telling you now aint 1 I who was it cleve tanner and watt walk lasham m and ben thorpe dry camp took a mat match h out of the pocket of his cowhide vest and chewed the end Y you 0 ulsee see he searched tor for his wo words ads painfully after the mariner manner 0 of f men who h are much alone 1 D dusty usty he he aled tied his horse out back of the lone star bar in the angle of the wagon shed theres a kind of a corner there like you cant see into it from any place hardly and what with it getting dark where were you 1 I was in baileys harness shop next door I 1 saw dusty turn off the walk and walk back between the buildings id beeri been watching tor for him because I 1 wanted to speak to him a minute I 1 went back through the harness shop and I 1 was just going out the back door and then hell bust in the wagon shed angle the time it happened bill roper said there must have still been a little light enough to see by all right these three varmints var mints steps out of the shed quick and quiet dusty knew what he was up against all right his gun come out but walk lasham grabs his gun arm with his left hand and bears down like he be was wras aling him then the whole works seems to blow up as all three ol of em let loose they just stood and thrower it into him and it seemed like he was never going to tall fall ben thorpe pumped two more shots after dusty was down and dead that was all the story boch both of them seemed to recognize that there were no questions to ask nothing to add 1 I promise you this bi bill 11 dry camp said at last 1 I car cant it go up and testify against these men you know why it I 1 let it be known that im here the finish of me but that ahat would be all right only y what court that we got would believe me against them bill roper said there anything you can do I 1 dont suppose oh yes there Is theres one thing I 1 can do ill have to kind of bide my time and make it sure but im going to get me these there three men no you aint bill roper said 11 we were re going to go at this thing a 8 different way trouble with you youre figuring these three men as just three men they aint they goethe got the biggest string of tough outfits in the country and they spread au all the way from the rio grande to the rosebud and beyond we gotto got to bust up the whole works if we we want to get any place dry camp was silent for severa several I 1 minutes what you aim to do 1 I aim dostart to start in texas texa a where cleve tanner runs breeding outfits in the big bend baim I 1 aim to tie into him piece by piece till tal ben thorpe is smashed out of the west lew gordon will never stand tor installment 3 THE STORY so FARI king gordon in power and wealth but be had bad gained hla his position through wholesale cattle rustling and gunplay their opposing interests came to a showdown when the government announced the auctioning of the valuable crying then by god king gordon has baa come to Ms its split up silence again before dry camp said and I 1 suppose im expected to just kind of stand aside and stay out of it and see how you work it out huh will well I 1 wont do it bill youre in this dry camp how am I 1 in it ive got to have me an outfit its ita got to be made up ot of boys that aren arent afraid of ben thorpe or all hell bell boys that got anything I 1 i more to lose ill need iced near fifty men but to start off with I 1 want lee harnish and tex daniels and tex long nate liggett dave shannon bowl said dry camp you ge get t th those ose tour four or five in the same bunch et eat each other alive that the kind I 1 want BM bill roper said I 1 1 I W want a nt a wild bunch such as the west has never seen before and me what am I 1 supposed to do you youre ts heading abing ading south youre going back to texas and A r aff 1 youre in this dry camp youre going to start rounding em to in what you offering these boys horses and grub and what other a tuff stuff well need not another thing they sat silent for a long time more ali AH right dry camp said ill go in the starlight bill roper swung down in front of the little shack which served king gordon as a load ing foremans office at their ogallala pens within bill roper found lew gordon sitting alone 1 I just talked to a man roper said that saw the killing gordon was instantly alert who was it hes a man that cant come forward because hes already an outlaw in his own right but dust dusty y was killed by ben thorpe and walk lasham and cleve tanner the three working together walk lasham bore down dustus gurs gun 1 they looked at each other for a long moment this man that told you this weve got to get hold of him himi his s tory story has to go to the authorities bill roper shook his head hell hang if they lay hands on him anyway nobody would believe him against these three I 1 lew gordon made a gesture at once impatient and weary wherever we turn we hit some snag of af lawlessness he sald said theres too many men afraid to stand tor for ward and face out the law seems like n nothing is done open and aboveboard any more ne never ver was since I 1 remember roper said ive got a couple of ways in mind right n now ow im going on the warpath karpath war path lew gordon had been d fiddling with a pencil and now he threw it on the table in front of him were figuring yoa you to io take over the crying wolf bill dustus halt half of king gordon naturally will stand in your name now dusty never paid any attention to any other kin but the crying wolf was where he be figured figure d for you to go 90 and work and there ther any call to chan change ge that now you can count me out of the crying wolf lew what do you want to do were going to branch out a new way 1 I Hoper sald were going to have a warrior outfit and im its new boss 1 11 I dont get you wolf land in montana king bid high to beat out Thorpe bill roper kings adopted son on raced home to tell pretty jody gordon the good news A rider soon brought the news new that dusty king had been killed were going to carry the war into the other camp lew for every outfit that ben thorpe has grabbed by force of arms hes going to lose two for every head that has come into his herds by rustle and raid two head of hla his are going to be missing when he makes his roundup count first thing im ibn going to break cleve tanner down in texas after that lew gordon looked bill roper hard bard in the eye smiled a little and a shook hook his bis head his voice was slow and deep stubbornly emphatic as a granite cliff Is emphatic no weve never gone outside the law 7 yet et and while I 1 live denever we never will we play the straight game always and if we lose bats in the hands of things beyond us bill roper angered 1 I know how you feel about it he be said keeping his voice down you swayed dusty that way always if looked at it different the guns would have been out years ago and it would have been ben thorpe that went down As it la Is dusty king is dead now you want me to drift on as we always drifted on and im supposed to forget that dustus out there under a pile of stones well im not going to play it that way gordon 1 while youre with king gordon lew said slowly play it as I 1 say play it if you want to buy me me out roper said you can do it at your own price because im going to do exactly what I 1 tell you im going to do I 1 run a sneak on you lew you figure lew gordon said incredulously that you one youngster on horseback can smash up ben thorpe you last forty seconds longer than a celluloid collar on a dead gambler therell be a few go with me roper said who dry camp pierce tor for one lee harnish Harn tex daniels tex long in all 4 maybe fifty allty men that I 1 think I 1 know where to get lew gordon looked as it 11 he would explode youre naming the most vicious outlaws on the plains he said if you ever get those men together it will be the most infernal wild bunch that ever by god said bill roper ill show you how to clean a range or break a range im telling you I 1 dont care which lew gordon slapped his hand on the table it fell ell with a dull and heavy wallop but so hard bard it seemed the top of the table would split no no by godl god not under my brand not in a hundred years then draw up the terms of the sale go gordon adon was silent again tor for a long time he seemed very old very tired reckon youre man enough to make y your our own decisions bill thanks lew but bitt do me one hlll you dont decide here and now take a couple of days to think it over its for or your own good but im asking it as a favor to me bill BID roper dropped his bis eyes and for a moment or two he hesitated ill take an hour he be decided in compromise CHAPTER V bill roper walked slowly to the gordons tall house bouse on its rise at the edge of the town and let himself in softly he wanted desperately to talk to jody gordon but it was nearly midnight and he make up his bis minato mind to wake her As it happened decision was unnecessary in the fireplace some lengths of cottonwood log still burned and before the fire jody lounged upon a buffalo robe wide awake youve been abong a long time 1 I know he stopped beside her half raised her in his arms and kissed her lingeringly her arms and d her lips clung making it difficult diman cult tor for him to think of the road he had chosen but presently he sat s at beside her on the buffalo robe a and I 1 d turned his eyes to the coals theres some stuff we have to talk about jody 1 I can think of better things to do with firelight than just talk jody king gordon is splitting up jody brought herself up on one elbow why bill what do you m mean ears 71 dustus Du share comes to me as you know I 1 im taking it out youre bill you must be bocol maybe im going against ben thorpe but but t jody was at a loss for words since the trail began hes stood tor for everything were against F foai uz of the biggest rustling gangs in the country are directly hooked up with him if it could be proved hes hei stopped at nothing and where he force his way hes heb bought his way but now hes agone gone toe to tar far TO BE CONTINUED |