Show M KY 40 k byalin Y alan LE LEMAY MY release installment 6 THE STORY SO 80 1 FAR dusty king and lew gordon had built to break power his first stop step other outlaw gunmen roper conducted 0 up a vast string of ranches which was to start a cattle war in texas he raid alter after raid upon herds stretched irom from texas to montana king made this decision against the opposition cleve tanner manager of 0 texas was killed by his powerful and unscrupulous ot of lew gordon and the tearful holdings seemed helpless to stop competitor ben thorps thorpe bill pleading of 0 his sweetheart jody gordon him gunmen drove off cattle by the roper kings adopted son undertook with the aid of dry camp pierce and thousands CHAPTER yin vill continued presently it began to appear eliat the tough notoriously trouble mak ing outfits under cleve tanner were not holding together as they always had before here and there men were beginning to desert the tanner outfits sometimes fired because they had tailed failed sometimes voluntarily deserting to the ranks of the raiders who were now almost open ly punishing the thorpe tanner holdings ellid lid august in the season of 01 driest heat into the potreros ros by a little used trail a black horseman rode he was a tested gunman a proved man whose name was known and feared hall half the length of the great trall troubleshooting trouble shooting for cleve tanner now he was moving into the potreros ros to find out what had gone wrong with some of tanners tanner choicest herds he had bad come fast changing horses frequently riding far ar into the night loping down the almost invisible trall trail through the dark his horse suddenly dropped from under him headlong into nothingness the pony might have stepped into a prairie dog hole or it could have been the loop of a rope but B ut as the dazed rider struggled up his mouth full pt dirt a rifle was prodding his belly and a voice was saying dont you think you might have took the wrong wa way y west vest texas far up the lonely peas one of cleve tanners outfit bosses was talking to the ranger stationed at mustang point such a damn outburst of lawlessness has cut loose here as I 1 niver never seen been before he said the ranger here was val mcdon aid a id he had gone out nineteen times in battle sometimes against mexicans mexican s sometimes against the coman ches and he had hunted white ren egares galore awfully tough he said in his bis own sympathetic way the foreman of the outfit that was busted up was fit at to be tied 1 I tell you were being stolen blind he raved not just a calf here and there either they take em in woop swoops and bunches its the holdst boldest st thing ive ever seen even when theres no chance of getting clear with any cattle game to stampede a cut herd that its took weeks to round up and scatter it from hell to this Is one of ben 0 outfits u t no does that mean well how many times has cleve tanner passed out the word the rangers be damned hes put more obstructions in the way of things we as was trying to do than any other one man who was it had the legislature cut down our pay until we practically ride tor for nothing and furnish all our own stuff the question here is whether were going to have any law or are we going to have from what I 1 heard mcdonald said cleve tanner has left it be known that hes the biggest end of the law himself go talk to cleve tanner if you want law my understanding is the foreman argued that the rangers are suppose supposed d to Ill move out and straighten up your little old range mcdonald said ill be glad to just as soon as I 1 get orders from headquarters im waiting for or them right orders newt now but th the e weeks rolled by and headquarters was curiously still end of 01 sun summers irner a welcome end cleve tanner himself the cleve tanner who represented ben thorpe in the south master of breeding grounds the man who controlled the roots ot of all ben plains organization was talking to the united states marshal at san antonio there been such a v wave vave ot of outlawry since the horse I 1 indians was put down damnation man I 1 its set us back ten years I 1 know what your policy has been your idea Is to let us fight it out tor for ourselves against mexico against the indians against all hell but I 1 tell you this thing comes fro from inside this thing mi might be something that I 1 t beat without help the united states marshal at san anto antonio alo smiled to io himself a little smile and he said seems like this must be a terrible bad thing tor for you cleve im telling you c go jo ahead and tell me youre a ben thorpe man aint jou you A right leading ben thorpe man well maybe ill tell you a couple ot of things some day there was law in texas even in those days but there was no such law as could stand against the earn corn bained renegades rene gades ot of the long trail with behind them a lawyer who could delay forever in the courts and a reckless expenditure ot of money the source of which f pe pecked acted but which was not definitely r i known CHAPTER IX with the fall fail lew gordon now in sole charge of the tha tar far scattered cattle holdings he had bad shared with dusty king came to texas to inspect the southern holdings of king gordon the breeding breedin g ranges from which all the king gordon holdings drew their essential sustenance reports kept coming to bill roper at his constantly shining shifting bases by way ot of the many riders who kept him in touch with his far spread wild bunch inevitably he knew that jody was at the headquarters of f the old two circle not far from uvalde the two circle had been the original gordon stand from this camp had been driven the first trail herd that dusty king had pushed north roper knew that she was there yet the fall dragged on and november passed into december before he went to see her he had told himself that there was no use in his going to see jody gordon but in the end of course he went he rode up to the two circle ranch house in late afternoon of a cold 1 N lie ile pulled up his horse a few yards from the kitchen gallery december day the sky was low and heavy and the bitter norther had brought a scud of hard snow a long way to throw it sharply in his face he pulled up his horse a few yards from the kitchen gallery then sat there looking at the house his sheepskin hunched about his throat even now having come this tar far he almost made up his mind to go away then jody gordon stepped out on the gallery in a whippy woolen dress and stood estimating the uninvited horseman through the dusk something like the strike of a buffalo lance went through bill roper it was so long since he had seen that one slim little figure that could so change everything under the sky for him A split pole fence separated them and after a moment she came across the few yards of space leaning sideways against the bitter wind and stood gripping a bar of the fence as she peered up into his face 1 I knew it was you she said child said raid bill roper you get back ack b in that house freezel freeze 1 then you put up your horse and come in Is your father here hes in san antonio 1 I dont think hed want me here jody lew gordon has never turned away any rider without a cup of coffee not yet he gave in then and stepped do down wn he tied his horse to the fence and followed her into the house the fire in the big wood range made the room a dazing contrast to the cold sweep of the prairie he threw his coat open but did not take it oty off of course jody said we keep hearing about you too bad 1 I expect you aou be hearing anything good goad no silence again he know why w by he had come there anything he could say he stood by the stove his eyes brooding on the iron deep in the pockets of his coat there was a trembling in his slack fingers not caused by cold it was a strange and uncomfortable t thing hing to be so near this girl again and yet to be so far away still jody said you seem to be getting done what you set out todo to do A i R t J sometimes it looks like im not even doing that if you accomplished anything else youve astonished my father hes said himself oyer over ana over he have supposed it could be done no question but what cleve tanner is shaken hes shaken clear down to to his roots nobody knows what any more or what win will happen people who thought a bear year ago that cleve tanner was invincible saying now that hes coming to the end of his string that if this thing goes on tanner will be through what else do they say saying that the lie worst renegades rene gades of the trail are A working together for the first time ti methe the killers the men who dont care it if they live or die they say they have money back of them now and that even cleve tanner with all his string of outfits cant stand up against the everlasting raiding and stampeding and mysterious loss of cattle they say hes lost twenty outfits just because he spare the gunmen to hold the range eleven outfits roper said then it was really you those eleven outfits they a speak peak of those were outfits roughed away from little lonely men on pretenses that any justice or any true law those outfits are back with their owners now but you admit your wild bunch is behind all this call it th that a t it if you want to I 1 guess there anybody knows as well as you do what im trying to do she sald said in a dead voice 1 I never believed it I 1 believe it until now I 1 tell you about it I 1 told you about it before I 1 began I 1 set out to break cleve tanner and by god hell be broken it if I 1 live you know cleve tanner has put up five thousand dollars tor for your arrest bill roper chuckled crazily all right ill put up ten thousand for his arre arrest t there going to be any arrest and he knows that too 1 I cant believe it she kept saying aver over and over 1 I cant believe it even yet you cant believe what that youre an outlaw a wild bunch boss thrown in with the ugliest lie t killers this range has ever seen or any range he said ironically dont hardly see how I 1 could use second rate men lt reports have come in jody said wonderingly from over eight hundred miles of country beginning to dau call it a rustlers war a final showdown between the wild bunch and lawful men and you what about me oh rilly billy its unbearable that you youve turned yourself into the festering point of all that struggle and hate bate and lawless gunning he had bad to grin at that unhappy as he was realize I 1 was festering he said you had everything she said and you threw it away he had bad only heard her say that once before but in memory he had heard atso it so often since that her words had the ring of a familiar song im sorry that we cant ever see things the same bill sald said 1 I started out to ket get cleve tanner and ill get him after tanner walk lasham and after walk lasham ben thorpe but when it comes to saying I 1 had everything before I 1 started in I 1 guess maybe that so jody said hotly there one thing dinall in all the world you have or have had before you chose this crazy way 1 I have you he told her it if I 1 had bad had you I 1 guess gues s I 1 would have you yet things dont shift and change so easy as that not in the part of the world I 1 know he was pulling on oj his gloves now buttoning his sheepskin coat in w what hat was left of of the light the shadows lay heavy upon his face As he stood there he could have haie been dusty king himself the he t man who had broken a hundred long and weary trails except th that at D dusty usty king had perhaps never I 1 looked so ec old her voice came to h him im as if from a distance and when youre she said a ar re eyou bod going to have left far as I 1 know bill roper baij sc ij im not going to have anything left god knows ive very little left now he was glad a she be know how his resources had dwindled how close to the end he really stood her voice rose sharply cant you see theres no hope in this ghastly thing grip is unbreakable she came close to him and her words came through her teeth its your ybur vay very life youre throwing awall perhaps he misunderstood her then tor for he be grinned maybe he said that would be the least 1 I could lose the very least of all tto W BE CONTINUED 4 |