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Show j D. APPLETON-CENTURY CO. By H. C. WIRE WNU SERVICE ' 4 face with a whip lash. It was set, lined, and hard. Hollister's powerful power-ful hands had a vice hold on the saddle horn, and for a full minute he sat staring straight ahead, until the savage thing that had gripped him passed, and turned with only a smoldering of it in his drilling eyes. "You don't know what you're talking talk-ing about, Walt. I'll never marry Helen Cameron!" He put spurs to his horse and they loped on, covering miles and saying say-ing nothing. Bill Hollister had showed his cards almost. There was one, Walt Gandy knew, still face down. THE STORY THUS FAR Sn !1 t cmmoned to the C C ranch in central . ."desert-wise Walt Gandy Is on Vwav to help his old range partner. Hollister. Walt Is stopped short by jirlwho holds a rifle In firing posi-.nn posi-.nn She knows him, tells him how to to the rancn' and tells nim tnat . ev will meet a6aln- Within a quarter ( a mile from his destination, Walt is . oDPed again. This lime by a gro- ' ue misshapen man. Bent Lavic, by StVame who tells him to get out and then wlVUs him the C C crew is in Emigrant, ill lie closest town, for an inquest. Some-ri.e Some-ri.e has been murdered. Riding to the guest in Emigrant, Walt leaves his iorse at the livery stable. Walt learns i at Cash Cameron, owner of the C C bnch is in trouble. A hard but honest HWan Cash has many enemies. At the MtTiauest Walt sees Hollister and the girl vTsiho had stopped him. Chino Drake. SMirmer cook at the C P ranch, has been Tiurdered and Sheriff Ed Battle Is trying J, pin the blame on Cash Cameron. iW tie girl Is called to the stand. She is lelen Cameron, Cash's daughter. She "1 eemingly faints and, as Gandy rushes j her aid, slips something in his hand. t is the bullet from Drake's body. Walt ents a post office box and leaves the JI ullet in it. A dark, swarthy man offers im a job. He draws the man out, finds bat he wants to usurp Cameron's public -,nTA land. Gandy then turns him down There was flat finality In the way Hollister said the word. "Lord!" breathed Gandy; and his gaze swept out over the miles of C C domain, along the benches that stepped down from the high Emigrant Mountains, swung north following the curve ot the range, west into the long basin of the sink, and then, hardly aware of it, he was staring on still farther west to the wide prairie that marked the 77. So Cash Cameron was busted! bust-ed! "Flat," Bill Hollister was saying. "No one knows it, not even Helen. The bench knows he is in a hole, and that it might break him, later; but the fact is I've been carrying the C C for more than a year. I'm supposed sup-posed to be only part owner. Walt, I own darn near the whole thing!" "War and all," said Gandy. "Yes, that's right. If these hyenas hy-enas had known what condition the C C was in, they wouldn't have waited wait-ed for something to tie us up before be-fore they started jumping our grass. They still think we have the al- here secretly that day of the inquest? in-quest? What could have brought her! Meeting someone? There flicked across his mind a suspicion of treachery. This spring was out toward the 77 range; only one 77 man had showed up in Emigrant that day. The others? Was Helen having secret dealings with the enemy en-emy camp? But then he could not bring that charge against the girl. A thing was beginning to come clear. In all her acts, in questioning question-ing him last night, then being so evasive and suspicious, what was the girl afraid of? Was it altogether the motive, which by her very na-'ture, na-'ture, had appeared instantly the most probable one? Until this minute he had been working on the idea that Helen Cameron Cam-eron was shielding somebody on the C C. Now suddenly Gandy sat rigid. rig-id. She wasn't! They were shielding shield-ing her! In the light of this, the reason for keeping him in the dark ever since his arrival here was plain enough. They couldn't talk. Everything Every-thing was being covered. Even Hollister Hol-lister had not wanted to tell him the truth of what had happened. Helen had killed Chino Drake. CHAPTER XI IT TOOK him a couple of hours to become dead certain of that last down card. Meanwhile there was work. Five white-faced steers jumped from a coulee and fled toward the mountains. He and Hollister circled cir-cled them, picked up more in a palo-verde brake and returned to the bench flat. The herd of strays grew. When a deeper ravine cut the bench and mighty Cameron dollars behind us. Well, we haven't. "Here's another card. We use public domain for winter grazing, and national forest in the summer, making us all around dependent upon public good humor for our grass. Now what's happening? First thing is we've got to have that national na-tional forest privilege but it's being cut away from us. Each year our jr'Vi biting fashion. The man leaps at W ljait who whips him after a hard battle. OB i'Tie man is Pete Kelso, foreman of the 7 ranch. Gandy is called to the sheriff's Affice, where he meets Hollister. Battle '-ells Hollister that Cameron is through I S!'follister and Gandy return to the C C. It.'Iollister borrows two hundred dollars rom Gandy. That evening Walt meets 2)Ielen Cameron in the kitchen. From to) he first he has been drawn to her. B Wn she tells him that Bill Hollister is 2ne of the finest men she has ever known. ? The bawling of cattle that night brought alvalt out to investigate. Curious, he -steps into the saddle shed. Then the 'U ii Jhed door opens slowly. It is Helen. t'tngry, she leaves, but not until she 'yarns him to forget the C C. : . In slow deliberation Gandy drew tobacco sack and paper book from his left shirt pocket and rolled a smoke. There was just one hole. From what he had gathered, there was cause aplenty for the breed cook getting a bullet. The girl could have been acquitted. No jury in this country would have hung anything onto her. Then why hadn't the C C come out with it flat-footed? He lighted his cigarette and took a deep drag. It was a hole, he had to admit, that a fair-sized mule could jump through. Still his belief remained. allotment of how many cows we can ' send up into the mountains is being be-ing decreased. C C stuff has been penalized for breaking beyond the drift fence, and our summer crews have been charged with setting fires, such stuff as that, until it looks like someone has got the Forest For-est Service by the ear and is talk-1 ing in low tones. That's what Cameron Cam-eron and Ranger Powell have wrangled wran-gled about lately." Walt Gandy sat flicking a loose rein end against his chap's leg. "Powell," he mused, "was Cash Cameron's alibi at the inquest, wasn't he?" r- CHAPTER VII Continued A, ( "Lavic was a cowman some eight-3j:en, eight-3j:en, twenty years ago," Hollister ;ontinued. "He controlled range, Cameron owned cattle, they were :goir)g to merge into one big outfit ?5jR5vhen Lavic had his accident. Got I&jahrown from a horse and laid in &;jthe snow all of one night before anyone found him. I don't know fnwhat set in because of that, but it Hollister's bunch had already passed. Tracks in the wash sand showed that. Gandy prodded up his white-faces, and in a rising dust fog they swung along in their stiff-backed stiff-backed gallop, seeming to be familiar famil-iar now with the way to the sink. . He knew it could not be far, for the sheer flanking cliffs of the ravine ra-vine shouldered up some three hundred hun-dred feet on either side and had begun to bear apart. There was a bend ahead. His cattle cat-tle turned on the run; plowed next instant to a bawling stop before another herd coming back. They were C C's, Hollister's strays. But Hollister? Gandy lashed in, milled the combined bunches, got them headed down again, and then with unexpected abruptness the ravine ended, and the seven-mile width of the sink was before him. Hollister's heavy brows gathered. "Well?" "This Powell was the alibi," Gandy Gan-dy amended, "only the alibi didn't show up." His non-committal brown gaze narrowed off over the valley. "He was perhaps just taking a ride and couldn't be got hold of that day. Huh?" "Look here, Walt! What do you know?" Hollister's voice suddenly had a lash in it. Gandy looked around. At last something had brought a rise out of the man. Muscles Mus-cles of Hollister's lean jaw knotted and his black eyes blazed. "Are you telling me something?" he demanded. demand-ed. "Or was that talk?" "What are the cards in this hand you've read face down?" struck down due west to the rims of the sink, Hollister said, "I'll push this bunch along. You can go as far as Willow Spring." He raised a lfori"left him in awful shape. And it mtQL did something else. s'.Eikk: ..you haven't seen it yet. Lavic -hates Cameron. Jealousy. He hoped lies to be the kingpost here, and Cam-and Cam-and eron's rise to the power he wanted lgsp tcurdled his gizzard. Watch his face 'arbursometime across the table, you'll see. After the accident, Cameron opened his money bags and bought 3 a Lavic out instead of watching him lose his range, then told Lavic to i I'make the ranch his home as long as he wanted to. Bent stayed as far J as I know he's never been off the C C even to go to town. Know why? , Helen." Hollister shot a sidelong TQ glance. "What do you think of that I C -girl?" "Let's finish with Lavic first," J Walt answered. I "Might help," Hollister grinned 4back. It's like I said, Be'nt stayed because of Helen. Her mother had ? died, and he raised her; she was i " only a little kid then. Lavic kept f J the house going, was her watch-dog, f land later on taught her all she h j knows of riding and camping out x "And hitting what she aims a gun "r , at?" Walt put in. t ' Tight-reined, Hollister set his - horse back to a sudden stop. "What do you mean by that?" m Gandy's palomino took the cue I and halted also. Walt wet his thumbs J and began the rolling of a cigarette. Freed, his cattle plunged onto the flat and scattered, but he suddenly pulled down, tight-muscled, as two riders darted from behind a shoulder shoul-der of the cliff and raced to cut him off. The fleece collar of his sheepskin coat had been turned up against the biting fall air and salt dust stirred by the cattle. Now he turned it down, sliding one hand along the metal fastenings until the front lay open at his throat and chest. gloved hand, pointing, "It's ..." "I know," said Walt. The leveled arm dropped. "How come you do? Didn't you strike across the mountains getting onto this Emigrant Bench?" "No; came in sort of wandering around the south tip," Walt told him, and wondered why Bill Hollister Hollis-ter seemed disturbed. "I just happened hap-pened onto this spring of yours some willows in the bend." Hollister frowned. "That's the place. Well, anyway, you won't find but a handful of cows there. Bring 'em along one of these coulees that fans into this ravine here, and I'll meet you say a mile back from the rims. Don't you go shoving into the sink alone." I There came to him again the feeling that the C C people were covering up, not uncovering. So he said: "I only know that Ranger Powell hasn't been seen since the day your Chino Drake cook was killed." "Sure, well," and Hollister visibly visi-bly let down, "nothing unusual in that. Sam Powell always takes a long circle around his district before be-fore winter sets in." "Let's see the rest of your cards," said Gandy. Hollister again studied the fork of his black's ears. He hesitated, spoke tight-jawed when he said then: By this time he had located Bill Hollister, sitting his black horse over against the cliff, and a third member of the well-mounted group was with him. It was this third one who put the deliberation in Walt Gandy's movements, for in another few minutes he and Pete Kelso, the 77 foreman, were going to have their first meeting since that fight in the Emigrant livery barn. It was apt to be, Gandy realized, considerable of a meeting. The two riders coming to cut him off were close in front now. "Chino Drake and Helen, mat cook was a low cross-breed between an Indian buck and a Chinese woman, wom-an, and bad. He watched Canv eron once and stole money from a post-hole bank. Cash used to pull out a fence post, drop a money bag in and put the post back. We never nev-er did get what Drake took and always al-ways thought he had it hidden on the place. He was a yellow devil! Ought to have been run off the benches, but Cameron gave him a chance." "Figuring to meet competition?" ."Bound to," said Hollister. "Sooner "Soon-er o later. The joker against this hand I'm holding is a close combination combi-nation named Pete Kelso and Jeff Stoddard. Pete's foreman and Jeff's the owner of the 77." He faced west "You can see the rims from here. Looks like the bench continues contin-ues and flats out onto all that prairie yonder, but in that low part there's a break, a straight jump several hundred feet to the bottoms. The sink is exactly halfway between the ffl "Helen Cameron," he said, ex-.4 ex-.4 haling blue smoke, "strikes me as being a keen party with a rifle, zJL that's all. She has a straight eye and a steady hand, and I'll bet tor? tess whcn she nandles a gun jt.s no f0ol- ing!" iel5( "Walt, don't jump up and grab ig b" onto the conclusion that I'm ready ,jioftW to quit or something. That isn't it, are1 and before this thing is over with, o a pack of chop-licking hyenas are lflf( going to find it out. But you've sat illnt" in penty of poker games yourself, nV and you know once in a long while 'V' you can read your cards before you Pick them up. It's more than a hunch you know what lies there face down." "Howdy?" he said, gravely polite. "Could you boys give me the time? Or maybe not; don't bother. Let's go over and ask your boss. Kelso, isn't it? Old friend of mine." He picked up his reins, the unopened un-opened tobacco, sack still in his right hand. "Come on. Or were you two going some place?" One crowded in on his right side, red-faced. "You're a smart talker, huh? One of them kind!" Gandy said nothing, watching him. "You'll shut up soon enough!" the red face growled. Hollister and Pete Kelso were just ahead. Walt Gandy knew he was being maneuvered into place. He held his palomino back. The two flanking him crowded against his legs. C C and the 77, but we developed the water-holes. So it's ours." "To hang onto," Gandy put in, grinning broadly. "Nice little keg of dynamite! Anyway, this brings us down to facts. What are we going to do, Bill, smash into this 77 before be-fore they get set to smash us? Or are we going to wait around and wonder what'll happen?" He had told no one of his own brush with the 77 foreman, back there in the Emigrant livery barn. "Well," he urged, as Hollister sat silent. "What are we going to do? Wait?" "Yes." "Why?" While Hollister talked of Chino Drake, a black mood grew upon him and he finished now with a savage sav-age 'snap. "Then I caught him after aft-er Helen!" In that moment the case of Chino Drake seemed clear. "So you killed him, huh? Walt asked. Hollister's head jerked around. "Suppose I did, then what?" "Shot him in the back like that?" "Yes." "Well," said Walt, "nothing much. Only I'd be through here. I wasn't brought up in that school." Hollister laughed. "You sure would and I know it!" He shifted upright in his saddle. "Lets get along." v know what yu're 6oin8 t0 jgy say," scoffed Gandy. t ."An right'" Hollister insisted, "it's a fact. I can see it coming. j And that," he emphasized, "is why I you're here." 4J-1 Walt Gandy grinned. "The black jj boy is in 'em, huh?" Jjf He tried to make light of this fjj thing that Hollister was predicting; , bm a cold chill played leapfrog up ' a"d down his backbone, for he d e ' knew Bill Hollister, and he knew lent 0'-- also the too frequently proved fact an)''"'' ,n:t if a man is marked in a coun- ' try like this, the day will come sometime when a horse trots back t0 the home ranch with stirrups flap- "V Pm and the saddle empty. It takes n,y one bullet, and that bullet can y : be met at any turn of the trail; any fi clump of cedar or benchland coulee rM Mn hide its sender- f The murder? Something rotten? J Under that dark mood of his Bill - N 1!lster had a temper. Chino Drake . had been shot in the back. No man . ould admit that, even to a part- PS'- ncr' Walt Gndy scowled and threw ji, j his cigarette. jjvl-.7 "What are the cards in this hand IJfJ ve read face down?" he asked. '4y lurn 'em up! If I'm sitting in on . ,n's game, I don't play anything k blind." M T faCe him' Hollister shifted onto $m , lc' his hard hands reaching i m i " suPPort on saddle horn and can-ue' can-ue' "A11 "ght, I'll show you. How's JXiM Ulls: Cash Cameron is broke!" "What's the idea?" the red-faced one snapped. He seemed to be leader lead-er here, probably next under Pete Kelso. When they halted, Gandy was still flanked right and left, and now with Hollister and Kelso a horse length before him. He whipped a look at Hollister and met direct communication communi-cation from the deep-set eyes. Whatever had happened up to this point, there had been no open clash Hollister wanted none; that was his message. A short space of time before the meeting began allowed comparison between these two who were foremen fore-men of the biggest outfits on the Emigrant range: Bill Hollister, with that studious lock upon his face, bushy-browed, seeming even now to be figuring on something a long way ahead, while beside him Pete Kelso sat rigidly alert, tiger like, playing for the present momnt. (TO BF. COMIMED) "Because, Walt," said Hollister flatly, "we've got to! Let's get on with the work!" Willow Spring proved only a round puddle of muddy water, with the pipe-line taking off its fresh supply from a crevice between two boulders. boul-ders. The puddle made a disc about ten feet across, chopped at the edge by hoofs of cattle come to drink, and stirred to constant brackish-ness brackish-ness by their wading. Gandy's Sunspot minced away from the mud. arched his pale gold neck and snorted at the water. Walt drew in. slid over in his saddle, resting one leg. and for a little while let his imagination scout around. He was figuring on Helen Cameron, Cam-eron, for the girl, he knew, was the one card that Bill Hollister had not turned face up. His pondering gaze considered the muddy pool. What had brought her This time it was Walt Gandy who held back. "There's a special card Bill that I want to see. A high one you' haven't turned up. What about the queen of hearts?" The short burst of laughter died in Hollister's mouth. "Helen? You mean that girl?" I sure do," Walt said. "It gripes me a lot to hear a man talk about playing to a marked deck when he hoWs a trump like that to back up "ny bet he makes! There you are You asked me a while ago what thought of her. That's t. You fool! we U go right ahead and clean tins ran"e of whatever has happened! here then you marry the girl! What do vou soy?" . . . Walt Gandy finished, grinning, but was cut short next instant by Hh lister's look. It was as if he had reached out and struck the man s |
