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Show Ernest Haycox -ff THK STOKY SO I Alt: Clay rtorijail n:is ilrriclt'd to i I a y a lone hand nuatnst Hon llt'i-eiutotMi, a rancher bent on run-nlns run-nlns tho i-attlo country his own way. The two men have heen enemies for years, havlnc tirst fouitht over (lay's wile, Ilia, who died hating him and brlirvluc she should have married llerendeen. Morgan Is a solitary figure, devoted to his nine-year-old daughter, Janet. Although Al-though two women, Catherine Grant and Ann McGarrah. are In love with him. they know he cannot forget I.lla. Of liis former friends, only Hack Breathitt has not gone over to Herendoen's side. Seen camping with Pete Borders, a rustler, rus-tler, he Is a fugitive from Ilerendeen's men. Gurd Grant, Catherine's brother, hesitated about Joining llerendeen, but became Morgan's sworn enemy when he discovered that Catherine had been to his ranch. Clay Is warned by Fox Willing, Will-ing, a "nester" he once befriended, that someone is stealing his cattle. Meanwhile Mean-while Mack's hiding place is discovered. Charley Hillhouse, Ilerendeen's foreman, fore-man, rides into the "Potholes" after him with a party including Gurd Grant. Charley kills Hack. Sickened by the cold bloodedness of Hack's murder, Gurd Grant breaks with llerendeen. Now Clay has gone to Government Valley to investigate in-vestigate Fox Hilling's story that someone some-one is stealing his cattle. Now continue with the story. 15 He hit him once, knuckles slashing McGeen's cheek. and didn't recognize them; he was thinking about this when Herendeen came to the porch. "Ben," Morgan said at once, "I followed a pretty broad trail out of Government Valley this afternooa When I got to the end of it there was a jag of Long Seven cows feeding in one of your meadows. They didn't make the walk without help." Herendeen's round, fresh-scarred face showed what seemed, to Morgan, Mor-gan, something close to surprise; he threw McGeen a quick look but Mc-Geen Mc-Geen shook his head. Herendeen looked back to Morgan. "I know nothing of it." "Maybe you'd better get acquainted acquaint-ed with your crew," suggested Morgan. Mor-gan. "I'll go up in a day or so and see about it. If you've got any beef there I'll send it back." "I saved you the ride. The beef's on the way home now." Herendeen said: "If there's any cutting to be done on my range I'll do it. Bones, take a crowd up there his gun, whereupon Herendeen jammed a foot down on McGeen's arm, hard enough to make McGeen yell. Herendeen ripped the gun from McGeen's holster arid stepped back; the whole thing had turned him white and half-crazy. McGeen squirmed around the dirt and got to his feet. "Get on the horse," said Herendeen, Heren-deen, "and do what I say." McGeen turned and reached for the reins. He missed them and swept his hand out a second time, blindly. When he had them in his fingers he put his head against the side of the horse, stupidly still. Herendeen said: "Go on or I'll bat you again." McGeen made no attempt to throw the reins over the horse's head. He seized the horn, pulling himself into his seat. He stiffened his arms against the horn, bracing himself in this manner and closing his eyes. He said, "Damned world is going around," and fell out of the saddle suddenly; he hit on his face and bel- CHAPTER XV Reaching Government Valley, Morgan located the trail of the rustled rus-tled cattle a quarter-mile from the old agency buildings. The beef had been milled together and driven southward toward the Potholes. "Skip the idea of rustlin' ;for a minute," suggested Jump. "Figure that somebody did it to hamstring you make a poor man out of you in a hurry." "You're talking about Herendeen now," said Morgan. "As such." "Well, we'll find out," said Morgan Mor-gan and led the group forward on the trail. They rode along the flat country, with the Haycreek Hills to the right and the Potholes a matter of four r- or five miles in the south. The trail of the beef made a wiggling line in front of them, pointed for the Potholes. Morgan said: "If they're driving the beef into that section it won't be far away." But, half a mile farther on, Mor- gan saw that the beef wasn't intend- I ed for the Potholes. The trail cut to the right, going into the flank of the Haycreek Hills and aiming to-' to-' ward a low pass. More and more puzzled, Morgan followed. They had been in entirely open country; now as they rose with the slope of the hills they came to a gradually thickening thick-ening stand of pines. At this point the Haycreek Hills touched one edge of the Potholes and the land here began to show the effects of the geologic upheaval. The trail was narrow and circuitous and worked upward to the summit of the and stop that. We'll see what's going go-ing on." Bones started around the corner of the house at once, to be halted by Morgan's down-slapping answer. "Hold on. I'm going to recite chapter chap-ter and verse to you boys. The beef goes home and if you figure to stop it, you better figure to stop the boys with it." - "If necessary we'll do that, too," said Herendeen. "Bones, just bring the crowd around here a minute." He came on to the edge of the porch, his thick legs spreading and taking root. Bones moved only as far as the house's corner; he raised his arm and moved back toward the porch. Watching the corner, Morgan saw Chill Purdy and Jim Burden and Slim .Tnhn shrrn nr TVipce lucro ly, one arm doubled beneath him, and did not move. The two long-faced strangers came away from their spot behind Morgan and paused to stare at McGeen. Mc-Geen. Herendeen bent over and rolled McGeen on his back. McGeen's Mc-Geen's eyes were open but his muscles mus-cles had no life in them. Herendeen Heren-deen nudged McGeen's body with his toe, saying, "Come out of it, Bones." One of the strangers said in a disgusted dis-gusted voice: "That's no way to treat a man." Herendeen motioned toward a pair of his own crew. They came up and seized McGeen, shoulders and feet, and lugged him over the porch into the house. The two strangers Haycreek Hills by labored turns. Through this extremely rough and lonely terrain the unknown rustler had put the beef, single file. Harry Jump said: "Hell, we must be right on top of it now. He couldn't make much of a drive through here in a night's time. Clay, let me get ahead and scout the land." "Almost at the top," answered Mosgan. Breaking out of the summit timber, tim-ber, he saw a meadow lying steeply on the descending hillside, in which Herendeen's cattle grazed, and his own cattle. There was no doubt of it; at this short distance he was able to read his brand. Morgan said finally, "Well, let's get at it," and rode out of the timber. tim-ber. He worked through the stock with Fox Willing while Jump and Vermilye took stations near the trees. After Morgan and Vernjilye had collected all the Long Seven animals and had driven them back into the forest trail the other two riders came up, ready for the trip home. Morgan meanwhile had done some thinking. old Three Pines men. But there were four other men behind these three, unfamiliar to him. They stopped by the corner. McGeen, throwing a look at them, said in a voice that grated the words together, togeth-er, "Don't be bashful in front of the great Clay Morgan." It seemed to be a signal. Two of the strangers, both dark men with the same sharp, long-slanted noses, stepped on from the corner and moved on until Morgan, Mor-gan, now watching Herendeen, lost them out of the corner of his eyes. They were somewhere at his left rear; throwing a glance that way he saw them half fifty feet behind him. Herendeen said: "Take a good look before you finish your speech, Clay." "I see nothing new," answered Morgan. "You always liked a big crowd to stand behind." "You hang around with crooks and you stick up for them. It will be a damned cold day when you move anything off my range, no matter what the brand reads. Take a look at these men. I have cleared out Freeport and I have shaken went on toward the corner of the house. They turned, no longer interested; in-terested; something, Morgan saw, had happened here pretty definitely. Herendeen saw it too, and his talk jumped at them. "I'll do the talking talk-ing around here. We're riding up the hill. I'll see about this beef business." He turned his attention to Morgan. "Come on, get down from there." "No," said Morgan, "I guess not." Herendeen had his mind fixed; he drove his roused talk at Morgan. "Times change. I'm through foolin' with you." Morgan said: "Let 'er flicker then, Ben." Behind Morgan, suddenly, was the sound of an advancing rider. Everybody Ev-erybody looked down the valley toward to-ward the newcomer except Herendeen, Heren-deen, who was caught in the grip of his own slow, flat-footed will. He pointed a finger at Morgan and said: "You get down." The rider came in behind Morgan, Mor-gan, calling at once: "What's up here?" It was Lige White's voice. Herendeen Heren-deen turned his head, reluctantly recognizing White. "I'm on the way to War Pass. Better come along, Clay, if you're through here." "I'm through," drawled Morgan, "if Ben is." Lige White said briskly: "No objections, ob-jections, Ben?" Herendeen showed a black and sullen and on - driving temper. "Lige," he called out, "you're interfering. in-terfering. What side you on?" "On the side of my friends," said White. "You're my friend, and so is Morgan." "Then you're no friend of mine." White said coolly: "That's your business, naturally. I think I under- "I'm going down to see Herendeen." Heren-deen." "Right with you," said Harry Jump at once. "One's enough to lay this out pretty pret-ty clear." Then he added dryly, "I think I can lay it out so he'll understand." under-stand." This time he openly crossed the meadow and rode downslope through the thinning timber, to come at last to the rim of Herendeen's valley. This was about five miles from the meadow and still another three miles short of the Three Pines houses; dropping down the shoulder of the hills, Morgan reached the road running run-ning beside Cache River and set off southward at a brisk clip, soon raising the ranch. From the intermediate inter-mediate distance he saw a pair of men on the porch and somebody working in the corrals. When he reached the yard both men on the porch had gone inside and another Bones McGeen had come out. McGeen's face showed its shadowed shad-owed surprise and its alert hostility. hostili-ty. But he kept his mouth shut until un-til Morgan spoke. , "If Ben's in there, tell him to come out." "He's here all right," grunted McGeen, Mc-Geen, and raised his voice: "Ben hey Ben!" A man walked forward through the house, heavy and deliberate. There were voices in the rear yard, softly talking and afterwards ceasing ceas-ing to talk. Morgan looked at the horses standing by the front yard some ot tne nesters loose. That's just a beginning. I'm going to drire everything out of this country that don't agree with me. That includes you. I didn't take your beef, but if it is on my land it will stay there until I get ready to move it off. The truth is, Clay, I propose to gut you down to your last calf. If you're on Mogul when spring comes I'll be mighty surprised." Morgan said: "You always talked too much, Ben." "That so?" cried Herendeen, his temper letting go. "McGeen, get on your horse." "All right," McGeen said, "what'll it be?" Herendeen repeated, "Do what 1 tell you, Bones. Get on up there with the boys and head for the hills. Stop Morgan's crew." Bones shook his head and one of the dark men at Morgan's rear spoke for the first time. "What the hell, Herendeen? You got what you want right here. Whut you worryin' about?" "That's all right," said Herendeen. Heren-deen. "Do what I told you." "Take care of this first," said Bones McGeen, still reluctant. Herendeen, a faster man than his bulk indicated, moved against McGeen. Mc-Geen. He hit him once, knuckles slashing McGeen's cheek terribly. ter-ribly. McGeen, blinded and knocked thoughtless, hit the ground and made an automatic gesture toward stand what's in the wind here and of course I could not stand by and see a shooting. The odds are a little strong. I'm surprised at you, Ben." He stared at the new men in the yard. He ducked his head at them. "News to me that you were short-handed short-handed on this ranch. When did you find it necessary to bring in the Ryder boys? I don't like that kind of business and I will not be a party to a general ruckus. If we've got to hire outside men, the situation is getting completely out of hand." Herendeen listened to this frank talk with a flat-jawed unreason. He said: "If you're not with me, then you're against me, Lige. Don't come around here for help." "Both very easy to do," retorted White. "I will give you the same advice. Ready, Clay?" (TO BE CONTINUED) |