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Show !gpPlj By EUGENE CUNNINGHAM JP 1 EUGENE CUNNINGHAM W.N.U. RELEASE 3 "She saw a killing," said Con smoothly. THE STORX SO FAR: Forced to run from the law to save bis life when he is suspected of being the notorious "Comanche "Co-manche Linn," Con Cameron is trying to prove his honesty. With his pal, Ca-ramba Ca-ramba Vear. he is working for Topeka Tenison; owner of the Broken Wheel ranch. Nevil Lowe, marshal of the neighboring neigh-boring town of Tivan, is after him but doesn't yet know that the "Twenty Johnson" John-son" of the Broken Wheel Is the man he suspects of being Comanche Linn. Lowe's sister. Janet, is staying with the Teni-sons. Teni-sons. They are deeply attached to her, having lost their only child, a boy. when he was kidnaped many years before. Among the enemies of the Broken Wheel are Dud Paramore, Megeatti and his friend Monk Irby, and the very tough Latimers. Con has already encountered all of them and has so far gotten the best of them. Megeath and Dud Paramore Para-more also hate Nevil Lowe and are trying try-ing to kidnap Janet. Riding out with Janet for a rr--tine check on the cattle, he finds rustlers at work. All but one escape. Con gives him a chance and then is forced to kill him in self defense. Now continue with the story. CHAPTER XVII Con dropped from the saddle with a quick and wary look all around the horizon to see if any of the others were coming back. Nobody was in sight, not even Janet. He went to stoop over the cowboy; to turn him over. Apparently, one bullet had gone straight through the heart, but the other had struck not three inches from it. "Crazy fool!" Con said bitterly, straightening. "Nobody wanted to kill you." Janet leaned against the sorrel, just over the ridge that had sheltered shel-tered her. "I could see his hand going behind be-hind his back," she said in a flat tone. "You just sat there " She stopped short. He stared frowningly, but she turned to the sorrel and gathered up her reins to mount. "I didn't expect him to pull one from the back of his overalls," Con admitted, watching her. "But I reckon reck-on I was suspicious of him without thinking about it. We'd better go on back. Somehow, I don't think the rest of 'em will bother anything in this pasture today." "They thought 'four to one was enough. So did I! Then you began to shoot and and everything changed in a flash. Let's go! Let's get away from this place; get away from him!" ' He nodded silently. ' "I certainly have scraped through some tight spots by the skin of my teeth and the help of plenty luck!" he said frowningly, thinking back. "I certainly cer-tainly have! Of course, when you know that you're walking on thin ice, you walk hawk-eyed " She laughed, but it was not a pleasant sound. "Did you tell Caramba to back up- that pretty story of yours about the old uncle and aunt in Chicago, and your days as an orphan, and the death of your father and mother in Horsehide, Texas?" "Caramba? I never did! Did that son of a gun tell you something? Why" "Old Perch is an odd character," Janet said thoughtfully. "I've known him for a long time and, of course, I know his peculiarities as as a stranger wouldn't. One of his oddities oddi-ties is his memory of everything big and little that ever happened in what he calls the 'Skillet,' meaning the Panhandle of Texas. He won-"ders won-"ders why you chose such a name as Horsehide for this ah town of your story." "Why, Horsehide is a good Texas-sounding Texas-sounding name," he told her mockingly. mock-ingly. "And when you're making a life history out of air, you haven't got time to think of every old saddle tramp you may run into, that knows every inch of the country. And old Caramba thought he'd make my tale stronger'." told me a liT bit about you. Yoi must've seen plenty!" Con waited for him to lower the whisky. He drank it as if it had been coffee, faded eyes a little brighter,' weathered face softening slightly. There was something about him that compelled respect. Not only had he been a good man, Con thought, but he was now a good man! "I'll be sixty-five if I hang on till beef roundup's over," Step said, in a meditative tone. "Le's see you draw that cutter." He put Con through his paces, made suggestions that instantly increased in-creased his smoothness and speed of movement, then got from his col-chon, col-chon, a bed roll with mattress, a pair of white-handled Colts that gleamed dully from constant care. For a half-hour he showed Con gunplay, gun-play, what he called "limbering stunts" designed for nothing but developing de-veloping dexterity, and "hideouts" of a dozen kinds. "You won't never be fast as I am," he said in answer to Con's marveling remark. "No reason to be! You was faster'n nineteen out of twenty cowboys. I'd say you're faster'n ninety-nine . out of a hundred, hun-dred, with just the three-four changes you made in the movement. Now, there's some awful big UT things about killing a man, when you know you have got to kill a man: First place, if you go into a gunplay wondering whether to kill him or just hurt him, you'll wind up biting the daisies from the bottom. Make up your mind about that before be-fore you start. Then you'll get down whatever you aimed to do fast and slick." "My old uncle told me something like that, and my experience has proved it. He told me never to make a motion to draw until I ws dead-certain I had to draw, because an uncertain motion is a ragged, slow motion. He said, if you draw, do it fast and shoot at the end of it." "He had the gunslick idee! Another An-other thing: Don't think one second about what the other man's going to do to you! Keep your fnind on what you're going to do to him. Thprp was miirh mnrp nf thp samp went at racing gallop for the corrals. cor-rals. Perch was staring from Janet's sorrel to the house when Con rode up. He looked up slantingly. "Now, what'd you do, that got her that way?" he inquired. "Come charging up, talking to herself like a mad hen, let go the reins and rolled out of that hull and jist skittered skit-tered for the house. Wouldn't pass the time of day with me " "She saw a killing," Con said smoothly. "Four Helligo-off-with-your-stuffers thought the bay stallion stal-lion and his mares would look better bet-ter farther over. Happened, we ran smack into 'em and " Perch listened to his colorless account, ac-count, mouth sagging. "If that don't beat five of a kind! Four of 'em on you and they had to yellow dog it and one's counting the grass roots and two more leaking. leak-ing. I reckon one of the Mex' boys better ride in with a message to Janton. Maybe we better send a boy to Tivan, too. Let Nevil Lowe in on the business. He might want to come out for a looky." Con was afraid of that very possibility, pos-sibility, he thought sardonically. Let Nevil appear on the Wheel and he must disappear either permanently, permanent-ly, or without rousing the suspicions of Perch and the rest. So he seemed to consider the matter. "Why, no use sending a boy clear to Tivan," he disagreed. "Topeka sent Nevil Lowe word of the Gracey murder, you know. He may be on the way here, right now." "Oh! If Topeka sent word about that, then you're right. I thought he changed his mind. All right) I'll just notify Janton. And a couple of the peons can go up and put your rustler under grass. His horse is still there, huh? Well, if we let the Mex' take his outfit, they'll fight for a chance to bury him. Which carbine is the one that fellow dropped?" "In my scabbard. One of the peons pe-ons can have it. It's so worn it's not worth a sack of shucks. It " Movement at a corner of the corral cor-ral caught his eye. He looked that way at the little man who was rising. ris-ing. Con stared frowningly. Perch looked, too, then laughed. grim, expert advice, with a wealth of examples drawn from nameless battles of unnamed men over a half-century. When the bell-like clanging of the cook's triangle signaled sig-naled supper. Con stood and stretched. "I certainly do thank you for a college education! And I'd like to get a lot more of the same. Eating with us?" "Nah. I like Mex' cooking. One of the Martinez women fixes me up with everything I want. See you some more. I kind of cottoned to you from the day you roped the colts. Not many I do. Topeka's the only one on this place I call amigo and I've known him thirty years." But as he passed the kitchen door of the big house, Mrs. Tenison called him and he went that way with the carefully blank face he was learning learn-ing to turn upon the world. "Come in and eat with Janet and me, when you've washed," she ordered or-dered him. "No arguments! I need a man at the table." So he splashed and combed and surveyed his battered face in the mirror, then went resignedly to sit down opposite Janet. Mrs. Tenison did most of the talking, while they ate at the big, handmade Spanish table. "That poor woman was conscious for a few minutes, awhile ago," she told Con. "She says she didn't know the men who killed her husband. She's asleep again. I think she'll do, now. The boy will be out tomorrow. to-morrow. He thinks he's going to ride with you." Janet looked everywhere but di. rectly at Con and he followed het. example. Mrs. Tenison seemed not to notice. "I hope you don't feel put out about staying here. I hope you stay with us from now on. If my boy had grown up with us, to be about your kind of boy, I would have been proud of him. He was a a brave little boy, at four." (TO BE COXTIKVED) "Jist old Step. Don't let that way of his bother you. Twenty. He's like a mole: crawls along under the ground a piece, then pops up. He " "Never talked nobody to death, anyhow," the little man said snarl-ingly. snarl-ingly. "You get a good look at these rustlers. Twenty?" Con described them as well as he could. The little man had faded blue eyes under graying red brows and the locks of hair straggling from under his battered hat were of the same grizzled reddish color. "Nobodies." Step summed up in curt grunt. "Outside Gloomy and them Raniers the whole pack at Hel-ligo Hel-ligo nowadays is nobodies and nothings! I'll send out the Martinez boys to bury that rustler. Perch. If you want to give the carbine away. Twenty, Ramon Martinez ain't got one and it'll make you a friend for life." He finished solemnly. With Con's nod he took the old carbine from the scabbard and went off with odd lurching step that still seemed to interfere very little with the speed, the ease and silence of his talking. Late, that afternoon. Con found himself free of small chores about the corral, and he thought of Step. There was an unopened pint of whiskey whis-key in Con's bunk, brought out from Onopa. He got the bottle and slipped it into his shirt, then hunted the adobe house which Step lived in alone. The door was open and Con moved to stand in the door. Step sat comfortably upon a bench plaiting plait-ing rawhide strands. He nodded and Con went inside. "Perch was telling me you take a jolt sometimes," he drawled. "I happened to have a bottle of Ono-pa's Ono-pa's strongest " Con leaned to pass over the pint. Step drew the cork deftly and lifted the bottle. He drank a third of the whisky and handed it back. Con took a short drink and returned it. "I brought it over for you. Perch He snapped his fingers and grinned at her. "I don't know ' just what to do about that back yonder," he said, with elaborate carelessness. "Not much use telling Janton. He won't touch a case outside of town. But if we don't report it,, they can use that against us." He was thinking how unnecessary the shooting had been; still actually angry with the dead man for forcing forc-ing him to shoot. "I suppose you do feel that way about it," she agreed. "You get used to that, don't you? But you haven't done anything, in the Territory, Terri-tory, that that hasn't somehow worked to good, have you?" "Devil has kind of been fought with fire, no es verdad? I ought to get some kind of recommendation, even from the sheriffs who will chase me across the line at the end! Well, we're about home. Perch can do as he pleases, about notifying Janton. Oh!" He looked carefully before him, holding his set smile. "You've been talking a lot about my getting you away from Dud. I reckon I ought to tell you the truth about that and get it straight for you: Dud didn't like me a liT bit. He didn't like my killing Gonzales. He waited until he got two more hard cases in the gang. Dandy and West. Then he rigged it with Dandy to kill me. Poor old Jeff told me about it. So I was ready to leave. And when I found that Dud had you all tied up in a bundle, I knew it would make him fit to tie if I not only dodged his killing, but snatched you away from him. So I did that liT bitsy thing!" She was staring at him with face paper white. "Oh!" she said explosively, and swung her quirt viciously. The sorrel grunted and jumped under the slash of her blow, then |