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Show Jy JACKSON GREGORY JBI GREGORY W.N.U. RELEASE !HXUt"-' ' . j him what I She awaken. Cole and told him what had happened. Together with Cal, the foreman, he trailed the fleeing horsemen to a deserted cabin. Annt Jenifer, search-tag search-tag Ranee's possessions, heard lootsteps. Now continue with the story. THE STORY SO FAR: Arriving slmul- 1 aneously at the King Cole Ranch, Ann Lee and Cole Cody discovered Old Early Bill Cole had made two identical wills, leaving them all his money and the Ranch. Ranee Waldron, established at j the Ranch since Old Bill's death from a ! mysterious gun-shot wound, questioned I the sanity of Old Bill and the legality of ; the wills. Late that evening, Ann's Aunt i Jenifer stole out and watched Ranee help I a strange lurching man out of the house. CHAPTER XIII 1 For one stricken instant the adventuresome ad-venturesome Aunt Jenifer felt as though she were paralyzed. The next second she leapt and ran like a frightened deer; her racing footsteps foot-steps sounded extraordinarily loud in her own ears as she dashed through Waldron' s room toward the corridor. Then an even' louder sound struck her ears, a man in the yard running faster than she could run, making for the outside door of Tom Gough's room. She gained the door she was heading for and heard the other door snapped open, and heard a man's heavy boots come pounding on. She fled faster than ever, carrying tier lamp in one hand, her letter in the other. The lamp chimney was shaken off and crashed to the floor, use. I've been to his room and he's not there. The chances are he's no nearer than Bald Eagle." Ann Lee whispered to her aunt, "That isn't true!" But Aunt Jenifer Jeni-fer nodded and drew down the corners cor-ners of her mouth. "Only it is true. I knew he had gone out and I knew he hadn't come back. It's likely he's down at the men's quarters by now, chinning with Cal Roundtree. But if we yelled our heads off they wouldn't hear; that's why Cal left you a gun this morning, morn-ing, to signal him with. Darn it, I wish we had that gun now! Well, anyhow, I've got all the keys I know about in this place, and it'll take a lot of ax work to batter one of these doors down." "Well, what's the answer?" demanded de-manded Waldron. "I can't give you all nieht. vnn know, tn make uo your rather take you on by daylight." "Suits me fine," said Cody. Ranee Waldron dropped his ax. His gun was in his hand as he said, "All right; I'm taking your word for it," and started back down the corridor corri-dor to his room. Then Bill Cole Cody stepped along through the darkness toward the rooms where Ann Lee and her aunt were imprisoned. He, like Waldron before him, struck a match or two. Arrived at his destination, he said, "Will you ladies open up to me? It's in the cards, I think, that I have a word with you." It was Ann Lee's swift hand that unlocked the door; Cody, his gun still in his hand, since he trusted Ranee Waldron in nothing, made no move to cross the threshold. His eyes, smoldering under his dark brows, took in all the loveliness of minds." Ann Lee put her lips close to Aunt Jenifer's ear. "There are windows!" she whispered whis-pered eagerly. "We can slip through while he's battering at our door, and scoot like anything down to where Cal Roundtree is!" Aunt Jenifer whispered back, "Go take a good look at the windows, win-dows, Goosey. This is a regular old Spanish house; every one of these windows has iron bars like a jail; if you haven't noticed, I have." "I'll give you about two minutes . more to think it over," said Waldron. Wal-dron. "That's because if I go shoot- making a noise, it seemed to her, loud enough to wake the dead, but the flame, giving out more smoke than light, still burned on and showed her dimly the way she must go to gain her own room. She glanced back and . saw the man speeding after her; it was too dark back there for her to make him out clearly, but she knew it must be Ranee Waldron, and she could imagine imag-ine his hard hands choking her to death. By about three yards she won the race. But by the time she could slip into Ann Lee's room and get her key into the lock, he was at her door. By the fraction of a second she shot the bolt before his hand touched the knob. Then she sped through Ann Lee's room and to the door that gave upon the corridor, and as she heard him coming there, too, she got that door locked. There was a heavy silence, then Ann Lee's sleepy voice asking, "Is that you. Auntie? What are you doing?" do-ing?" Then Ranee Waldron's voice spoke up, saying curtly yet not over loud, "Miss Edwards, I think you had better let me come in. Or, if you like, you might step out here and give me a word of explanation." "Not tonight, Mr. Waldron, thank you," said Aunt Jenifer with creditable cred-itable calmness. Ann Lee sat up in bed. "What is it?" she whispered. "What has happened?" Again Ranee Waldron spoke, more sternly this time. "Miss Edwards, I won't stand for this sort of thing. You come out here and give me a good explanation or I'll smash your door down and come in." Aunt Jenifer told her pat little lie then. "I still have Cal Roundtree's gun, Mr. Waldron," she said quietly. "Stick your ugly mug in here and I'll shoot it off." "I'll bust your door down, I tell you," said Waldron. "I know you haven't any gun. Cody pitched it out into the patio and 1 saw Round-tree Round-tree pick it up and holster it and carry it off with him. Going to open up?" "No. Not on your life. And if you try it, I'll yell my head off, and I've got a voice that'll call the hogs home a mile; and the Cole Cody you mention will be here like a shot and will work on you the way he did the trim little figure before him, gave no hint of his admiration, passed on to Aunt Jenifer. "Do you care to tell me what the ruckus was all about?" he asked. "It might be a good idea." Speaking Speak-ing pointedly to Jenifer, he added: "You were right in what you told me a while ago. Cal Roundtree and I have found out a thing or two." "Will you step in, Mr. Cody?" asked Aunt Jenifer. "You're right welcome." "I'd be glad to do so, ma'am," said Cody politely, and stepped briskly into Ann Lee's room. Aunt Jenifer closed and locked the door and wasted no further time giving Cole Cody, with Ann Lee all ears to take it in, her adventure of the night She even handed the Jenkins letter to Cody who read it and then stood there frowning at it. "I don't know what to do about it all," he said at last "This letter found in his room, and the fact of his having hid a wounded man in his room all day, comes pretty close to pinning Mr. Ranee Waldron's ears back. He " "A man hid in the house all day!" gasped Ann Lee. "A wounded man? Tell me about it!" "It's my notion," said Aunt Jenifer Jeni-fer tartly, "and I reckon it's Cole Cody's notion, too, that Ranee Waldron Wal-dron and the man he's been hiding, are the two that held the stage up yesterday. Right, Cole?" Cody nodded. "Right, Aunt Jenifer. And more than that, Cal Roundtree feels certain cer-tain that Tom Gough that's the man Waldron has been hiding out-is out-is the man who shot old Early Bill. If all of us are right in our guesses, we'd better watch our steps. But if we round these two up and hand them over to the sheriff, what can we actually prove against them? We've got scraps of evidence, but it's mostly guesswork at that. Try a man for murder and let the jury find him innocent, and you can't ever haul him into court again. That's the law." If by some off chance he thought that under the circumstances a contrite con-trite Ann Lee would break down and plead to be forgiven, he didn't as yet quite know his Ann Lee. She kept her eyes down and her hands clasped before her, and said meekly, "Perhaps, Mr. Cody, that the shot you received this morning was sent by Providence to remind one that the spirit of man should never be PI "Want to shoot it out In the dark? Or get out of here?" ing your lock oft, I'm apt to wake that nosy Roundtree. I'll go to the kitchen and get a hand-ax; there's one by the wood box. I can handle that so he won't hear a sound. You've got until . I get back to do your thinking. And I'll manage to keep an eye on your door so that this morning, only 1 11 bet my bustle he'll do a better and more lasting job this time." "That's something to think about," said Waldron, and sounded reasonable and thoughtful. Then he fell silent. A moment later she could hear his footsteps, moving away. By now Ann Lee was thoroughly frightened. She was sitting up, the bed covers clutched up to her throat as though for protection. "He won't come back, I'm sure of it," said Aunt Jenifer. Yet she wasn't sure, and he did come back. That was only after he had pondered pon-dered a moment, after he had returned re-turned to his room and Tom Gough's. He saw signs of the invasion; in-vasion; he marked the rug turned back showing the stain on the floor boards, he even saw the telltale spot on the grayish-white blanket. He looked things over in his own room his papers had been tampered' with and the letter from Bucktooth Jenkins to old Early Bill was gone. No man, even fool enough to have left that letter as he had, would be fool enough not to realize what its seizure implied. For a time he was at his wits' end; there was the off chance that Cole Cody would not hear Aunt Jenifer's and the girl's screams; a slim, slim chance on a quiet night even in so big a house. But there was still another chance! Slim, this one too, but a possibility. Cole Cody might not be in the house at all; he might have ridden into Bald Eagle during the evening, anxious anx-ious and impatient about the will, seeking the Judge's counsel. At least it could do no harm to discover discov-er whether Cody were in or out. He went swiftly' yet on tip-toe to Cody's room. He rapped gently, saying, "Cody, are you there? I've got terrible cramps; have you got a shot of whiskey with you?" When he waited for an answer and got none, he tried the door. It was unlocked and he went in, striking a match as he crossed the threshold. thresh-old. There was no one in the room! No Cody to come running if Aunt Jenifer yelled her head off. And no likelihood of Cody returning this time of night. So Ranee Waldron returned promptly to Jenifer Edwards' room. There was grim determination in bis voice as he said, "I am going to shoot the lock oft your door or I'll go get an ax. You had better open up. As for calling that Cody hombre, it's no you don't sneak out on me." They listened for his departing footsteps and didn't hear a sound. So they quite naturally decided that he was still standing before their door, trying to trick them into sticking stick-ing their noses out when he'd be ready to pounce on them. But he had tricked them in another way. What he had actually done was remove his boots, set them down gently and hurry in his socked feet to the kitchen, get the hand-ax and return. The next thing they heard was his voice, at once angry and mocking. "Fooled you that time, my pretty ladies," he jeered at them. "I pulled my boots off and made the trip, and here I am back with the ax. You had your chance to run, but it's gone now; Listen to this." The hand-ax crashed into the solid oak of the door. "Open up now, and all I'll do is make you give me back something you stole from my room. Get pigheaded pig-headed about it.and I won't let you off so easy. I'm willing to be reasonable rea-sonable about the whole thing, but nobody is going to burglarize my room and get away with it." The ax crashed into the wood the second time. "What's the answer?" he demanded. demand-ed. A voice, cool and impersonal, spoke out of the darkness, for it was dark where Ranee Waldron stood; he had left his lamp in his room, making his way by striking an occasional match. The voice, cool and deliberate as it was, sounded sound-ed like that of a man whom it would be just as well not to antagonize, the voice of Cole Cody, just now arrived in silence. The words were merely, "What's going on here?" The answer came quickly enough. "Oh, Cole! God sent you to us! That horrid Ranee Waldron is trying try-ing to break our door down!" "I can't see you, Waldron," said Cody, his tone as steady and deliberate de-liberate as before. "From your ax work I can guess pretty close where you are, though. Want to shoot it out in the dark? Or stick your tail between your legs and get out of here?" Ranee Waldron took his time in deciding how to answer. "Shooting it out in the dark, Cody," Co-dy," he said after due thought, "is sheer luck. I haven't been over lucky of late; if it's the same with you I'd proud, whereas if you stood out there in the lamp light and Mr. Waldron popped a bullet into you, if would probably only show that you are a bigger fool than he is." Aunt Jenifer said crisply, "Sit down, Mr. Cody. Seems as though you're always to save our bacon from falling into the Are. Let's have a bit of a war talk, shall we?" "Auntie!" Ann Lpe glared at Miss Edwards, using one of the highest-grade highest-grade glares she kept in stock. "For this war talk of yours hadn't we better step into your room?" "This suits me fine," said Cody, and sat down. "There is merit in my niece's suggestion, sug-gestion, Mr. Cody," she said. "You'll note if you look about you that her room is in some disarray you see the dear child had already retired and was fast asleep when the fireworks started. My room you'll find as spick and span as 1 always am. This way, please." So the three went to the adjoining adjoin-ing room and sat down, Ann Lee having hav-ing returned to her own for the extra ex-tra chair needed. "Now for the war talk," said Cody. He reached for tobacco and papers. "Cal and I figured the whole thing out about as you do. Cal thought it might be a good idea to hang the two of 'em right away, and save bother and fooling around. Maybe he was right. Yet come right down to it we don't really know a thing about either Ranee Waldron or Tom Gough. But I can't see much to be done on it tonight. It's kind of late and me, for one, I'm clean tuckered w the shooting-up this young lady handed me and the ride tonight Suppose we talk this over, gettins Cal in on it, in the morning and maybe sending for the Judge and Doc Joe to help give us a steer'" Ann Lee looked her relief; Aunt Jenifer nodded and said vehemen ly. "Mr Cody, I want you to stay near to tonight. I'll sleep ith Ann Lee, and you take my room. Won't you? li Cody rose and bowed; it was J rather graceful bow, thought Ann Lee as she and Aunt Jenifer They passed to their room- h. stepped after them to the L closed it gently and said a ty quiet, vety lad"5' ma'am. And good night, (TO BE CONTINUED) |