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Show The Settling of the Sage Sj HAL G. EVARTS j WNTJ Srvlc Copyright by Hal O. Evarts I WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE At the Warren ranch, tht Three liar," a at ranker a plied for work as a rider W:i liii met tf3 Ann VVa i ren k nown to all us "Billie," Is the owner or :he ranch. The girl's fa'h-r. C'il Warren, had been the original origi-nal owner. The q u est Ion w her h r the territory is to remain "cow coun try" or be opened to settlement is a troublesome o n t The newcomer Is put to woik Cattle "run 1 1 l rs" have bef-n troubling the ranch owners The new hand gives hla name as Cai (lurria. By his announcement In fa vor of "hq un iters" he Incurs the enmity of a rider known as Morrow. The will made by Cai Warren stipulated that half the property Khould go to the son ot his old friend. William HnrrK under certain conditions. The new arrival la the man, and he discloses the fact to Billie. Slade. a ranchman with an unsavory reputation, visits Billie Slade. en-(loavorlne en-(loavorlne to embrace Billie Is interrupted in-terrupted bv Harris The regular reg-ular calf round-up Is begun While .he riders are at theii evening meal, far out on the range, six outsiders Join them Bitlie l-nnws them to be "rustlers," "rust-lers," who, under the leadership of Slade and a man named Harper, Harp-er, have in the past stolen Three Bar cnttle. To test Harris' courage cour-age the girl anuoints him temporary tem-porary foreman, suggesting that he order the visitors to leave. Somewhat to her surprise he does so. The men depart, making threats. Billie makes Harris permanent foreman. Catching Morrow lea vine cnttle were they can be stolen. Harris dis-charges dis-charges him. CHAPTER V 9 Billie Warren nicle wllh Harris on Hie Inst lap of the circle. There were but two men remaining with them. "Moore!" Harris called, and the man turned tils horse down the head of a draw thai would lend him out Into the bottoms a triile less rhan a mile above the wagon. Harris heard u shrill whistle behind him and turned sidewise in the saddle to look back, saw that Moore had refrained the ridge and was signaling. They turned and rode buck to him. ' "There's another." Moore said, pointing down the gulch. "It's net-ting net-ting to be a habit." , A dead cow lay on a little flat a hundred yards below, for three con teeutive days some ridei bad found a fresh-killed Three Bar cow. Every animal had been shot. "I'll look thl' one over myself, Harris decided. "There's only two more gulches to work. Each one of you boys take one." The girl followed him as he turned down the Gist steep ditch. They pulled up their horses and sal look Ing at the cow. A trickle of blood oozed out of a hole between her eyes Harris rode In a circle round the pot "He downed her from some point above," he said. "Not a sign any where close at hand." He surveyed the ridges that Banked either side ot the draw and the little saddle-like de pression at the head of it from which they had just descended. From be yond this gap came the shrill nicker of a horse, the sound chopped short as If a man had clamped his hand or the animal's nostrils to silence It Harris turned swiftly to the girl. "It's a plant," be said. "Ride-hard "Ride-hard !" He suited his action to the w..rd and Jumped his horse off down flit bottoms. He waved her over to ..to-slde. ..to-slde. "Keep well away from me !" he or dered. "They don't want you." They hung their spurs into their mounts and the horses plunged d wn the steeply-pitching bottoms, vuu Irinv sage clumps and bounding along ihe cow trails that threaded the hruh Two hundred yards below r lie nra the draw made an elbow bend. The girl rounded it and as Harris fol lowed a Jump behind he felt a jarring tug ut the cuntle of nis saddle and the thin, sharp crack ut e rille reached him The gulch mane h reverse bend and as they swept around It Harris swung sidewise ii the saddle and looked hack The were entirely sheltered from hiiv point on the divide six hundred yard behind them, lie pulled his hnrs. t, a swinging trot and they rode di'wr the sloping meadow that led slnilgh' to the main valley. "We didn't get started any rou soon," Harris said. "His horse wasn't more than a hundred feet beyond the nolch when he hlew otT and warned us not time for me to gel cached and drop him as he topped the ridge' The girl's eyes suddenly riveted on a small round hole in the oaiule of hl saddle where the ball had entered On the inside and far to the left ex tremity f the canile a ragged gash showed where it had passed out The ball h id not missed his left hip to es ceed an inch. She started ter horse so suddrnlv That before he realized her purpose she was well In the lead and going at a dead run toward the mouth of the gulch where It opened out Into the main bottoms two hundred vards beyond. rrom the opposite slope riders were hazing cows out of their respective draws. Tbe running horse caught ev er., man's eyes as the girl careened out into the center of the valley, rose In her stirrups and waved an arm In a circle ubove her head. In five seconds riders were whirling in behind her from all directions as she headed for the wagon. She waved those already on the spot toward the rope corral. "Change horses!" she called, and as each man rode In he caught up a fresh tior.se. "Scatter" out; some of you below where we came dow'n. some above." she said. "Five hundred to the man that brings Morrow In." "It's no use, Billie," Harris coun seled mildly. "He's plum out of the country by now. It'll be dark In three hours and It's right choppy country over there." Waddles Interposed and seconded tier move. "Let 'em rip," he said. "There's lust a chance." Bangs was the first to change mounts. The boy's physical qualitlca tlons were as sound as his mental ability was limited and It was his pride to have a string of mounts that Included the worst horses In the lot. He rode from the corral on Blue, holding hold-ing the b'g roan steady, and headed up the ridge a mile below where Harris Har-ris and the girl had come down Rile 'It's a Plant," He Said. "Ride hard." Foster chose th.. next; five riders were but a few jumps behind. Harris did not change horses hut searched hastily In his war, bag and slipped the strut of a binocular case across his shoulders and rode off with the girl as she finished cinching her sad die on a fresh horse. In less than five minutes from the time she had reached the wagon the last Three Bar man had mounted and gone. Harris rode with her up a long ridge that led up to the divide; the followed another into the next hot turns and ascended the second divide This was sharp and rocky. Its cresl h maze of ragged pinnacles lie chose the highest of these and dismounted to sweep the range with tiis glasses The high point ufforded a view of every ridge for miles After perhaps half an hour Harris cnughl five horse men in the field of his glasses. Thej were riding in a knot. "They've picked up his trail." he said. "But he'll have loo long a lead We might as well he going." They mourned and headed to the right along the divide. "If Kile is in sighi we can wait for him." he said "And see if he's picked up any tracks." A half-mile along the ridge fhe saw Fosier off through Ihe breaks and lie was working hack iheii win "Thanks. Billie." Harris said 'For losing a circle trying to run him down.' "I'd have done as nunti for anj Three Bar man." she returned "CM course." he said "I'd have ex peered that Bui all the same Ii shows thai I'm progressing Maybe my good (.pialiiies will grow on you until you gel to thinking righi well ot me." They waited till Foster joined them on the i irige. "Bangs crossed over a mile below," Rile said. "We might pick him up." "Any sign?" Harris asked as they moved down the divide. "A bunch of shod horses went down through there a few days back," Bile said. "Three or four men likely, with a few pack horses along. He's pulled out." "I saw him," Harris said. "He's gone." They stopped In the saddle of the ridge where a fresh track showed the spot Bangs had crossed. The girl was looking at Harris and saw a sudden pallor travel up under his tan and as she turned to see what had occasioned It he crowded his horse against her own. "Don't look !" he ordered, and forced her horse over the far side of the ridge. "You'd better ride on back to the wagon." he urged. "There's been some sort of doings over across. Rile and I will ride down and look Into It." Wit pout a word she turned her horse toward the wagon. "It's God's mercy she didn't s.te." Harris said, as the two crossed back over the ridge. "Isn't that a h I of a way for a man to die?" But the girl hud seen. Her one nriet look had revealed a horse coming com-ing round a bend In a little box can yon below A shapeless thing dragged frofi one stirrup and Ji every third or fourth Jump the big blue horse side-slashed the limp bundle with his heels. As the two men reached the bottoms the frenzied horse had stopped and was fighting to free himself of the thing that followed him. He moved away from it In a circle but It was always with him. He sipiealed and kicked It, then dashed off In a fresh panic, side-swiping his pursuer. Harris' rope tightened on his neck and threw him. As he rolled over Foster's noose snared both hind feet and he was held stretched and helpless help-less between two trained cow horses while the men disengaged the bundle that had once been Bangs. One boot heel was missing and his foot was jammed through the stirrup, evidence that the horse had pitched with him and the loosened heel had come off. allowing his fool to slip through as he was thrown. Flarris pointed to a burnt red streak icri.ss the right side ot Bangs' neck He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed a similar streak under his left armpit Old Kile cursed horribly and his face seemed to have aged ten years. "They learned that from the alhl no." he said. "It's an old trick that always works. They dropped a rope on him and jerked him. pried off his heel, shoved his hoot through and laid the ipiirt on his horse. Blue did the rest." Both men knew well how It hap pened Bangs had run across the camp ot some of the wild hunch men he had known for long, and the slow thinking youth had suspected no more danger from riding on up to them at this time than at any other He had told them ot the shot fired at Harris and they had known that some other Three Bar man would find the trail leading from Ihe direction of their camp Anil Bangs would mention having found them there, linking them with the bushwhacker. When Bangs had . fl a pair ot rliem had ridden a distance with him and accomplished their aim. "It's coming dark." Harris said "And by morning they'll be thirty miles away. That sort ot a killing was never fastened on to any man vet." The old man raised a doubled list and Ids ace was lined with sorrow '"Bangs was almost a son to me." he said "I taught him. to ride and we've rode togethei on every )oh since then. You hear me1 Some one is go ing to lie for this!" I Hiring the next week the girl in .vardly accused the men of heartless ness They lested as carelrsslv as If nothing unusual had occurred and she heard no mention ot Bangs It seemed that it took hut a duj ror iherr to forget a former comrade who had come to an untimely end Kile Fh.-.:t had disappeared hut on the ttfih day he turned up at the Three Bin wagon and resumed his worl niihoip the least explanation of his absence. (TO BIS CONTINUED.) |