Show MV adieu M E by C WIRE service 0 D appleton century inc THE STORY THUS FAR 2 summoned to the C C ranch in central C Is on his nevada evada desert wise ise walt wait gandy his old partner bill I 1 hollister holay W way ay to help range walt wait Is stopped short by bv a girl who holds a rifle in firing position she knows him tells him how to get to the ranch and teus lens him that they will meet again within to a quarter ol of a mile from his destination walt wait Is stopped again this time by a grotesque misshapen man bent lavic by tiame name who tells him to get out and then tells him the C C crew Is in emigrant th the e closest town for an inquest someone has as been murdered riding biding to the inquest in emigrant walt leaves his horse at the livery stable walt learns that cash cameron owner of the C C ranch Is in trouble A li hard rd but honest man cash has many enemies at the inquest walt sees hollister find and the girl who had stopped him chino drake former cook at the C C ranch has been murdered and sheriff ed battle is trying to pin the blame on cash cameron the girl earl is called to the stand she is s she he helen cameron cashs cachs daughter seemingly faints and as gandy rushes to her aid slips som something ethil g in his hand it Is the bu bullet let from drakes body walt rents a post office box and leaves the bullet in it A dark swarthy man offers him a job he draws the man out finds that he wants to usurp arp camerons public range land gandy use th then n turns him down in biting fashion the man leaps at walt who whips him after a hard battle the man Is pete kelso foreman of the 77 ranch gandy Is called caged to the sheriffs office where he meets hollister battle tells hollister that cameron is through hollister and gandy return to the C C hollister borrows two hundred dollars from gandy that evening walt meets helen cameron in the kitchen from the first he be has been drawn to her then she tells him that bill hollister Is one of the fine finest I 1 t men she has ever known the bawling c of f cattle that night brought walt out to anve investigate digate curious he steps into the saddle saddle shed then the shed door opens slowly aly it Is helen CHAPTER IX continued under walts clamped arms the breath gushed out of her and helen was all at once limp against him for the moment and he was ashamed as if he had grabbed and was shaking a helpless kitten words formed to say sa so but the girl jerked and tore from his hands youl you let me go her voice choked in rage she broke off he imagined dark eyes blazing but then she turned him cold with the dead quiet completely final tone of her next words call yourself bill hollisters Hol listers friend saying you owe him so much and now spying oh oh im glad I 1 watched glad of it do you hear I 1 know I 1 dont trust you now on the instant she regained control of the bitter emotion that had swept her or else still bitter could yet feel a certain sympathy fo for r she said im sorry I 1 am but all I 1 c can n say is better leave this ranch no one asked you to come here and uncover what has happened he heard her back away from him heard the door open and click shut the girl was gone but there was left behind her a turmoil of fright and her desperate voice and the puzzle of what it all meant walt gandy stood in the dark and swore softly no one had asked him to come here and nd uncover what had happened A lot seemed explained in that was the whole C C covering up instead of uncovering was that it even hollister he struck a match and swept it along the saddle rack to the empty space the short flare died but gandy remained rooted trying to make reason of what he had se seen en for the missing saddle was C cash ash camerons 1 CHAPTER X weaken WHATEVER ride cameron had taken last night and gandy saw signs that it had been a long one it had done the old man no good the C CC C owner was worried in the faintly graying morning he clumped stiffly down to where horses stood ready outside the corrals he moved with ill concealed saddle tiredness no spring in his step shoulders drooping his large figure in a rainproof canvas coat looking heavy and leaden when forms appeared out of the faint morning mounted and when were ranged before him in a half circle bill hollister gave orders he turned in his saddle to cameron on a tall gray ive got plans for the rest of us cash what do you figure on doing yourself never mind me said cameron you boys can do what combing is left on the benches ill cut west to the rims and see how feed looks you riding alone hollister demanded M no the girls going bill hollister was foreman of the CC but it seemed to walt gandy next moment that even so he worked with an unusually high hand on this place do west the lank man was saying is toward the 77 what are you taking helen for cash and why that direction you know well enough how the sink teed feed looks looka if youre figuring he cut himself short compressed his mouth and this CC C C foreman and the CC C C owner sat looking at each other eye to eye hollister said then well only one thing were all to meet back here not later than three camerons white head nodded he said nothing hollister continued directions fisher you and the kid can take the north bench sand canyon will be far enough remember back here at three horsechief Horse thief fisher gave a wry grin barrin accidents he said gandy and ill take south beyond willow spring hollister ended we all ought to get these strays cleaned up and shoved into the sink by noon we might meet there but no need to make a point of it passing a vegetable patch to the right of the fenced lane he stared with open curiosity in there the cook chino drake had be been en found dead hollister rode with his face held front the lane ended and they turned into somber shadow of the pine slope still following a fence that snaked an irregular way from trunk to trunk they came upon a bucket of staples left beside a blazed tree with a claw hammer hooked into a lower strand of the barbed wire fencing that crazy lavial hollister exploded no use mending fence out this far snowell have it down again this winter nuts is he walt asked dont you think it 1 I dont said gandy hollister looked across at him queer though lavic laic is A grin broke the gravity of his face 1 I guess walt youve come to think were all queer on the C C he sobered we are queer worse than queer any man is set himself to have one thing and let nothing 0 else matter 1 im m all ears said gandy after a long silence this was to be your morning to talk maybe you can begin on the easy ones and lead up to the tougher propositions give me a line on this horsechief Horse thief fisher he hes a likeable cuss and all right I 1 figure or he sure hollister agreed horse thiefs all right now but he came into the country rustling C C stock went to jail for it and th then en cash bailed baided him out and made h him im go to work on the place cash is like 1 that horsechief Horse thief has been on the C C ever since and that was fifteen years ago cash took the kid too paul champion when his old man died in a gunfight put him through school and made him one of the family hes a good boy if his dads gunning streak is held down then theres bent lavic A coulee cut the bench top and they put their horses slantwise down to the bottom then up the other side they jingled on across the flat lavic was a cowman some eighteen twenty years ago hollister continued he controlled range cameron owned cattle they were going to merge into one big outfit when lavic had his accident got thrown from a horse and laid in the snow all of one night before anyone found him I 1 dont know what set in because of that but it left him in awful shape and it did something else you seen it yet lavic hates cameron jealousy he hoped to be the king post here a and nd camerons rise to the power he wanted curdled his gizzard watch his face sometime across the table see after the accident cameron opened his money bags and bought lavic out instead of watching him lose his range then told lavic to make the ranch his home as long as he wanted to bent stayed as far as I 1 know hes never been off the C C even to go to town know why helen hollister shot a sidelong glance what do you think of that girl lets finish with lavic first walt answered might help hollister grinned back its like I 1 said bent stayed because of helen her mother had died and he raised her she was only a little kid then lavic kept the house going was her watch watchdog dog and later on taught her all she knows of riding and camping out and hitting what she aims a gun at walt put in tight reined hollister set his horse back to a sudden stop what do you mean by that gandys candys palomino took the cue and halted also walt wet his thumbs and began the rolling of a cigarette helen cameron he said exhaling blue smoke strikes me as being a keen p party arty with a rifle all she has a straight eye and a steady hand and ill bet when en she handles a gun its no fool inglot walt dont jump up and grab onto the conclusion that im ready that isn t it something to quit or and before this thing is over with a pack of chop licking hyenas are going to find it out but youve sat in plenty of poker games yourself and you know once in a long 1 while you can read your cards before you pick them up its more than a hunch you know what lies there face down 1 I know what youre going to say scoffed gandy all right hollister insisted its a tact fact I 1 can see it coming and that he emphasized is why youre here walt gandy grinned the black boy is in em huh vt he tried to make light of this thing that hollister was predicting but a cold chill played leapfrog up and down his backbone for he knew bill hollister and he knew also the too frequently proved fact that if a man is marked in a country like this the day will come sometime when a horse trots back to the home ranch with stirrups flapping and the saddle empty it takes only one bullet and that bullet can be met at any turn of the trail any clump of cedar or benchland coulee can hide its sender the murder something rotten under that dark mood of his bill hollister had a temper chino drake had been shot in the back no man would admit that even to a partner walt gandy scowled and threw away his cigarette what are the cards in this hand youve read face down he asked turn em api upi up if im sitting in on A 0 1 41 III F 1 6 1 1 I 1 I 1 i P 1 ii n 11 it what are the cards in this hand youve read face down this game I 1 dont play anything blind to face him hollister shifted onto one leg his hard hands reaching for support on saddle horn and cantle cantie all right ill show you hows this cash cameron is broke there was flat finality in the way hollister said the word lord breathed gandy and his gaze swept out over the miles of CC C C domain along the benches that stepped down from the high emigrant mountains swung north following the curve oj of the range west into inta 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 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 ive been carrying the C C for more than a year im supposed to be only part owner walt I 1 own darn near the whole thing war and all said gandy yes right if these hy enas had known what condition the C C was in they have waited for something to tie us up before they started jumping our grass they still think we have the almighty cameron dollars behind us well we 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 happening first thing is weve got to have that national forest privilege but its being cut away from us each year our allotment of how many cows we can send up into the mountains is being 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 service by the e ear ar and is talking in low to tones nes what cameron I 1 arc n and ranger powell have wrangled about lately walt gandy sat nicking flicking a loose rein end against his chaps I 1 leg eg a powell he mused was C cash ash I 1 camerons alibi 11 at n the tia inquest he hollisters Hol listers heavy br brows aws gathered well this powell was the alibi gandy a amended m en led 0 o only n the alibi show up H his sn noncommittal non on committal brown gaze a na narrowed row ed off ff over the valley just taking a ride he was perhaps and be got hold of that day huh look here W walt albl what do you know hollisters Hol listers voice suddenly had a lash in it gandy looked around at last something had brought a rise out of the man muscles of hollisters Hol listers lean jaw knotted and his black eyes blazed are you telling me something he demanded or was that talk there came to him again the feeling that the C C people were covering up not uncovering so he said 1 I only know that ranger powell been seen since the day your chino drake cook was killed sure well and hollister Hollist cr visibly let down nothing unusual in that sam powell always takes a long circle around his district before winter sets in lets see the rest of your cards said gandy hollister again studied the fork of his blacks ears he hesitated spoke tight jawed when he said then 11 chino drake and helen that cook was a low crossbreed cross breed between an indian buck and a chinese woman 0 a and nd bad he watched cameron ero n once and stole money from a posthole post hole bank cash used to pull out a fence post drop a money bag in and put the post back we never did get what drake took and always 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 while hollister talked of chino drake a black mood grew upon him and he finished now with a savage snap then I 1 caught him after helen in that moment the case of chino drake seemed clear so you killed him huh walt asked hollisters Hol listers head jerked around suppose I 1 did then what shot him in the back like that yes well said walt nothing much only id be through here I 1 brought up in that school hollister laughed you sure would and I 1 know it he shifted upright in his saddle lets get along this time it was walt gandy who held back theres a special card bill that I 1 want to see A high one you turned up what about the queen of hearts the short burst of laughter died in hollisters Hol listers mouth helen you mean that girl 1 I sure do walt said it gripes me a lot to hear a man talk about playing to a marked deck when he holds a trump like that to back up any bet he makes there you are you asked me a while ago what I 1 thought of her it you fool well go right ahead and clean this range of whatever has happened here then you marry the girl what do you say walt gandy finished grinning but was cut short next instant by hol listers look it was as if he had I 1 mans man s face with a whip lash it was set lined and hard hollisters HoUi Hol listers powerful 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 dont know what youre talking about walt ill never marry helen cameron he put spurs to his horse and they loped on covering miles and saying nothing bill hollister had showed his cards almost there was one walt gandy knew still face down CHAPTER XI xa I 1 TT T 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 them 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