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Show THE RICH COUNTY REAPER. RANDOLPH. UTAH Wouldnt be hearing anything good. INSTALLMENT tell you, this thing comes from inside; this thing might be something that I couldnt beat without help. The United States Marshal at San Antonio smiled to himself a little smile; and he said, Seems like this must be a terrible bad thing for you, ' 6 THE STOBY SO FAB: Dusty King and Lew Gordon had built up a vast string ol ranches which stretched from Texas to Montana. King was killed by his powerful and unscrupulous competitor, Ben Thorpe. Bill Roper, Kings adopted son, undertook to break Thorpe's power. His first step was to start a cattle war in Texas. He made this decision against the opposition of Lew Gordon and the tearful pleading of his sweetheart, Jody Gordon. With the aid of Dry Camp Pierce and other outlaw gunmen, Roper conducted raid after raid upon Thorpes herds. Cleve Tanner, manager of Thorpes Texas holdings, seemed helpless to stop him. Gunmen seized control of isolated ranches, and cattle were driven off by the thousands as entire herds are driven across the Rio Grande into Mexico. CHAPTER VIII Cleve? , I!m telling you Go ahead and tell me. Youre a Ben Thorpe man, aint you? A right leading Ben Thorpe man. Well maybe Ill tell you a couple of things, some day . . . There was law in Texas, even in those days; but there was no such law as could stand against the combined renegades of the long trail, with behind them a lawyer who could delay forever in the courts; and a reckless expenditure of money, the source of which some suspected, but which was not definitely known. . . a'1' Continued Presently it began to appear that the tough, notoriously trouble-makin- g outfits under Cleve Tanner were not holding together as they .always had before. Here and there men were beginning to desert the Tanner CHAPTER IX outfits sometimes fired because With the fall, Lew Gordon, now in they had failed, sometimes voluncattarily deserting to the ranks of the sole charge of the raiders who were now almost open- tle holdings he had shared with ly punishing the Thorpe-TannDusty King, came to Texas to inn holdings. spect the southern holdings of the breeding ranges from n , in the season of driest which all the holdings heat drew their essential sustenance. Into the Potreros, by a little used kept coming to Bill Roper horseman at Reports trail, a his constantly shifting bases by rode. He was a tested gunman, a way of the many riders who kept proved man whose name was known him in touch with his and feared half the length of the for Great Trail. Trouble-shootin- g Cleve Tanner now, he was moving into the Potreros to find out what had gone wrong with some of Tanners choicest herds. He had come fast, changing horses frequently. Loping down the almost invisible trail through the dark, his horse suddenly dropped from under him, head far-scatter- dd er King-Gordo- Mid-Augu- King-Gordo- black-sombrero- ed far-spre- ad The pony long into nothingness. might have stepped into a prairie dog hole or it could have been the loop of a rope. But as the dazed rider struggled up, his mouth full of dirt, a rifle was prodding his belly, and a voice was saying, Dont you think you might have took the wrong way? . West Texas, far up the lonely Pecos One of Cleve Tanners outfit bosses was talking to the Ranger stationed at Mustang Point. Such a damn outbust of lawlessness has cut loose here as I never seen before, he said. The ranger here was Val McDonald. He had gone out nineteen times in battle, sometimes against Mexicans, sometimes against the Coman-cheand he had hunted white ren- To remove grass stains from Floor wax rubbed well onto newly finished window sills will keep white clothes make a paste of them in excellent condition. baking soda and soap and spread thickly over stain. Stale cake' crumbs sprinkled over the top of custards before Dip fish in milk instead of eggs to bake before oven give rolling in bread or crumbs putting into the the top a delicate brown and the The fish will taste better. custard a different flavor. Did you know that potatoes If washable curtains become boiled in their skins . save time rusted on the rods during damp and are twice as wholesome? are weather, dampen the fust spots Canned apricots and peaches simto if as coattwice good brought and cover them with a thin ing of salts of lemon. Let stand mering point first with a spoonful of honey or syrup. until the stains disappear. . . range. Eleven outfits, Roper said. Then it was really you? Those eleven outfits they speak of those were outfits roughed away from little lonely men, on pretenses that hadnt any justice or any true law. Those outfits are back with their owners now. But you admit your wild bunch is behind all this? Call it that if you want to. I guess there isnt anybody knows as well as you do what Im trying to do. She said in a dead voice, I never believed it; I couldnt believe it until now. Didnt I tell you about it? I told you about it before I began. I set out to break Cleve Tanner; and by God, hell be broken! if I live. You know Cleve Tanner has put up five thousand dollars for your ar- ... I Labor an Appetizer seasoning but appetite. Would you The chief ingredient of a good I have a good sauce? Then, labor dinner is not exquisite flavor or before eating. Horace. - rest? s, egades galore. He pulled up his horse a few Awfully tough, he said in his own sympathetic way. yards from the kitchen gallery.1 The foreman of the outfit that was I wild bunch. Inevitably he knew that busted up was fit to be tied. Jody was at the headquarters of the tell you, were being stolen blind, not far from Uvalde. Not just a calf here old he raved. knew she was there. that Roper and there, either they take em in Yet fall the on, and Nodragged boldbunches. and the Its swoops beinto December vember passed est thing Ive ever seen. Even when to went fore see her. he no of chance theres getting clear He had told himself that there was with any cattle, theyre game to no use in his going to see Jody Gorstampede a cut herd that its took weeks to round up, and scatter it don; but in the end, of course, he went. from hell to He rode up to the ranch This is one of Ben Thorpes outhouse in late afternoon of a cold fits? No? December day. The sky was low Does that mean Well? How many times lias Cleve and heavy, and the bitter norther Tanner passed out the word, The had brought a scud of hard snow a Rangers be damned? Hes put more long way to throw it sharply in his obstructions in the way of things face. ' He pulled up his horse a few yards we was trying to do than any other the kitchen gallery, then sat from one man. Who was it had the legisat the house, his sheepthere we our down looking until cut lature pay hunched about his throat. skin furand ride for nothing, practically come this far, he Even now, stuff? own having our nish all The question here is whether almost made up his mind to go were goihg to have any law, or are away. Then Jody Gordon stepped out on we going to have From what I heard, McDonald the gallery in a whippy woolen dress said, Cleve Tanner has left it be and stood estimating the uninvited known that hes the biggest end of horseman through the dusk. A split pole fence separated them; the law himself. Go talk to Cleve Tanner if you want law. and after a moment she came My understanding is, the fore- across the few yards of space, man argued, that the Rangers are leaning sideways against the bitter wind, and stood gripping a bar of supposed to out and move fence as she peered up into his the up Ill straighten your little old range, McDonald face. I knew it was you, she said. said. Ill be glad to. Just as soon as I get orders from headquarters. Child, said Bill Roper, you get Im waiting for them right orders back in that house. Youll freeze! now! Then you put up your horse and But the weeks rolled by, and head- come in. Is your father here? quarters was curiously still . . . Hes in San Antonio. End of summer; a welcome end I dont think hed want me here, Cleve Tanner himself, the Cleve Jody. ' Lew Gordon has never turned Tanner who tepresented Ben Thorpe in the south, master of breeding away any rider without a cup of grounds, the man who controlled the coffee; not yet. He gave in then, and stepped roots of all Ben Thorpes plains organization, was talking to the Unit- down. He tied his horse to the fence, ed States Marshal at San Antonio! and followed her into the house. The fire in the big wood range .. There hasnt been such a wave of outlawry $ince the horse Indians made the room a dazing contrast to was put down. Damnation, man! tiie cold sweep of the prairie; he I threw his coat open, but did not take Its set us back ten years know what your policy has been. it off. Of course, Jody said, we keep Your idea is to let us fight it out for Mexico, against hearing about you. ourselves, against Thats too bad. Z expect you the Indians, against all hell. But I Two-Circl- e, Two-Circ- le - , ... No. Silence again. He didnt know why he had come ; there wasnt anything he could say. He stood by the stove, his eyes brooding on the iron. Deep in the pockets of his coat there was a trembling in his slack fingers, not caused by cold. It was a strange and uncomfortable thing to be so near this girl again, and yet to be so far away. Still, Jody said, you seem to be getting done what you set out to do. Sometimes it looks like Im not ' ' even doing that. If you havent accomplished anything else, youve astonished my father. Hes said himself, over and over, he wouldnt have supposed it could be done. No question but what Cleve Tanner is shaken; hes shaken clear down to his roots. Nobody knows whats what any more, or what will happen. People who thought a year ago that Cleve Tanner was invincible theyre saying now that hes coming to the end of his string; that if this thing goes on, Tanner will be through. What else do they say? Theyre saying that the worst renegades of the trail are working together, for the first time the killers, the men who dont care if they live or die. They say they have money back of them now, and that eveh Cleve Tanner, with all his string of outfits, cant stand up against the everlasting raiding, and stampeding, and mysterious loss of cattle. They say hes lost twenty outfits, just because he couldnt spare the gunmen to hold the Bill Roper chuckled crazily. All right. Ill put up ten thousand for his arrest. There isnt going to be any arrest, and he knows that, too., I cant believe it, she kept sayI cant believe ing over and over. it even yet. You cant believe what? Oh, Billy, its unbearable! That you youve turned yourself into the festering point of all that struggle, and hate, and lawless gunning He had to grin at that, unhappy as he was. Didnt realize I' was festering, he said. You had everything, she said, and you threw it away . . He had only heard heT say that once before; but, in memory, he had heard it so often since that her words had the ring of a familiar song. Im sorry that , we cant ever see things the same," Bill said. I started out to get Cleve Tanner, and Ill get him. After Tanner, Walk Lasham; and after Walk Lasham, Ben Thorpe. But when it comes to saying I had everything before I started in, I guess maybe that isnt CteD 6P qG J-U-D fltsCfc? Cfeiffe , so Jody said hotly, There wasnt one thing in all the world you didnt have or couldnt have had before you chose this crazy way! I didnt have you, he told her. If I had had you, I guess I would have you yet. Things dont shift and change so easy as that not in the part of the world I know. He was pulling on his gloves now, buttoning his sheepskin coat. in what was left of the light, the shadows lay heavy upon his face. As he stood there, he could have been Dusty King himself the man who had broken a hundred long and weary trails; except that Dusty King had perhaps never looked so old. Her voice came to him as if from And when youre a distance. through, she said what are you . going to have left? Far as I know, Bill Roper said, Im not going to have anything left. God knows Ive got very little left now. He was glad she didnt know how his resources had dwindled, how close to the end he really stood. Cant Her voice rose sharply. you see theres jno hope in this ghastly thing? Thorpes grip is unbreakable. She came close tq him, and her words came through her teeth. Its your very life youre throwing away! Perhaps he misunderstood her then; for he grinned. Maybe, he said, that would be the least I could lose; the very least of all . . fTO BE CONTINUED) Save Money By Stopping At THE BELVEDERE APARTMENT HOTEL $2.00 and up Single $2.50 and up Double MODERN . . . CENTRAL LOCATION FIREPROOF . . . . . . WITH OR WITHOUT KITCHENS. The Belvedere Apartment Hotel CALVIN 29 SOUTH STATE STREET O. JACK, Manager SALT LAKE CITT, UTAH |