Show w HYS PRICE by Bla eLeod kizino by willum macleod memorable night when lie 1 had a 1 liluis to engineer the lynch lunching lynching lyn ching or of dave stone men blen with whom lie he had been hail ball fellow now met him with a hard bard and stony stare enough had bad been proved against him to wreck any reputation lie might have bad as a decent citizen but it was the suspicion of a greater crime one so evil that few even whispered tt it to each other which made him a 1 pariah among ills his kind at the circle cross lie he met the same chilly mistrust neither julia nor ahil dared meet his eyes for fear ot of what they might read in them the only one ol of the riders with whom ho he would have had a fellow feeling was gitner and the big texan had been given his time and was now hanging around mesa except lor for vanity jaspers bid hide e was pachyderm ons but he could not stand the universal condemnation in which he bs stood lets pint for the hills carl he be suggested to his crony even 40 even the greasers here treat me like I 1 got yellow fever the tha greasers here treat me like iffie I 1 got yellow fever I 1 suits me fine the other agreed well take a claim an make a bluff at mining 1 both of them took to their retreat in the mountains a venomous hatred of wilson mccann they hey rode across the bare desert in the deceptive atmosphere which d distorts form color and distance aha A halt if day of riding brought them only to the upper foothills and showed a group range rather than a single one where we headin for asked jasper in mid afternoon gitner slid a sidelong look 1001 at him ile he knew the purpose of their choice of this locale better than his companion did why up here a ways back of that knob over to the left evening brought them by devious ways to a well concealed park back of a small canyon the entrance of which was camouflaged by a false front rock face protecting from the eye a narrow gateway in the wooded park they rode down to taa a hag mahiai ai an the sinna A tonn ft m W M onic C bitners GIt ners hail it lie ile brought to tha door with liim him a rifle 10 lo mark the texan greeted him make you acquainted with jas stark the roan man in blue overalls nodded with no enthusiasm strangers coming to dunnigs Dun wigs park were not they had to come well recommended as bad citizens the starks were not that in spite 0 of the lawless streak in them dont worry about jas his companion said eald hastening to reassure dubwig iles hes all right the particular emphasis emil hasIs he gave tho the words meant that lie he was all wrong better fall off an light their host suggested they cared for their horses and entered the cabin before lie he slept that night jasper was committed to a new source of crime lie ile did not pledge himself to it of ills his own choice tor for he be felt it was dangerous but gitner knew too much about him it was too late to draw back now lie ile had forfeited the option of being his own master for F or almost a year there had been systematic rustling in the hills the i cattlemen had at first been loath to believe it even after the evidence was too plain to deny they had been inclined to think tho the offender must be some mexican nester but of late the number of missing cattle pointed to organized robbery some one was running stock across the border and selling it it was a mark of jasper starks declension that its his reluctance to joining the rustlers was due to no moral scruples yet he be had been brought up in a country where the crime ranked as a capital one all the teaching of ills his youth reinforced this aliis view A rustler was a slinking coyote of the desert to be shot down or hanged it if cau caught bt red hand ed lie he had hotly argued this more than once now he had slid into that company of the furtive eyed who ride crooked trails and look upon nil all honest folk as potential enemies well make a stake settle our scores with wilson mccann an maybe dave stone too then light out for sonora gitner predicted with a few drinks under his belt it vas as easy for jasper to believe that tha this would come true he wo would id got get away from this part of the country where he bad been forced to get in so bad and lie he would make a fresh start in another lanc lana ile he would have enough to buy a ba hacienda maybe not a large place but a comfortable one lie he would marry a soft goft eyed senorita norita sc and the years of ills his life would unroll as a pleasant vista of happiness so he deluded himself as so many of us do with the hallucination that the joy of living comes from outward circumstances cum stances rather rat berthan than from within the method used by the rustlers of dunnigs Dun wigs park was a simple one they stole only cattle running in the hills within a days drive of their holing place most of their work was done at night no brands were altered till they reached the safety of the pasture ground at the end of the hidden canyon here the rustled stock was kept until a dark night made it comparatively safe to rush them over norse horse thief pass and down across the border to avert suspicion aitner and jasper bought a few mining tools and some dynamite for occasionally they rode down to mesa and spent a day or two there both at pedros place and at the gilt edge they heard stories of the rustling that was depleting the hey heads ot of A alie ca I 1 allmen aln en TO BE CONTIN cED |