Show ALAN LE LEMAY MAY 1 W 14 U alan CHAPTER I 1 JONES independent klive KENTUCKY lire stock trader plunger in cattle whirled his light roadster into the main street of the little cow town of 0 waterman and picked himself a parking place waterman was as very full of people for a tuesday afternoon generally at this time of year the wolf bench cowmen were only to be found scattered among the white faces that perpetually lost themselves into the overpowering raggedness of the rl rimrock or haying winter weakened cows in the long pole corrals today though either side ride of ohp treet was lined with cars for three blocks and between the automobiles stood saddled horses dejected in the wet down press presa of the snow wolf bench was not home range to kentucky jones but six months in the rimrock had acquainted him with most of its people ne ile stepped out into the snow a tall leanly lazy figure his ordinarily humorous face relaxed in an unaccustomed gravity it was a rocky face made irregular by the uneven line of a nose that had been broken but no do one to in the rimrock had ever seen it so auter au berely cly somber as it was now as he be turned into the restaurant known to all cowboys as the greasy spoon As he be entered however his face lightened somewhat ne be klasek the girl at the counter absent absentmindedly mindedly mind edly 11 I 1 it I 1 J jean ragland testified yet and helped himself to a wedge of pie wheres Where 3 the inquest going to bet be he asked having it in the hall over jerrys store it started nearly halt balf an hour ago they good lord V I 1 lie hurriedly pushed the pie wedge into the girls hands bands save this lie be took to the street again at a trot jerrys store itself was appropriately closed but the hall above was full to overflowing nere here inquest was wag being held over the body of 0 john mason it was hard to believe that john wason mason was wasil dead his name had so BO long iong represented unassailable strength in the wolf bench rimrock that he was head of the waterman bank had been an index lint but not the key to his significance ile he had bad been a cowman once and lip dp to the very end be had bad thought as a cowman never losing touch with the farthest corners of the wolf bench range ile he had bad been in the saddle on one of his long circuits of the range in the hour that he died his common understanding et of both cows and money had bad made him more than the kingpin of wolf bench beach finance almost he be was the economic structure itself through the hard times which low beet beef prices bad brought to wolf wol bench mason had managed to carry along many a weakening outfit where a nervous banker or one less a cattleman would have abandoned till all hope but ulab mason dead the bank swayed precariously teetering on tile the edge of a smash that might carry down with it hall half the outfits of 0 the bench beach to many it seemed that only another milson could avert disaster and there was no other this was wag the man whose inquest jammed the little town hall above jerrys store until the overflow filled the stairway and left a milling bunch of 0 the less aggressive in the fc treet sow some of those at the foot of the stair spoke bloke to kentucky jones as he came up inquest In guest got any place lie he asked been ccleo running g about twenty min utes some one told him campo Ita Ra glands been on already ile he know anything new jean ragland lia gland testified yet uh huh hub she just said that her and her father was away thanks kentucky moved upward exchanging monosyllables here and there na its he wormed hs his way toward the room above water ter mans hall was packed bulging with people at a plain table sat sheriff floyd hopper looking bedeviled at the end of or the table sat the coroner who was vas also the sheriffs brother there was clive Pl ergon the banker who must step into masons shoes his face was an unwholesome gray and a muscle in the side of his face kept twitching for in the last three days he be had bad hardly slept near him was cob bob elliot who had gambled the future of ills his cow outfit upon the backing which mason would have given him but which lie he could no longer expect and there was ted baylor ot of the running 11 and the owner ot of the lazy deuce and the circle five fire and the J Z men who could cut a thousand beet beef steers from their herds in a weeks notice but might easily be set back to their beginnings it if masons death should cause the bank to close its doors and many others lee Bis bishop boll the blocky almost burly foreman of the bar hook was in the witness chair very red in the face from public speaking and the heat 1 I was going out to the pump house carrying a couple of palls of hot water from the kitchen he was inas saying 1 I 1 aimed to thaw out the pump then I 1 seen this hump bump in the snow thought maybe a calf had bild drifted in and fell down I 1 went out and looked and it was old Tron ironsides sides I 1 mean john I 1 mason now how long did you think he had been dead he lying there around one when we left the home ranch and there any snow under him it begun snowing around two out there then you figure mason masod had tola accident between one a and d two that aint what I 1 said I 1 only said there was no do snow under him sheriff floyd hopper exhibited annoyance lets not quibble over words what we want la is to get done here well lee bishop went on with an unnecessary air of stubbornness 1 I turned him over and I 1 saw that hed been shot nis his gun was in his hand that long 45 he always carried to tale take a pop at a coyote with it it if lie he should see a coyote Is this the gun said the sheriffs brother turning toward a cluttered window ledge at one side A deputy handed the coroner the required weapon bishop identified it well he went on 1 I sent up a ion long yell but nobody answered and I 1 took out and run for the house kentucky jones had bad been searching all the room tor for a sight of jean ragland lia gland and now he was surprised to discover her so near the focus of interest that he had missed her la in searching too tar far away she was sitting beside her father the big stoop shouldered owner of the bar nook hook the two sat almost under a window ledge where a deputy kept his bis eye upon a muddled collection of exhibits the sheriff was bombarding lee bishop with questions of little point Is that cutoff cut off trail between the 88 and the bar hook often used almighty litt little lel 1 it was the first emphasis bishop bad used Kentuck ys eyes sought jean ragland again suddenly tie he perceived that she had leaned back so that she could peer between the standing deputies and was looking directly at him lie ile smiled at her but her face did not change then suddenly lie he was waa aware that she had sl signaled baled him to draw nearer it had been the faintest narrowing of an eye the slightest inclination cli of tier her head bead yet he be knew absolutely as abe lie again averted her face that a signal had been conveyed deeply puzzled he began to work his way along the side of 0 the hall the sheriff ho be noticed pushing ahead with his questions evidently very conscious of his tar far gathered audience the sherl fra brother the coroner was nudging him but he was wag barging ahead as kentucky jones presently reached a point not more than three yards from jean raglan hagland d ile he was trying to catch catal jean can rag lands landa eye as a sound ot of scuffling and contention broke forth la in tap ahr back of tile hie room the sheriff glared faltered and stopped A tall deputy left led jean Ra glands side to go pushing hack back through the crowd watching the disturbance at the hack back kentucky did not see that jean ragland had left her chair until she stumbled almost against him ifer ier handkerchief was at tier her mouth and she seemed even paler than before as a it if turned suddenly faint by the stifle of tie the close air campo 0 ragland tier her father sprang up and was beside her in a stride supporting her in his arias for a moment tahe the press of the crowd was too much and they could not get through her shoulder pressed hard bard against kentucky but although lie he spoke to her by name she did not appear to hear then unexpectedly in the smother of the crowd her fingers closed upon his in a quick hard grip site she had pressed a small heavy object into ills his hand turning it over in the pocket of his coat kentucky jones discovered with a queer slow stir of the blood that the thing thin she had left in hla his hand could be nothing else but a used bullet ile he knew at once that this was tile the slug which had bad killed a man campo ragland said through his teeth will you let us out or not and the standing cattlemen flattened against the wall to let campo and his daughter by kentucky jones lost sight of jean as the crowd closed behind them but for kentucky jones the atmosphere mo sphere of that packed room had changed lie ile was no longer simply a cattleman interested in a death which threatened to shift the economics of a range the thing that lad bad pulled him over four hundred miles of snow clogged ruts in the last eighteen hours suddenly took on a new aspect as acutely personal and definitely sinister as if he had himself been accused of murdering the man who was dead and now dow the inevitable sequel broke A deputy who had stood by the cluttered ledge where the exhibits were sung out sharply interrupting the sheriff walt a minute 1 hold everything theres something missing herel here I 1 in the momentary silence a lower voice said maybe its fell on the floor what hat Is it the coroner demanded gone this here bullets gone that we had bad on the window sill with the other things thIng sl bullet what bullet you mean the slug that killed mas mason on I 1 there was a sudden moment of struck silence all over the crowded room this was followed immediately by a rising buzz as almost every man of all the great number in that room turned to speak low toned to his neighbor watching the stir about the coroners table kentucky saw that bob elliot owner of the SS 88 was looking ing at at him hun curiously kentucky grinned faintly at elliot as he worked a hole bole in the seam of his pocket with a thumbnail and pressed the bullet through so that it fell deep into the lining of his coat over the buzz of confusion he be heard the coroner almost shouting you sure it was there its been here all the time but just now I 1 reached back and P the sheriff jumped to his feet and his chair clattered over backward nis ills voice rose in an angry bellow lock that door he ordered by G d im not going to have it an abrupt silence fell at the impact of his voice some of you fellows are no better than children I 1 suppose steal the shirt ot off your own back it if you figured it was a souvenir nirl 1 I 1 walt wait a minute floyd the coroner caught the sheriffs arm ana and pulled him down to whisper in his ear and there followed an inaudible but apparently a heated discussion it seemed to take effect upon the sheriffs plans for he be sat down abruptly his square face flushed with exasperation all right let it go for now but somebody heard the abc bast of this go cia abend and phe ghe em ein cause of death kentucky jones drew a deep breath lie ile had come up lip into this crowded room to attend a routine hearing calculated to conf conform Irin the death of a man who however important to these people had bal only died foolishly accidentally by his own gun CUD lint but now the inquest as such ruch bad lost all g turning into a sham an apparently unconscious fraud A sudden incomprehensible anger overshadowed reason im as he be wondered it if campo ragland knew that the bullet which killed hilled mason was not what it seemed and had prompted his daughter to get it out of the sheriffs possession it if her theft of this scrap of evidence was not in behalf of her father then who it if jean ragland was being used by her father or anyone else as it a cats paw in a dangerous situation he meant to find it out once more he worked his way sideways through the crowd along the side of the room this time toward the exit 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 campo ragland had taken his daughter to watermans Water mans rambling one story hotel and had bad returned to the street again by the time kentucky jones after a fifteen minute search through Water watermark mart again located the boss of the bar hook book kentucky strolled up greeting ragland with the slow singularly infectious grin erin that served him blin as a passport through hard bard tines times and slack wherever he be dpn went campo ragland grim as was his mood halt smiled in return as they shook hands seems like people hardly realize how important mason was around here until now hes bes dead kentucky began of course he naturally had enemies you cant run a bank right said ragland lifelessly without raising up an enemy here and there the boss of the car bar hook book was not quite as tall as kentucky jones but his lean stooped shoulders were very broad nis eyes were blue like ills his daug daughters liter sq and though the general aspect of his face was benign it was a face which could set grimly y and stubbornly turning into a fighting face curious said kentucky jones watching ragland closely that everybody was so ready to accept that he went to work and shot himself accidentally what else could it have bave been but accidentally ragland said impatiently tient ly nothing I 1 guess said kentucky but on pretty near any other range somebody would most likely have tried to prove there was a shenanigan for a moment campo Ra glanda glands eyes turned upon kentucky watching him intently kentucky jones could not however see that the mans face changed 1 I suppose so said ragland without expression and he half turned as it if he would walk on kentucky jones wavered an instant his cautious prodding had failed but its failure was more challenging than a revealing answer ne ile plunged mr ragland he said carl can you use a man danl Ra glands eyes quickened 1 I dont want no more of these flivver tourists we get for cow bands today but it if you got lit in mind some good steady 1 I was speaking for myself sat said kentucky jones jodes come off youre a cattle trader e r times are bad mr ragland the more so with mason dead I 1 was a brush popper before I 1 was as a trader and im a good one yet and id sure aure like to fill in at it tor for a while plain cow walloping Is all al I 1 want TO BE |