Show oj tae ike wed iveel J presh RESH fruit pies are always frood good but fresh grape pies are worthy of superlatives in description the thickening may be cornstarch eggs flour or tapioca depending upon preference tapioca is suggested in this recipe grape pie pic aa 2 cups prepared grapes 2 21 a tablespoons stuck cooking tapioca 3 4 teaspoon salt 1 cups sugar wash and stern stem the grapes crapes press the pulp irom from the skins with the fingers finders simmer pulp slowly until soft then press through sieve to remove the seeds combine aa 31 cups of pulp and skins together r with salt sugar and tapioca and le let t stand eland tor for 15 minutes place rolled pastry in pie pan fill pan with grape mixture moisten edge of pastry and old fold inward even with the edge of the pan moisten edge again and place top pastry on pie press edges together with a fork and trim off surplus crust bake in hot oven even degrees tor for fifteen minutes decrease heat to del degrees nees moderate heat and bake about twenty five minutes longer cattle my AB AW alk IL ME M MAY kingdom MIRAL 0 alan service TA lt may CHAPTER vin VIII Continued 10 behind marians shadowed silhouette the window glass itself shattered to red as it if it had exploded inward out in the brush sounded the ringing crack of a rifle then there was silence once and the window against which marian had stood was empty except f for or the lamp lit gleam ot of its shattered glass wheelers breath jerked in his throat he dropped to the ground and raced tor for the house in the dark beside the shattered window douglas was holding the girl in his arms and though sue she clung to him wheeler saw that the wagon boss was holding her up he heard douglas say are you hurt are you billy wheeler cried out in gods name marian marians voice said shakily im all right you hit bit no get a gun said val douglas crazily we was standing here and somebody took a shot at 2 wheeler turned and ran tor for the bunk house halt half way he almost crashed I 1 into ra t 0 tulare callahan get the boys out wheeler told him to hell with saddles but get ropes and guns somebody fired into the layout weve got to try to stampede over him in the brush behind the 94 layout the stood ragged much of it shoulder high to a mounted man in its crooked brakes the hard sandy ground showed barren in the light of the near stars with some difficulty billy wheeler restrained gil baker and steve hurley from spurring their ponies headlong into the brush as it if they were trying to jump a bunch of steers stick together move slow and keep stopping to listen wheeler said our only chance they trailed into the bush slowly slow ay single me file wheeler in the lead he had accidentally mounted a horse that believed in ghosts and it moved sidelong stretching its nose warily at the brush shadows blowing long uneasy whoops repeatedly the they W halted to sit listening for an hour they combed the dark brush alternately walking their horses and listening not until they came out at the toot foot of a barren rise did they realize that they had wandered almost a mile from their starting point when you have seen one thicket ot of by starlight you have seen them all they had pushed through a hundred thickets in which a man could have hidden under the very feet of their horses yet in that mile of country there were a thousand thickets more the riders were grim and tight mouthed horse dunn met them at the corrals he had been prowling all over the place rifle on his arm he spoke low voiced but no one of them 1 se I 1 alp ilp ak I 1 1 I s S I 1 1 I dont believe he knows a horse track from a hounds ear would have crossed him then any more than they would have tooled fooled with a 14 hand silvertip his words came out as hard as pieces of rock go on and turn in he told them this is most likely all for tonight once they were inside horse demanded of wheeler what the devil got into old man coffee Cof Tee whatever it was got into him its going to cost us plenty 1 I dont believe he knows a horse track from a hounds ear dunn declared angrily he puts me in in mind of some old moss horn he paws and blows and hollers but he know about it when he gets through nothing im not so sure billy wheeler said name one thing he found out he figured out that the murdered man was not magoon horse snorted in disgust 1 I dont believe it coffee thought he had to say something so he said the first thing come into his head every sign we got points to the tact fact that lon magoon was killed in his own saddle and on his own horse and at short crick im thinking now said billy wheeler that we can prove that one way or the other right here and now how weve still got his saddle we its still under my bunk let me see it horse dunn stared at him irritably for a moment then picked up a lamp with a jerk and led the way to the clean bare room in which he lived by the yellow light of the lamp the fine old saddles on their racks against the wall glinted cleanly from and steel dunn sat down on a box and hooked his elbows on the table behind him horse how big a man is this lon magoon about my size hell rio no not by eight inches li little I 1 tle short wiry feller put you in mind of a grasshopper or a flea wheeler hauled out magoonis Mag saddle billy measured the length of the stirrup leather with his arm in tree 1 I stand five eleven wheeler said yet these stirrups are too long tor for me to ride horse the man that rode this saddle was over six six feet beet tall horse came across the room in two and dropped to one knee beside billy damn lt it I 1 know magoonis Mag halll you mean it was magoonis Mag hull you can see the short rig bends worn into the stirrup leathers but since then the leathers have been let down long and laced there with rawhide whang horse dunn measured mpa the stirrup leathers against his own arm then he forked the saddle where it lay jamming his feet into the stirrups tall as me he breathed unbelieving he stared at the saddle incredulously tor for several moments do you reckon he said at last that infernal old lion hunter would let down those stirrups just to get us balled up look at the wear on the stirrup leather the saddle has been ridden since the stirrups were let down horse dunn got up slowly and went back to his seat on the box for a long time he sat staring at the floor when at last he drew a deep breath and got up his movements were those of a man preoccupied he got out a roll of adhesive tape pulled off a boot and woolen sock and began to tape up the outside of his ankle bone which appeared to be skinned ive got to take a hammer to those spurs he said his mind on other things seems like they horse coffee was right the man that died in this saddle was not lon magoon 1 suddenly dunn stood up a shaggy towering figure staring at billy wheeler then in gods name chos dead wheeler regarded him without ex pres siGn sn within the hour a shadowy hunch had come over him he knew that he had no proof for the thing that was in his mind yet somehow it stood clear and plain he went to the fireplace and picked up an old branding iron that had been in use as a fire poker he squatted on his heels and with this soot sooty y iro iron n began to make marks on dunns clean swept floor saying that the 94 is here he said marking a cross and short crick over here then her lies that broken badlands called the red sleep seems to me there used to be a trail across the red sleep leading over to yes sure but horse dunn waited billy wheeler studied the floor where would a man be coming from passing over short crick toward the 94 maybe at could horse admitted dubiously that little railroad spur ends there sometimes horse dunn made a sudden contribution lon magoon has shipped a few stolen beef carcasses out of wheeler nodded from gahran agat the spur runs down the little minto to plumas then let me 1 see cheat creek monitor sikes C crossing dunn supplied and so to the main stern stem and so to the main stern stem wheeler repeated and maybe an old timer a saddle man working toward the 94 by train would figure it was better to come by gt gat and there pick up a horse 1 they were silent and the background of the outer night seemed uncommonly still perhaps because old man coffees hounds were gone A saddle minded man wheeler repeated coming from say flagstaff he threw the branding iron into the fireplace it sent up a puff of white ash against the black opening horse where was bob flagg last heard from dunns voice came out thickly flagstaff he said CHAPTER IX horse dunn sat relaxed staring morosely at the floor in his eyes a dark fire glowed wheeler wondered what ugly and shadowy things the old man was seeing perhaps wheeler thought he would not wish wis h to see in his we life the like of what horse dunn was seeing as he sat looking at the floor finally horse dunn jerked to his feet with an abrupt impatience this Is all pipe smoke he said for a minute you threw me up in the air with that bunk but hell heill you figure bob come here a way no man would ever think ot of coming theres better than a hundred million people in this country and bob flagg is one of em so you figure that maybe it was him got kil ledl well we might anyway check up at nagat there so much travel up the I ittle minto but what we could find out it if bob flagg came that hat t way ill send val douglas over there to tomorrow morrow I 1 sure dont aim to leave any stone unturned but if a guess Is an inch long you sure jumped a mile maybe wheeler admitted horse dunn took a turn of the room and the fighting spirit that had flared ared fl up in his eyes burned low and smoky again this count rys gone to hell in a hand basket ive never asked for any more than justice and ive dealt out nothing less but where can you get it now A mans hands are tied there was more honesty in the old six gun than in a thousand courts of so called law id give em their cocke cockeyed cock e eyed e country id wash my h hands ands ot of the whole works and good riddance if it tor for the girl it always came back to marian the old man dare lose because ot of what it meant to the girl he had labored tor for her too long in years that tor for any other man would have been the twilight years ot of his life she came before wheelers eyes now between himself and horse dunn dun almost as clearly as it if she had really been in the room dunn was saying know what id like to do id like to cut out for the argentine where a mans cows have a chance to turn around by god id argentine hell billy exploded at him if id been running this outfit this situation would never have come up or started to come up 1 I suppose have sold out dunn said a hard edge on his voice maybe and maybe not but I 1 have gone cow crazy range crazy until I 1 afford to work my stock strangely horse did not anger wheeler saw that the old man thought his tirade was merely based on youth and ignorance which he had seen in unlimited quantities before maybe dunn said now have kept the 94 a little one horse spread in the best of shape but that aint the question now were where we are and theres no use fighting over what went before 1 I can save it yet wheeler told him rashly 1 I can throw a hundred thousand into the 94 1 I know you could swing I 1 that much you got it bil billy Y what I 1 got of it I 1 can get horse dunn studied him sadly a long time an offer is it he said at last on one condition that you give me a tree free hand to hire fire buy or sell land or cattle for three years 1 I 1 believe said dunn id even do that its a deal then no you and mell never make a deal like that its your out wheeler told him and its your only out let me e take the finance and the outfit and all the other ruction falls to pieces and now horse dunns eyes blazed again and his voice crackled never put a dime in this bran brandl dill its her brand wheeler reminded him you willing to let it bust up and go down and the girl and her mother without a cent let er bust before it ever hangs on your dough but damnation why you want to know why ill tell you chyl because you want that girl you want that girl you think im blind but she dont want you ta mi 1 41 1 e this pretty early you sleep id no sooner put her in your debt than id sell her to you outright youre only making the offer because youre in love with marian youre crazym crazy im making the offer because I 1 think I 1 can come out on it you want the girl horse persisted you old fool wheeler held hi his s voice down do you think id ever expect to get her that way do you think id want her on the basis of I 1 anyway all over and done two years back wheeler lied once she could have had me body and soul but all over I 1 tie myself up not now to her or anyone else you lie said horse calmly horse if let me take never a dime of your money in her brand horse said with utter finality wa wheeler 1 eeler turned in that night feeling old and grim it wai was dark as billy wheeler let him hitsu sIf noiselessly into the cool cook shack and lighted a lamp he found himself cold biscuits and in a huge pot on the back of the stove he found bitter coffee above a banked fire fare he had about finished washing down his cold biscuits when he was annoyed to discover that another early riser was about someone was walking quietly toward the cook shack hurriedly he blew out his light gulped down half a cup of dregs and let himself out of the kitchen anxious to be on his way without conversation then rounding the corner of the cook shack he almost ran into marlan marian morning billy he saw that she was wring wearing belted overalls and boots this pretty early you sleep TO BE CONTINUED |