Show CATTLE AT KINGDOM K 0 M ALAN LE MAY 0 alan le may by services s amu CHAPTER XV continued 19 steve hurley kept fretting hungry for action most likely got coffee and tulare in the cooler they should have been back an hour ago 1 more like two hours val douglas thought it we was to drift into that town steve said either cither wed meet lem cm on the road or needing our help by god I 1 I 1 think we oughter aughter P were plenty close now wheeler said you can see the lights of the town from here or could before they all went out it if you think im going to take marian into town into a shooting scrape forget it unless tulare and coffee get back with my car so that she can go on back to the ranch I 1 stay here A and nd so does the car stay here dont you bother about me marian spoke ill get along ill right it was after midnight their plans for the crack out of horse dunn were indefinite because their information was indefinite first was necessary the seizure of walt amos for it was known that he carried the keys to the inspiration lockup lock up tip but the trouble was that they did not know how many deputies were camped with amos in his house below the jail if more than one or two were there they thought that it would be a good idea to create a gunpowder diversion in some other quarter of the town to draw away a part of the sheriffs force tulare had driven old man coffee into inspiration to make a reconnaissance and what they feared now was that the hot temper of tulare had got both scouts in trouble there aint much left of the night steve complained theres other nights leave one man here with marian afarian mari I 1 steve suggested and lets the rest of us go take that town apart or anyway find out up they finally agreed upon this but only after it was conceded to billy wheeler that they wait a quarter of an hour more that last quarter of an hour dragged out like a week and still no headlights appeared upon the inspiration road it must be time by now steve hurley insisted five minutes more A gleam of lights showed two milet off in the outskirts of the town a car was coming out of inspiration at last so slowly it came that for a time they were convinced that this could not be the driving of tulare even when billy wheelers roadster pulled up opposite them on the road they stayed quiet for a moment suspicious that the car was no longer driven by their own men then old man coffee sung out billy wheeler here billy let me talk to you a minute alone val douglas and steve hurley had started piling out but now they looked at each other and reluctantly settled back billy wheeler trotted across to the other car old man coffee dropped his voice to a muffled undertone its all over kid the horse dunn has run his own jail break pretty near tour four hours ago it took us a long time to ge the full dope we got it now he got clear ol of the jail ail all right with that same derringer in the sheriffs back and using the sheriff as a shield but the deputies mowed him down you sure you sure this one of benders tricks 1 I saw him laid out coffee said for a moment wheeler was silent he was laboring under heavy shock but already he was wondering what he was going to say to horse dunns niece did he get anybody he asked halt half unconscious of what he said he get a man he made his break with an empty gun and they found his ammunition lying on the floor inside they were silent again tor for a long time and to billy wheeler the night turned suddenly empty as if a great and living force had gone out of it with old man alan coffees words cords 1 I suppose we may as well be getting back to the ranch wheeler said at last chos going to tell marian im going to tell marian ill take her back in my car coffee and tulare stepped down and followed him reluctantly across to horse dunns battered touring car where the others waited for a moment billy wheeler stood silent one toot foot on the running board the eyes of marian and steve hurley and val douglas were on his face steve hurley hurey spun the starter and the engine began to purr he sat waiting 0 to o jump the car down the road to inspiration at the first word well val douglas demanded at last no action tonight wheeler heard himself tell them well be going back to the ranch marian better come with me what the steve began coffee will give you the dope on your way back we got to get out ot of here now come on marian they stared at him but presently they obeyed billy Wh wheeler celer let the others turn horse dunns car in the road and start back toward the 94 before he started his engine even after he had set his roadster rolling he drove slowly halt paralyzed with the t 1 marian dunn donn sat perfectly still dread of what he had to say he knew that marian was watching his face waiting for him to speak suddenly she grasped his arm in both her hands billy what is it he let his car drift to a lo 10 long ng roll ing stop beside the road and shut off the engine billy the matter still he could not speak but sat with his hands gripped on tite the wheel and his eyes on the far off vanishing tail light of horse dunns car which horse would never drive again once more he was seeking words and finding no words at his command then marian cried out sharply as it if she had read his mind it cant be that tell me it so A marian abarian I 1 cant ant hardly believe it myself but my uncle is dead he said marian dunn sat sal perfectly still so still that he could not hear her breathe still he did not look at her as that incredible silence settled upon them a silence so complete that somewhere many yards from where they sat he presently could hear the faint small gnawing grawin that a kangaroo rat makes w working to get at the water in a cactus heart over all that vast range the moonlight shone clear and clean as a light radiated by silver you could even see the distant mountains and there was a color of deep blue in the dark sky this was the range that horse dunn had won As far as the eye could reach all that lean dusty land was under the domination of the 94 brand somewhere oft off in the night scattered over the miles were the bunches of cattle which horse dunn had branded in marians name scattered and few to the mile but grazing an area so vast that horse himself had not known how many they were within a thousand head it seemed a strange thing almost impossible to believe that the shaggy old fighter who had gained these long miles files of desert built these tar far flung herds would never ride this range again nor count the scattered beeves nor see this moonlight cool and serene and clear flooding the vast dry land that he loved when the silence had grown until he could endure it no more mill billi wheeler turned his eyes to marian she sat as still as a resting kit fox and her face turned straight ahead was as white as the alkali flats under the moon only once he saw her eyes turn sweeping the unlimited land that horse dunn had fought for in her name he tried to say something g marian marian she turned into his arms and hid her face in the hollow of his throat for a few moments her breathing was irregular but she did not weep we cant let the 94 go under not not now it going under he said 1 I tell you you and I 1 can show this coyote ring such a fight as never seen marian said he gave me all his last years while he was old he had just one great lasting dream his dream of a cow kingdom but somehow I 1 think he could have spent his last years sitting somewhere contentedly in the sun ex capt that he wanted to do this thing tor for me 1 I know billy do we have a chance to whip the te coyote ring he drew a deep new breath we can fight em to a standstill fight em till they I 1 can clear the 94 of its debts at a stroke the next step may be a little different than what he would have done j hed have wanted you to fight tho the best way you knew your own way then we can win next step is to cut down the uncontrolled herds and build better herds in their place make a 40 mile fenced pasture of that north land you own 11 we own she corrected him and use the fenced 40 miles as a barrier to hold the young heifers heffers clear get in the best bulls we can buy by the hundred at any cost dig tick dips and set up chutes vaccinate all calves against blackleg the day branded dehorn all young stock make alliances with the feed pen outfits in west kansas break through a trail drive to and ship our own stock taking the breaks of the market 1 but the coyote ring hire their best men well need a big outfit for the new ways buy out what little they still own in the red rock country and the coyote ring is done its a gamble billy if you go into this it may break you before youre through well go broke together then it we cant gamble together but we will this is what he would have wanted billy I 1 know it is I 1 know they sat quietly there for a long time holding each other close billy marian whispered 1 I have to know one thing more yes 11 how did he die he died fighting marian you see well you mean he wait tor for us that was it he tried to make it on his own he still had the der ringer then it seems this Is art an extraordinary thing he almost made it look as if he had a chance I 1 he held up the sheriff with the derringer in his back and got out 0 of the jail and broke clear and died in gun smoke weighted down wi with th lead did he did he get any of the that was the strangest thing thin 0 of all he had shells for the derringer but he left them in his cell he went through it all with an empty gun yet almost made it clear ile he did that tor for me marian said in a choked voice he knew I 1 hated hate d guns and blood it if it been lor for me it was his own idea his own way what he wanted was pretty plain he knew we would have been drawn in and mixed up in it forever if hed waited tor for us to get him clear so he took the only way out he knew im sorry tor for one thing more than anything else it if only I 1 could have known could have changed it would you have wanted it any cliff different erent he said gently only this im sorry that his gun was empty because of me after a little while she added and one other thing before he took his long trail I 1 wish he had known that you and I 1 have found each other 1 I think he knew and that was what what he wanted too I 1 think im sure he did when the coyote ring is whipped well have built him such a monument as few men have had a monument built of land and cows and good horses and men in the saddle saddie the cattle kingdom he dreamed and planned they sat silent close together their eyes lost in the distances of the range of the 94 and the coyote moon swung low over the caloras car oras promising sunrise the cool soft colors of dawn on the red rock and bacon and coffee cooked by tia cara THE END |