Show N mot i CHAN N 1 N G wa I 1 LEW BURNET has returned from MI coming oming to southern texas in 1875 to 1 e a job as trail boss for TOM ARNOLD owner of the cross T ranch on the way he sets gets news from WILLY WILLS NICKLE and meets four suspicious act ing men tom arnold tells lew that he is moving with his herd to wyoming and that he is trying to make good the losses sustained when the bank at ox bow was robbed tom tears fears that his son STEVE may be involved tom also says that he must deliver three thousand head ol of cattle to the indian agent at ogallala by september I 1 or lose a profitable contract lew talks to JOY ARNOLD who Is engaged to the foreman CLAY MANNING CHAPTER IV 1 I refused and they started making up a herd of their own buying at the cheap price now save aty thousand dollars it if they get to allala with that herd and I 1 f on ont t with mine tom continued sure lew said sure and a sudden restless impatience goaded him up onto his long legs but a game two can play tom the matter here anyway if a stampede is their deal give em cm one back youve come up through enough trouble to know all the tricks arnold said quietly ive let clay handle this lews glarice glance sharpened on him if troubles bound bolind to come he said id rather settle it now than on the trail therell be grief enough later does clay know im to trail boss for you not yet arnolds dark eyes lifted he smiled im glad tornow youve still got an edge on you what ive been counting on that and a proposition im going to make his gruff bluntness returned now dont get it into your fool head that this is a gift ive got my own good and selfish reasons looking down past the man lew saw the breathless way in which joy was watching him her lips parted all of her body held very still and tom was saying 1 I want you to take a share in this cross T herd A trade youve got that land in wyoming ive got cattle and no place to range them im adding a thousand head of ashes and yearlings yearnings year lings to the beef contract that thousand head will make a start on the new ranch half for joy and steve half for you it was a generous offer more than generous all that he would need but with a price that neither of these two understood silenced by that knowledge he stared down into the firelight so long that behind him almost in anger arnolds gruff voice burst out wellz the trouble now tom he said im sorry ill boss your herd north and you can use my range in wyoming but I 1 kz atit tie myself as a cross T part 1 r ile he saw a sharp breath drawn between betge en the girls parted lips and tle the old mans sudden blank amazement you forget clay manning he said that makes a fourth one in this deal after a while there be room he was aware of joys deeper quietness and of the fixed stare of her eyes upon him and then in that moments silence an abrupt rhythm ot of riders pounded across the ranch yard it was clay mannings shout that sailed in to them and then the thud of his boots hit the gallery outside swinging down from saddle to floor edge as he always did with his horse hardly at a stop the door burst open and he came jn in like a gust of prairie wind filling froom room with that charged and vii 7 force in the doorway he turned his head and called back outside its all right kid and then came oo on in to joy he put one arm all the way around her in intimate possession hugged her hard and at the same time while he made that show he was grinning and saying glad to see the old home ranch again lew sure he said sure and looked past him at steve coming in now wondering what clays call its all right kid had meant halfway across the room steve asked almost with a small boys truculence what did you want me for dad wondered where you were arnold said what happened good lord that au all nothing happened only got separated from the bunch it was not until then that he faced around with a casual greeting hows wyoming fine steve lew said fine if you dodge the sioux get my hair lifted yet there had been a little awkward wait with sudden nervous unrest steve flung himself from the fireplace mantel he spoke to his father if all you wanted and then come on clay lets go he started across the room the rush of their horses I 1 hoofs died from the ranch yard and the nights deep silence came again tom arnold moved from the fireplace he looked suddenly old and tired im going to bed he turned into the hallway leading to his lonely quarters at the rear of the house so unlike the large front corner bedroom that he had shared once and did not use any more when the distant door had closed he faced joys small figure standing dark against the red embers of the fire joy be asked happened I 1 mean to your father 1 I know myself she said until tonight its steve had terrible times this year and yet steve means everything to him you know that you remember when he was a little boy and had diphtheria and we thought he was going to die remember how dad hardly left the house all that time and it looked as if it would kill him too its like that now I 1 think he sees steve throwing his life away and it takes his own life right out of him she looked up gravely lew you could have helped more than you did staring off into the rooms darkness he said ill go up the trail but all I 1 cant promise about the ranch PI lew her hands slid down to his wrists why lew her voice was low and hushed tell me why not he turned his head and looked down at her then she was a woman with all of a womans comans understanding and yet must hear a man say what was already plain enough he saw the fullness and roundness beneath the tight red cloth of her dress giving her no longer the innocence of a little girl and there was that breathless wait in her eyes that controlled moment suddenly left him he caught her and pulled her up hard in his arms once before tonight he had kissed her yet that for both of them was a kiss of meeting he drew her up now with a violent urge to stir in her what was so mad inside himself for an instant she was rigid and then she was clinging to him with a turbulent strength he let her go as suddenly as he had caught her and stood back shaken and staring her voice choked lew I 1 know she leaned against the mantel edge you know now now yes she sh looked at him pain and despair coming into her dark eyes he awoke in the morning with the green streak of dawn beyond his window and the tempest of last nights feeling with joy was gone he could see his way clearly again it was like a stormy tide that had risen and flung itself against the rocks and fallen back to a surface calm there had been a release of some kind in that moment of holding her in his arms and letting her know in the warm steamy kitchen he found tom arnold and clay manning with a third man who was a stranger to him arnold said morning lew guess you dont know ed this is burnet Sp larin the fellow we were talking about chos going to trail boss for me howdy howay grunted looked up and dropped his head again their talk did not go on clay manning spoken drinking 4 WA A 1 sa s1 af r 6 lew climbed up on a steep slant wooded with pine his second cup of coffee lew felt a surliness in the silence here then something in the way the new cross T hand stared up at him once in a direct measuring appraisal and after that kept busy with his food made him take a more careful look he was a powerfully built man huge in every proportion with arms as thick as a steers foreleg rough features that were full and bold unshaved and covered with a red brown stubble he looked like a cinnamon bear hunched over his plate but watching him lew could place him in no familiar pattern by the time he sat down to the table clay and ed had finished eating they stood up at once dropped their dishes into owl heads wooden washtub and went out together holding clays tongue got a grouch on this mornin morning g tom arnold could be mild at strange times he said gently go easy with clay lew he take much to the idea of your being here to trail boss for me you cant blame him hes been north twice himself but not for two years tom and ana trail conditions change over night clay knows that hell smooth out arnold said when we get started when will that be left to be done he felt a sudden blocked irritation there was something here that he wanted to slash through hells little fishes tom theres been time know better than that if you had been here arnold said weve been hounded on every side clay says well leave day after tomorrow id hoped today road branding is all left to do I 1 bought some mixed herds the past two years weve got to get those all under the cross T how many tom A thousand head about briefly lew figured A thousand head ten hours there was a trick he knew but clay manning was still the foreman here and then tom arnolds look hardened and he was sayin saying 9 ill be eternally damned if a man can be everywhere moonlight baileys still my horse wrangler and a good one but hes let the drift I 1 guess he told me last night were thirty head short well hunt them today 0 try crazy woman lew offered 1 I saw tracks he explained no more in a moment with his breakfast finished he said since im not signed on the pay roll yet ill take a little cruise this morning alone he saw arnolds glance lift sharply and drop it was not his way to question a man he rode west threading the bottom of a twisted broken canyon that rose toward the high rimrock above the valley presently he passed through the lower growth of desert willow into the juniper belt and then climbed on up a steep sheep slant wooded with pine even as he watched eastward he could see dust clouds layered above the advancing columns some of them forty miles away closer where ox bow town made a handful of gray adobe cubes scattered beside the new railroad a dark swarm moved out slowly taking the arrowhead trail formation he straightened in a moment squinting to sharpen the focus of what his roving gaze had caught A lone rider was coming out from that herd near town the hoofs of his running horse shooting up puffs of dust like exploded bombs he came on 7 incredibly fast still out on the plain he veered toward the low hills that rimmed the eastern side of the valley and was lost in there tor for perhaps ten minutes when he came out his pace had slowed to a walk like that unhurried he moved into the cross T roundup camp at the valleys mouth now then lew asked what kind of coyote business was that with his gaze led to the roundup camp by that lone rider he watched the work going on below him it brought a sudden scowl to the steady set of his hazel eyes half a dozen branding fires sent their smoke into the still air he could see the small darting figures of mounted men cut into the pool of cattle and come out each with his single animal at 7 a ropes end there were a thousand steers to be road branded so tom arnold had said never get that job done by tomorrow night thought of so much lost time put its irritation in him he knew a better way he sat up and gathered his reins to go and turned for a last look at the spring where he had hoped a man would be camping old willy nickle was crouched there beside the water smoking his black clay pipe lew grinned and wheeled his horse toward the motionless figure lord willy he said you do make my scalp itch did you happen to be an apache id have an arrow in my hump ribs by bowl so you would willy nodded how long have you been here saw no sign of your camp the old man stood up and stuffed his pipe into the deep pocket of hl his deer hide coat last night he said you dont never leave your camp sign boy he advised gravely bury your fire and sleep away from the water well just talk though he leaned on the slender barrel of his needle gun and stared down into the valley seems like the cross Ts been slowed up some that herd there past town is the indian supply outfit so I 1 think hitting the trail ahead of tom arnold been their caper thrown trouble aplenty into the cross Ts start lew agreed so im told he looked down into the old fellows dark gentle gentie face and brought out the thing he be wanted to know he gave his details clearly it if a man leading the cross T was to swing west and keep off the trail hed save time and even pass the indian supply outfit maybe theres a shorter route they tell me that colonel mckitrick led a scouting army up the staked plain once and marked the way with rock piles theres buffalo grass enough this year but Ws its a question of water no man hereabouts could say I 1 guess well he coulder could lold old willy stated be a dry drive first day to a tank with nothing to go by then therell be those rock piles plain as a mans nose he could make it a hundred miles north to the white salt fork A double butte is his landmark there he goes east from that therell be water on the staked plain then sure if a man knows how the apaches 9 got ot it in them dry cie cle lew grinned he does this ghisi was satisfying information and he made a vital decision in that mo 1 ment be the rock pile route for the cross T when I 1 take it over i without things happening well start I 1 in another day i willy nodded and crouched again beside the water and so having planted that knowledge in his brain braina lew left him like a brown old eagle I 1 perched high on the ledge of rock I 1 he rode down toward the branding fires in the valleys mouth out i on the flat ground a big pot bel lied mossy horn broke suddenly from two men who had cut him from the herd with his rope swinging he turned him and was up close to the two riders when he recognized clay TO BE CONTINUED 4 |