Show man MEMO R HAP OLD CHAN N I 1 N G wa 11 1 01 0 LEW GURNET BURNET is trail boss ol of the cross T herd which is being driven from W alyas kas to the indian agent at ogallala iscar year Is 1875 TOM ARNOLD owner i aa been killed in a stampede ills his will flames aames lew boss and owner until the cattle are sold when STEVE and JOY are to receive their shares after overcoming difficulties and hardships they enter indian territory and are attacked by a raiding party of 0 their leader crazy near bear kidnaps joy but lew and WILLY NICKLE rescue her lew then forces the drive onward at a faster aster pace CLAY MANNING joys fiance bance is strangely changed he has lost his self assurance and appears moody and surly charter CHAPTER XVI on the far side of the quieted cattle lew saw clay ride out with joe wheat and neal good on their first guard and passed him in the dark III later at the change of watches cl so L n ne he began his own second guard irom eleven until two so that his first sense when owl head jacksons rough hand wakened him in the morning was one of refusing what he heard bent above him in the half light the cook was saying lew hey there Some things were short a man he sat up in his blankets clay his bedroll and his war bag were gone he still refused it drugged with a heavy sleep he said irritably all right all right I 1 see never mind but afterward dressed he walked guard horses and found that clay had taken the one he had ridden last following fresh tracks on the dewy grass he traced them to the creek and across it and saw they were aimed for town all ali the camp was aroused and knew of it by the time he got back owl heads busy tongue was letting them know he saw joy crouched at the parted wagon flaps her long dark hair sleep tossed a quilted blanket around her she called to him and going over he spoke first its all right now nothings happened but where has he gone her voice was quick fear haunted the soft sleepiness of her eyes into town he said 1 I dont know why or anything about it its his own business her hand came out to him and gripped his arm hard lew you cant let him youve got to get him back send someone in she 5 ged you must se e spoke gently joy when a mans got something on his mind he has to work it out himself clay must know what hes doing im going to leave him alone and if anything happens she stared at him and I 1 knew you might have helped ill take the blame he said 1 I know here was what he had understood that night in the wichita hills above everything else there would be this loyalty to clay he saw her eyes go beyond him he turned his head steve was coming toward them walking fast two high spots of color staining his flat cheeks checks quick and blunt he said lew im going in to town and wheeled on to saddle up I 1 t called out wait a minute ats following theres plenty ot of time were all going in tonight he sharpened his stare into the nervous eyes you knew about this not till just now no 00 then you can wait he started oft off and turned back he felt no gentleness with steve dont you try to skin out either ill be on watch tor for that with the arrowhead shaped and grazing forward he rode back to joe wheat in the next swing position joe he said 1 I want you to work this out for me you go in arid anti see what clays up to get a line on the open A and its men you know the joints in there better than any of us guess I 1 do the old man grinned and rubbed his corded neck well cross the river lew finished and go into camp about five miles west of town get your news and come back there that will be some time late this afternoon if he could have his own way hed pass dodge without a stop time was crowding him a threat always over his head they still had six weeks until september first the delivery date in ogallala but also four hundred long miles hed like to pass dodge secretly and keep on yet even it if clay had not spoiled that he knew it be done no trail crew would stand tor for it dodge was a mecca a safety valve it was heaven with a rosy glow to any young hand who had never seen it a little time of bright and dizzy forgetfulness to the older ones who had the aftem afternoon oon was almost spent when he swung the point off again to bring the herd into a milling stop on an open flat fiat and saw the cooks wagon and joe wheat arriving from town wheat came on waving a signal he rode out to meet the man alone find him joe hea he s there wheat nodded been there all day but I 1 dont figure it Sp lanns there and a fellow called stoddard said to be the open A boss first it was only them three and clay was putting up some kind of talk they kept north of the tracks drinking dodge still has that dead line they dont carry guns in that part but along this afternoon five more open A riders joined in clays drunk and got him south of the dead line now lew I 1 dont know joe cheats usually sour face showed a deep concern looks like crowding clay into something got him cornered and clays still a cross T man what do you think he guessed old joe was right clay was a cross T man till he proved something else he done that yet well ride he said better not waste any time in camp he told the men who had started to wash up for supper dont stop to eat dripping heads came up as they stared at him he explain he wanted the best of this crew around him in town some would have to stay here on guard had already been in and showed it there much of a meal cooking on the pit tonight for the others to be left he picked out moonlight bailey young jim hope and steve getting moonlight off alone he said it if steve tries to skin out rope him I 1 dont want him in town at all he turned across to joys wagon found the canvas closed tight and called inside were going off for a little while im leaving steve here with you her voice came out to him with an even quietness im riding into town when you do will you saddle a horse for me later maybe he said not now the flaps parted she held heid them toge together thir around her head she was dressing her hair was brushed back smoothly and knotted at the nape of her neck ill go to a hotel she said and not be any trouble but im going i he knew that quietness la ia her voice there was a will behind it and he understood clay was in trouble and all of a womans comans urge and perhaps her intuition was driving her to the man he gave in to that knowledge saddled a horse and brought it back for her to ride As he moved the horse for her to mount she handed him a carpetbag heavy with her things he looked at it shaping a question which then he did not ask he lifted her up to ride sidesaddle she hooked her right knee over the horn half an hours loping travel brought the gray sod houses at the outskirts of the town even before that the voice of dodge had been around them in a mingling of sounds that rose and fell and sometimes died away to a breathless hush most of the way there had been little talk joe wheat Quarter night and ash brownstone made their old er mens group riding together heard your cross T was getting in ps charley and neal good had paired off he rode next to joys stirrup himself at no time trying to break the silence she had seemed to want beyond the loddies sod dies with clusters of board houses beginning to outline irregular streets he aimed toward a row of lights where second avenue running north from the river split the town in the middle he leaned over to say ill take you to the wright house the best she nodded they rode on into louder waves of sound then they had entered second avenue coming at once out of darkness into the glow of square oil lamps on posts at the four corners of each intersection down at the avenues farther end he could see the plaza filled with dust and the moving swarms of horses and men but the wright house was two blocks back from that jammed center he turned in front of it and stopped against the long hitching rail he said to the others wait here and handed joy down from her saddle whatever she planned he know and still held back his question while they entered the high square lobby and found she could get a ground floor room but he took her arm as a negro porter picked up her bag and started oft off what are you going to do she turned to face him her lips were pale nothing find clay tell him im here he looked at her filled with a wretched pity for that belief that all he had to do was tell clay she was here all ali right he said ill let him know ouide and mounted there was one other thing he wanted to do first he turned into a cross street and rode two blocks to railroad avenue turned down that toward the river and reached a section of warehouses the depot a huge barn with corrals sprawled behind it rachal brothers livery he said once more wait here and entered the livery office pete rachal was inside sunk deep in a brindle cowhide chair a man grown fat and wealthy now and yet an outlaw once whose rustled herds had pioneered the trail to dodge he was a texan who could never go back but any texas cowboy cleaned of his money go hungry here nor sell his horse and saddle pete rachal was their hock shop and bank he lifted a stubby hand with its thumb missing and let it fall fail burnet how are you heard your cross T was getting in howd you hear that horseback information someone dropped it off anything else some trouble I 1 heard with the indian supply companas Comp anys open A bad bad enough he said why ive come to you how many of the boys have you got in soak here say rachal put out his hand and moved an oil lamp on a table until it lighted a storeroom behind it take a look lew crossed to the doorway forty or fifty saddles were hung in there on pegs along the wall he turned back grinning a little never learn I 1 guess well you know the men you round up ten of the best and have them back here inside of an hour ill pay their bills and give them jobs pete blue eyes studied him over their heavy pouches cow work ive got enough men he said to handle the cows were headed through to ogallala I 1 dont figure to be stopped that bad is it that bad you come back rachal said 1 I know the right ones tor for that in an hour he promised and went out in time to hear charley storms rising complaint he holding us back for and then hey lew lev how about some fun charley he said too bad but have to wait only joe wheat knew fully what they had come in for he got into his saddle were looking for clay joe where was it you saw him last worked the lady gay and mrs gores wheat said d I 1 and were drinking at dutch jakes when I 1 left likely moved on from there by this time well comb the plaza first ps he led out between the livery and the depot entering at once into the open plaza two blocks wide and four long here in this dusty compound all the visible life of dodge was centered hemmed in by the high front ed buildings with their plank walks and wooden awnings running from end to end from his saddle he could look down over the flowing streams of wide hats cowmen almost exclusively filling the place there were little groups of hoe boe men in their bib overalls keeping apart and an occasional pair of troopers from the tort fort five miles east in their blue uniforms with yellow stripes down the legs but the smell and talk and noise was all of cattle for this was dodge at the peak of the trail years at a time when herds coming north could put a ir million lillion dollars into circulation every month riding the eddying fringes of the crowd he had no way of knowing then that he was listening to the death chant of this town in not so long a time fire was to level these wooden buildings and the new dodge city of brick and stone would not rise on this same spot again he knew the horse clay had ridden and watched tor for it among the three hundred or more saddle animals lined solidly along the gnawed hitching rails in the brighter fans of light from the windows of del bonicos mo nicos restaurant a dozen bar ber shops the alamo and the alhambra saloons he watched the brown faces of men they jammed the plank walk shoulder to shoulder in their moving stream clays big shape was not in this crowd and past the long branch corner boasting the longest bar in the world and fifty gambling tables he said we might as well go across south of the tracks they rode into an immediate change this was business of another sort the streets were dark sounds came mostly from behind closed doors and bamboo curtained windows girls strolled the plank walks here in their short skirts and spoke to them as it if they were old friends just getting home some stood in the doorways of their little dusty shacks where a block of saloons fronted on the toll bridge to catch the first trade from over the river lamplight from doorways and windows made a brighter crossbar pattern along the street but the hitching rails were mostly vacant and joe wheat said 1 I guess hes gone lew this is where I 1 saw his horse he nodded ill take a look men drifted through these places tried others and came back again he got down from his saddle and walked along peering over the batwing doors dutch jakes place was empty now in those farther on only a few drunks were propped against the bars he had almost reached the corner comer with open ground and the river crossing at right angles beyond when he passed a man standing as motionless as a post against an unlighted wall of the saloon front passed him and halted and turned back to look at him again instantly the mhd dark figure sprang out and ran the width oi of the street to a saddled horse he seen the mans face but it was plainly someone stationed on lookout duty TO BE CONTINUED I 1 |