The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1916-09-14
CHAPTER XVIII.

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STRANGERS rode into Fairdalc: and
! other hard-lOoking customers, new 10
| Duane il not TO Fairdale, helped TO
! create a charged ana waiting atmos-
| pbcre. The saloons did unusual buSi-
! ness and were never closed. Respectable
! citizens OF the town were IN
| the early dawn by rOwlies
in the streets.
Duane kept pretty close under cover
I during the day. He did not entertain the
! oDiuiOn that the first time he walked
! down street he would he q target Tor
! guns. Thing seldom happened that
! way: and when they did happen so, II
! was more accident than design. But ut
} night he wa not idle. He met Laramie,
. Morton. thinner, and others or ike
! character, q secret club had been
: formed: and all the members were
ready for action. Duane spent hours at
& night watching the house where FLOYD
lawson stayed when he was not up at
{ Longstrcth'S At night he was VISITED
or at least the house was, by strange
Z men who were swift, Stealthy, mySter-
! ious-aI that kindly disposed friends
! or n%eighbors would not have been.
| Duane had not been able to recognize
| any Of these night Visftors; and he dld
J not think the time was ripe Tor q pold
! rOlding-up of one OF them. Never
! theless he was sure Such an event
. WDllu ulNN'NSl 80 NF''I W
that house, to be in touch with crooked
men.
Laramie was right. Not "a hours
! after his last talk with Duane, in Whlch
! he advised quick action, he was tound
behind the little bar of his restaurant
with a bullet hole in his breast, dead.
| No one could be found who had heard
a shot. It had been deliberate murder,
| for upon the a had been left u piece
of paDer rudely Scrawled with a pen-
ell: "An friends of rangers look Tor the
same"
This reused Duane. His first move,
! however, was to bury Laramie. None
of Laramie'S neighbors eVinced n IN
terest in the dead man or the unfor-
tunate family he had left. Duane saw
that these neighbors were held in check
: by fear. Mrs. Laramie was i'll; the
shock of her husbands death was hard
on her: and she had been left almost
destitute with five children. DUANE
rented n small adobe house on he out
skirts of town and moved the family
into il. Then he played the part OF
provider and nurse and friend.
After several days Duane went boldly
into town and showed that he meant
| business. 1t was his opinion that there
were men in Fairdale secretly glad OF
| a. rangers presence. What he
TO do was food for great speculation. A
4 COIllDdllN Va ~ 49,
the effect upon the wild element OF
Fairdale that Duane's presence had. 1t
] got out that he was a gunman light
! ming swift on the draw. 1t was death
to face him. He had killed 80 men
| widest rumor of all. 1t waS actually
said Of him he a the gun Skill or
| Buck Duane or of Poggin.
At first there had not only been great
| conjecture among the vicious element,
but also a very decided checking OF all
| kinds of action calculated to be con-
| spicuOuS to q keen eyed ranger. AT the
| tables, at the bars and lounging places
! Duane heard the remarks: who's tibet
/ ranger after? Whatll he do fust off?
Is he waitin' fer somebody? Who's
| goin' to draw on him fust-an' go to
/ hell? Jest about 10Y soon will he be
! found sOmeWheres full of lead?'
When II came out somewhere that
! Duane was openly cultivating the
! honest stay at home citizens to array
! them in time against the other ele-
ment. then Fairdale showed it's wolf
teeth. Several times Duane was shot
at in the dark and once slightly in
jured. Rumor had it that Poggin, the
gunman, was coming to meet him. But
the laWless element did not rise up in a
mass to Stay Duane on sight. 1t was
not so much that the enemies OF the
law awaited his next move, but just a
slowness peculiar to the frontier. The
ranger was in their midst. He was in
teresting, if formidable. He would have
been welcomed at card tables, at the
bars, to play and drink with the men
who knew they were under suspicion.
There was a rude xii OF good humor
even in their open hostility.
Besides, one ranger or a company OF
rangers could not nave held the undi-
yided attention of these men from their
games and drinks and quarrels except
by some decided o Excitement,
greed, appetite were rife in them.
Duane marked, however, a striking eX-
CeDtion TO the usual run of strangers
he had been in the habit of seeing.
Snecker had gone or was under cover
Again Duane caught a vague rumor of
the coming of POggin, yet he never
seemed to arrive. Moreover, the GO
ingson among the habitues of the re-
sorts and the cowboys who came in to
drink and gamble were unusually mild
in comparison with former Onduct
This lull, however, did not deceive
Duane. 1t could not last. The won-
der was that il had lasted so long.
Duane went often to see Mrs. Lar
amie and her children. One afternoon
while he was there he saw Miss Long
streth Ruth ride up to the door.
They carried n basket. Evidently they
had heard of Mrs. Laramie's trouble.
Duane 'elt strangely glad. but he went
into an adjoining rather than
meet them.
Mrs. Laramie, I've come to see you"
said Miss LongStreth cheerfully.
The little room was not very light,
there being only one window n the
doors, b. Duane could see plainly
enough. Mrs. Laramie lay, hollow
checked and %haggard, IN a bed Once
she had evidently been a woman of
some comeliness. The a of
trouble and grief We're there to read in
her worn face; it had not, however, any
of the hard and bitter lines that had
characterized her husbands.
Duane wondered, considering that
,r,lgstreth had ruinsd Laramie. how