The Benson signal., 1916-12-23
CHAPTER xix.


Strangers rode into Fairdale; and
other hard-looking customers, new to
Duane if not to Fairdale, helped to
create a charged and waiting atmos-
phere. The saloons did unusual busi-
ness and were never closed. Respect
able citizens of the town were awak-
ened in the early dawn by rowdies
carousing in the streets.
Duane kept pretty close under
cover during the day. He did not
entertain the opinion that the first
time he walked down-street he would
be a target for guns. Things seldom
happened that way; and when they
did happen so, it was more accident
than design. But at night he was not
idle. He met Laramie, Morton, Zim-
mer and others Of like character; a
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 Longstreth's.
At night he was visited, or at least
the house was, by strange men who
were swift, stealthy, mysterious
that kindly disposed friends or neigh
bors would not have been. Duane
had not been able to recognize any of
these night visitors; and he did not
think the time was ripe for a bold
holding up of one of them. Neverthe-
I,
discover Lawson, or someone in that
house, to be in touch with crooked
men.
Laramie was right Not twenty
four hours after his talk with Duane,
Ia which he advised quick action, he
was found 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 bar
had been left piece Of paper rudely
scrawled with a pencil: "Al1 friends
of rangers look for the same"
This reused Duane. His first move,
however, was to bury Laramie. None
of Laramie's neighbors evinced any 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 an adobe house on the
outskirts Of town and moved the
family into it. 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. It was his opinion
that there were men in Fairdale
secretly glad of a rangers presence.
What he intended to do was food for
great speculation. A company OF
militia could not have had the effect
upon the wild element Of Fairdale
that Duane's presence had. 1t got
out that he was a gunman lightning
swift on the draw. It was death to
face him. He had killed thirty men
widest rumor Of all. It was actually
said of him he had the gun-skill Of
Buck Duane or 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 cal
culated to be conspicuous to q keen
eyed ranger. At the tables, at the
bars and lounging-places Duane heard
the remarks: 'Who's thet ranger
after? What III he do fust off? Is
he waitin' fer somebody? Who's goin'
to draw on him fust-an' go to hell?
Jest about how soon will he be found
somewheres full Of lead?"
When it came out somewhere that
Duane was cultivating the honest
stay-at-home citizens to array them in
time against the other element, then
Fairdale showed it's wolf teeth.
Several times Duane was shot at in
the dark and once slightly injured.
Rumor had it that Poggin, the gum
man, was coming to meet him. But
the Iawless element did not rise up
in a mass to slay 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. There was rude kind of
good humor even in their open
hostility.
Besides, one ranger or a company
Of rangers could not have held the
undivided attention Of these men from