Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-09-14

men VINO nave lalled at fancnllS.
And you father has been wonderfully
| successful. The ranger has dropped
| poison, and it'll spread"
CHAPTER XVIII.
Strangers rode into Fairdale; and
| other hard-looking customers, new to
Duane if not to Fairdale, helped to
| create IL charged and waiting atmos-
| phcre. The saloons did unusual bust
ness and were never closed. Respectable
citizens of the town were awakened in
the early dawn by roWlleS carouSlng
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 Tor
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, thinner, and others of like
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
Longstreth's. Vt night he was visited,
or at least the house was, by strange
men who were swift, stealthy, myster-
| ious-all that kindly disposed friends
or neighbors would not have been.
| lDudIlt I'tu p1Sii 1biC u t'S
any of these night visitors; and he did
not think the time was ripe for a bold
folding-up of one Of them. Never
| theless, he was sure such an event
| would discover Lawson, or some IN
that house, to be in touch with rocked
men.
Laramie was right. Not "a hours
after his last talk with Duane, in 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. 1t had been deliberate murder.
| for upon the bar had been left a piece
| of % rudely scrawled with a pen
Gil: "All friends of rangers look for 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-
I 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 a small adobe house on the out
skirts 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. 1t 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 a II presence had. 1t
got out that he was a gunman light
min 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 had The skill Of
| Buck Duane or of PogGin.
At first there had not only been great
| conjecture among the vicious element.
but also Il very decided checking of all
kinds Of action calculated to be con-
spicuous to q keen eyed nger AT the
tables, at the bars and lounging places
| Duane heard the remarks: Who's tibet
! ranger after? Whatn he do fust off ?
Is he waitin' fer somebody? Who's
! goin' to draw on him fust-an' go to
hell? Jest about how Don will he be
found somewheres full of lead"
When it came out somewhere that
Duane was openly c%ultivating the
them in time against the other ele-
ment, then Fairdale showed its 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. Bu
Jl6 laWiSSS element uiQ NOT rise up III Il
mass to- slay Duan onfsight. 1t was
not so much that the enemies of the
law awaited his next move, but just a
slCwness peculiar to he 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 We're under suspicion.
There was d rude kind OF good humor
even in their open hostility,
Besides, one ranger or a or
rangers could not have held the undi-
vided attention of these men from their
games n drinks and quarrels except
by some decided move. Excitement,
greed, appetite We're rife in them.
DUANE marked, however, a striking ex-
ception to the usual run of strangers
he had been in the habit of seeing.
Snecker had cone or was under cover.
Again Duane caught n vague rumor of
the coming OF Poggin, yet ne 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 conduct.
This lull, however, did not deceive
Duane. 1t could not last. The Won
der was thai it had lasted S long.
Duane went often to see Mrs. Lar
annie and her children. One afternoon
while he was there he saw Miss Long
streth and Ruth ride up to the door
They carried a basket. Evidently they
had heard of Mrs. Laramie's trouble.
Duane 'elt strangely GLAD. out he went
into ar adjoining room. 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 and the
doors, but Duane could see plainly
enough. Mrs. Laramie lay, hollow
checked and haggard, OF a bed. Once
she had evidently been a woman Of
some gofneiiness. The ravages of
trouble and grief were there to read in
her worn face: it had not. however, any
ST the hard and bitter lines that had
sssacterized her husbands.
Zane wondered, considering that
Stscft ~ ~ufrad Laramie. how