The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1930-11-07
CHAPTER vi



After the battle at the Cress ranch
there was lull in the Jefferson Coun-
ty war, as the conflict between the
Ingram and the Steelman forces come
to be called in later days. It was as
though both sides were waiting to get
their breath again. The less danger
ously wounded men were afoot within
a week. Pankey and Smith-Beresford
hung for few days between life and
death, then very slowly began to mend,
edging away from the gulf into which
they had almost been plunged.
Meanwhile talk swept the country
side as fire does dry prairie. There
were some amazing aspects about the
Cress ranch battle. Old-timers found
the facts hard to reconcile. That
O'Hara had stood up to the blazing
guns of Sanderson, Sewers, Deever,
and others, had driven these notorious
gunner back out of range, and later
had fought off the entire posse for
hours could be classed only as a
miracle, but a miracle made possible
by the GOODNESS, the courage, and the
accurate fire of the tenderfoot In a
community where gameness was
matter of course, the one essential
quality of anyone not weakling, Gar
rett O'Hara had become set apart as
one who had fought his way to fame
The detection of Bob Quantrell from
the Ingram faction was another detail
that received much comment. Few
knew that the callous young desper-
ado had liked Smith-Beresford from
the first, that he admired the courage
of both h-Beresford and his part
ner O'Hara, and that he had signed
up with them as a rider in order to
protect them as well as he could.
"a queer bird. young Quantrell. Eli,
what, Garrett?" the Englishman said
to his partner one day as he sat in the
pleasant sunshine in front of the
cabin.
His eyes were on the young des-
perado, who was sitting in front of
the bunk house whiting out of wood
a horse for little Bonnie Ford. Bonnie
was the five-year-old son of Mary Joe
Ford, young widow who had come to
do the cooking at the ranch. He was
a favorite of Bob Quantrell's and or
dered the boy-gunman about with i'm
plicit confidence.
Garrett shook his head. "Too much
for me. There he sits, gay and good
natured and full of the milk of human
kindness. You feel he is utterly de-
pendable and loyal. I'd trust him in
any crisis or with any amount of
money. 1 get to thinking of him as
just nice boy-and then that CORY
record of his jumps to my mind, cold
blooded and deliberate killings done
without mercy or apparent remorse."
"By Jove, you know. sometimes I
rub my eyes and wonder If it isn't
just bally dream"
''It's real enough, old chap. dare
say you know that when you feel your
wound. Better not stay out too long
and get tired. I'll trot along and see
how they're getting along with the
house."
Don't let MatSOn cut down the size
Of the fireplace, Old Top. His notion
is all bally rot, but he's stubborn
mule"
The Circle s o ranch, as the Cress
place was now called. had become
hive of industry. Cattle in large
punches had been shifted to the con-
tiguous range and had to be worked.
At all hours of the day and night cow
boys drifted TO and from the ranch.
Just now half dozen carpenters, i'm
ported from Aurora, were camped in
the pasture. They had been engaged
to build new house.
The Lodge, as Smith-BeresfOrd
called it, was to be a commodious
structure, rustic in type. The hewn-
log walls were already up and the
roof on. One of the chief features was
to be large open hall with an i'm
mense stone fireplace at one end. This
hall extended to the roof. but stair
way wound to second-floor gallery
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