The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-06-21
WINTER RANGE


the great unseen pressure Of a nom
existent wind.
When he had left the room there
was moment or two Of silence. Then
the sheriff asked, whats he afraid Of,
Campo?"
"Floyd, haven't got the slightest
idee. 1t might be the man is sick"
"That man amt Sick" said Hopper.
"The blood was already coming back
to his face. Campo, something has
happened to that man, just few min
utes before he come into this ROOM"
'Do you suppose" Campo began.
Somewhere outside the house a gun
crashed: and though they could not
Judge either its exact direction or dis
lance, they knew that 1t had been fired
within hundred yards. For a mo-
ment they listened. Then Lee Bishop
jumped for the door, and they all seemed
to move at once.
"Wait, Lee" Campo Ragland
snapped. "Blow out those lights,
Floyd, Kentucky! Jean, you stay in
here, you hear me?"
Campo Ragland, unarmed, led the
way to the corral where Joe st. Marie
was most likely to have left his horse.
The horse was there, head to the bars,
waiting for the feed that had not yet
come; but Joe st. Marie was not in
sight.
Campo's voice raised in a hoarse
shout, an abrupt strange sound in all
that silence Of snow and rock and stars.
"You, Joe! st. Mariel Where you at?
Sing out, mani"
The silence held for moment more,
and Campo had whirled upon the
sheriff, when Joe st. Marie spoke in
an odd muffled voice, unexpectedly
nearby. "Yes, sir-here am"
He came toward them now, slowly.
from around the corner Of the stable,
and Lee Bishop let drop the rifle he
had snatched up.
"Who fired?"
"Why-I did" The accent Of Joe St.
Marie's speech was no different from
that of any other cowboy, except for a
certain deep thickness of the tone
itself. Now his voice was still deep,
but 1t had taken on fiat quality; and
though the voice itself did not shake,
1t somehow conveyed the impression
that the man behind it was more than
shaken. II thought seen a wolf"
wolf! A wolf up here by the
houseT
go on in" Lee Bishop said dis
gustedly. 'I1l see your horse gets
fed" This offer st. Marie did not
accept; but Lee Bishop stayed behind
while the others went in.
II thought I told you to stay in
here" Campo said to his daughter,
lighting lamp.
The sheriff's temper seemed to have
come to the end of its string, and there
busted itself like a roped steer. 'T'm
sick and tired Of this" he told them.
There's something almighty funny
going on here, and I mean to know
what 1t 81"
Campo Ragland planted himself on
widespread legs, back to the stove.
when you find out" he said sourly,
'let me know"
"Pve warned you about holding out
on me-" the sheriff said to Ragland.
"But now I warn you again. mean
to get the man that killed Mason. I
mean to get him, you hear me?"
Campo Ragland said with sudden
passion, "God knows I'll help you every
way can. I'd tell you, If knew any
| thing"
"If you knew anythingI" said Hop
per bitterly. "There isn't a man on
your place tonight who doesn't know
more about this business than he
means to tell"
"That's all foolishness," said Campo
Ragland. you've gone up In the air
because a quarter-blood cowboy looks
like he might be coming down with a
fever. AS for holding stuff back from
you-take us one by one If you want.
Start with me. Or start with Kentucky
Jones, who didn't even work for the
Bar Hook at the time this happened.
| Or take"
"You want me to start with Ken
lucky Jones?" said the sheriff. "May-
be you'd like to hear me ask a ques-
ton or two of this Kentucky Jonesr"
"Ask who and what you like" said
Ragland
Hopper swung his red-eyed stare to
Kentucky.@ "Be careful how you an
swer me, Jones; try to remember what
your boss sometimes forgets-that
maybe I know the answer before you
speak. Where were you at one o'clock
last Saturday-the day that Mason and
lack Sanders died?'
Kentucky Jones. TEX his time about
answering. ~, "a last Saturday"
he said at. II was here at the
Bar Hook"
Sheriff Hopper grinned, but not
pleasantly, at Campo Ragland. "There
you are" he said.
Campo said slowly, @You never told
me that, Kentucky"
mo? I drove out to say Adios;
was going away"
Hopper spoke to Ragland. "There's
| your man that couldn't possibly know
anything about this" he said ironically.