The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-09-05
CHAPTER XII-Continued


lucky led the way through the main
living room to little room at one
side.
This room was small, and Its gun.
racks and deer horns made Ii seem
smaller, as If there were hardly room
for the three men to find places here
Kentucky Jones could not look at this
trophy-cluttered room, which gave q
curious effect of being cross section
Of Campo Raglands soul, without
thinking of that other contrasting room
at the other end of the house, which
belonged to jeans mother So differ.
ent must have been the people that
made those rooms that the wonder was
not that Mrs. Ragland was now far
away, but that she had ever been
able to make herself a part of this
household at all.
Campo sat in q corner His heavy
desk was pulled diagonally across in
front of him, as If he were at bay
there, futilely barricaded. From beneath
the sweeping dome of his forehead
his eyes regarded them as redly as the
eyes of dog in freight. Suddenly
Kentucky wondered if Campo's evident
sense of standing stubbornly at bay
had been caused more by himself and
Sheriff Hopper than by the now far
off woman who had made him fear a
showdown upon Mason's death-so fear
1t that he was held in a paralysis of
indecision while Jim Humphreys was
killed, and Lee Bishop, and the Ss
herds poured over his range
In the shadows of a recessed win
dow-seat Jean Ragland sat.
Sheriff Hopper said, "Howdy, Cam
po; howdy, Miss Ragland."
Campo flicked him a glance, then
dropped surly red eyes to his thick
freckle-blotched hands.
Kentucky Jones began the making
of cigarette. Seems like we been a
little bit disorganized out here, Hop
per-" he said. "The fact is Campo and
haven't seen eye to eye on this, in
all things
Sheriff Floyd Hopper waited; and
Bob Elliot crossed his legs and laced
his fingers together.
at seems" said Kentucky, shat
Campo became convinced that 1 did
away with Old Ironsides myself"
There was sharp silence here dur
ing which Kentucky Jones finished and
lighted his cigarette. Hopper turned a
questioning glance on Campo. "Yes?"
Ragland glanced at Kentucky Jones.
but did not speak.
"Everybody's known all along" Ken
lucky said, that 1 was out here at
the Bar Hook just before snow few on
the day Mason was killed; and I've
admitted it Assuming for q minute
that l could easily have got hold of
the weapon that killed Mason, the next
thing needed against me was my rea-
son for this act of unseemly violence.
Campo found out where l did have a
good reason-and naturally figured
that he'd come to the end of the trail"
"You admit you had a reason for
killing Mason?" Hopper said.
I'm not denying that l had" said
Kentucky. Come to find out, that was
one of the reasons that Campo Rag
land wanted Ted Baylor brought out
here. Ted is one of the very few that
know that Mason turned me down on
a renewal that I'd counted on-and
like to broke me-"
you're broke, Jones?"
"Close to It."
"You sure are free-handed about
making q case against yourselfr
Campo was overlooking a couple of
things" said Kentucky. ats true that
you can show was broke by Mason.
But what about all those other cow
men that Mason had to close down on?
To those men Mason's decisions meant
salvation or ruin-eXactly as to me.
He could not carry us all. In digging
up a reason for me to kill Mason.
Campo only dug up a motive that forty
or fifty rimrock cowmen would own
to-"
II see what you're driving at" said
Hopper. Maybe Mason did have such
an enemy, or six of them or fifty; the
fifty of them weren't having no barbe-
cue at the Bar Hook the day Mason
was killed"
$50 l gathered" Kentucky admitted
But bear in mind this-if any one of
the fifty had been there, he might have
gun-whipped Mason. There's been an
awful lot of wearing of guns in the
rimrock the past ten. twelve months,
what with riders hoping for a chance
to shoot a coyote, or a rabbit-with
a AS slug Cowmen's minds can work
that way only about so long before
something boils over and busts."
"Yes," Hopper admitted, Il was look
ing for it all right; but when it come
to killing Mason"
He was right ambitious victim"
Kentucky agreed; but there were big
reasons for killing him, too. When you
build up pressure like that you can
figure on an explosion. But it was
the gun smoke in the history, and the
pressure of the bad times, that wiped
out John Mason-and incidentally
lack Sanders"
And Jim Humphreys and Lee Bish-
op," the sheriff put in.
That's partly true" Kentucky al
lowed; 1.-THE killing of Humphreys and
Bishop sure do make up an angle of
this thing. 1t took two things to kill
off Humphreys and Bishop-the smoky
feeling between the brands before Ma
sons death, and Mason's death itself.
Humphreys and Bishop were killed in
the weirdest d-n one-sided range
struggle that has ever been seen on
this or any other range"
The sheriff said slowly, "Mason's
death comes first. But don't you ever
think, Elliot, that I've forgotten the