The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-12-23

Coffee and Tu1are stepped down,
!, and followed him reluctantly across
to Horse Dunn's battered touring
car, where the others waited.
For a moment Billy Wheeler
stood silent, one foot on the run
ming board. The eyes of Marian
and Steve Hurley and Val Douglas
were on his face. Steve Hurley
E2un the starter and the engine
began to purr; he sat waiting to
jump the car down the road to In
spiration at the first word.
"Well?" Val Douglas demanded
at last.
mo action tonight" Wheeler
heard himself tell them. "We'l1 be
going back to the ranch. Marian
you'd better come " til me-
''What the S .eve began.
Coffee will give y3u the dope on
your way back. We got to get out
of here nook. Come On, Marian"
They stared at him; but presently
they obeyed.
Billy Wheeler let the others turn
Horse Dunn's car in the road and
start back toward the o. before he
started his engine. Even after he
had set his roadster rolling he
drove slowly, half paralyzed with
the dread of what he had to say. He
knew that Marian was watching his
face, waiting for him, to speak.
Suddenly she grasped his arm III
both hands. "Billy-what is it,"
He let his car drift to long-roll-
ing stop beside the road, and shut
off the engine.
"Billy! What's the matter?"
Still he could not speak, hut sat
with his hands gripped on the
wheel, and his eyes on the far of
vanishing tail light OF Horse Dunn's
car, which Horse would never drive
again. Once more he was seeking
words, and finding no words at
his command.
Then Marian cried sharply, as if
she had read his mind, "It can't be
: that-Tell me it isn't SOP l~
'Marian-I can't hardly believe it
myself. But"
'My uncle is
Dead" he said.
Marian Dunn sat perfectly still,
so still that he could not hear her
breathe. Still he did not look at
her, as that incredible silence set
tied upon them; a silence so COM
plete that somewhere, many yard
from where they sat, he presently
could hear the faint, small gnawing
that kangaroo rat makes, work.
ing to get at the water in a cactus
heart.
Over all that vast range the
moonlight shone clear and clean as
a light radiated by silver; you
could even see the distant noun
tains, and there was a color of deep
blue in the dark sky. This was the
range that Horse Dunn had won.
AS far as the eye could reach, all
that lean dusty land was under the
domination of the "a brand. Some
where off in the night, scattered
over the miles, were the punches
of cattle which Horse Dunn had
branded in Marian's name-scat-
tered and few to the mile, but graz
ing an area so vast that Horse him
self had not known how many they
were, within a thousand head. 1t
seemed strange thing, almost i'm
possible to believe, that the shay
gy old fighter who had gained these
long miles of desert, built these
far-fung herds, would never ride
this range again, nor count the scat
tered beeves, nor see this moon
light, cool and serene and clear,
flooding the vast dry land that he
loved
When the silence had grown I'M
til he could endow it no more, Billy
Wheeler turned his eyes to Marian.
She sat as still as a resting kit fox,
and her face, turned straight ahead,
was as white as the alkali flats I'M
der the moon. Only once, he saw
her eyes turn, sweeping the unlim-
tied land that Horse Dunn had
fought for in her name.
He tried to say something. "Mar-
ian-Marian-"
She turned into his arms, and hid
her face in the hollow of his threat
For few moments her breathing
was irregular, but she did not
weep. "We-can't let the 94l go I'M
der; not-not now"
tIt isn't going UNDER" he said.
Il tell you, you and I can show
this coyote ring such a fight as
they've never scent"