The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-08-19
CHAPTER I

said, "a man has been killed, here
on the "a ranger"
Billy Wheeler turned to look at
the girl who perched beside him on
the corral fence, and for a moment
he forgot to answer. Marian Dunn
hadn't been in the desert country
long enough to gather very heavy
tan. Under the shadow of her Stet-
son her face reflected the glow OF
the fresh morning sunlight upon the
red hills; to Billy Wheeler it seemed
q fragile face, finely drawn, sug-
costing transparency. And her eyes
were blue distance boiled down. She
wore belted overalls and half boots;
but she could never have been mis-
taken for a Westerner.
Billy Wheeler, though, C o u d
never be mistaken for anything
else. The dry intermountain coun-
try, by its necessity of wide ranges
and the perpetual mobility of the
saddle, has set its mark upon its
sons. Wheeler was young, but his
weather-trimmed features showed
the blast of sun and sweep of wind,
and his gray eyes were vislbly
tuned to distance.
The girl turned her eyes to him,
reminding him he was supposed to
say something.
t'I didn't hear much" he said.
ga gas station man told me there
was a killing, as I came through
T~-r~s-a4i0,o. hut hn didn't EnOIu
much about it."
81 guess nobody does"
eyes, but-who was killed? And
when?"
That's just it," the girl told him.
''They don't know who was killed.
It's the strangest thing ever heard
of They can't even find him."
Cant find who? The man who
was killed."
That's it."
Billy Wheeler grinned slowly, boy
ishly. "Well, I'll be darned!"
t'I don't think it's funny. I think
it's-horrible.
''Well, yes; I guess it is"
He looked away, estimating again
the nearness of the approaching rid
ers. John Red Horse" Dunn, Old
Man of the "a, at whose summons
Wheeler had come 300 miles, had
not been on hand to receive him.,
having set out before daylight on
an unknown mission with three of
his cow hands. But they were COM
ing in now; across the dry morning
Wheeler could identify the individ-
ual riders at the half mile as they
jog-trotted in, their ponies abreast.
''When did all this happen?" he
asked.
Uncle John found the sign, as
he calls it, yesterday morning."
''Then he must have wired me
right after that"
81 guess So"
She hadn't known, then, that her
uncle had sent for him. She hadn't
known that he was coming-and he
hadn't known she was here. That
made a difference.
uncle John hasn't wanted to talk
about this thing-to me-" the girl
now said. perhaps he'll give you
q different, clearer story, Billy"
They fell silent. Billy Wheeler
let his eyes run over casual, famil-
lar things-the roadster he had
come in, the tall barns, the low
sprawled house, clubhouse, and
grub shack. But as Billy Wheeler's
eyes drifted out over the vast roll
ing flats" of the plain, resting
here and there on broken, fiat
topped mesa or far up-thrust noun
tain of gaunt red rock, all that he
saw, excepting only the far peaks,
was under the dictatorship of Horse
Dunn's brand-the "a.
Billy Wheeler looked at these IA
miliar things, but he was not think
ing about them. He was thinking
about the girl at his side, whom he
hardly looked at at all.
Billy Wheeler had not seen Mar
ian Dunn for two years. Had he
known that she was here, he would
not have come here now.
Marian Dunn was Horse Dunn S
niece. Once, for a couple of months
two years ago, Wheeler had seen
her every day. He had used every
persuasion he knew of, all he had,
to make this girl love him-and had
failed. Sometimes he could still
hear her low, cool voice: "I'm sor-
ry-truly sorry" The sincere re-
gret in that was pretty hard to take.
In everything else he had sue
ceeded. He had come up from moth
ing in cows, and tripled in land,
and switched back to cows to double
again. He had liquidated every
thing at the peak of cattle prices,
and at twenty-seven had nothing to
worry about. But in this one thing
he cared most about he had met
only complete blank defeat. He
would not have come here, to raise
again the bitterness of that defeat,
if he had known that she was here.
And down there was certain awk-
wardness between them, since she
inevitably knew all that, too.
81 think he's going to ask favor
of you," Marian said.