The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-12-16
CHAPTER XIV-Continued


''The shoot-out with Flagg, you
mean?"
He told them now, step by step;
the story of an old gun-fghter, and
old ideals of justice and right. It
came out haltingly, as Horse Dunn
paced. But even told slowly, and
with an effort greater than they
could ever know, that story was
brief.
Until he met Bob Flagg on the
Red Sleep trail, Dunn had had no
advance word of his partners ar
rival. At that time he had already
been waiting for Flagg's arrival for
weeks-the very existence of the "a
depended upon him; and Dunn was
shocked and astonished to meet
frayed-out man on worthless horse
and saddle borrowed from rus
tler-and recognize this man as his
Arizona partner.
And then, riding toward the "a
with Flagg, Dunn had learned the
truth. There had been no sale of the
Flagg-Dunn ranch, and there were
no proceeds. There had been no
such ranch for more than two
years!
Bob Flagg had neither been COM
pletely crooked, nor completely fool
ish; but combination of some folly
and some crookedness had been
more than enough to break the
brand when the beef market failed.
To Dunn, in the moment of discov-
cry, 1t must have seemed that Mar
ian's property-for the Arizona
ranch was to have saved Marian's
94-had been gambled away by his
cheating partner.
There was only one thing to do"
Horse Dunn said now with an odd
simplicity. Bob Flagg knew it as
well as me. You have to say this
for him-he put off facing the music
for two years; but in the end he
came and faced it like a man. I
said to him, Bob, / can't let this
pass He said, 4 know it, Horse
! said, Bob, aim to turn my back.
Fire your first shot into the air.
When I hear your gun, I'll turn
and draw His second shot sung
over me, for ! had to stoop to go
for the only gun 1 had, which was
an old derringer in my boot; and in
the next second l let drive-and he
was through"
Slowly, then, old Horse Dunn tried
to explain to them how it was he
had buried Bob Flagg in the Red
Sleep. It had seemed the most nat
ural thing in the world that he
should make a suitable burial of
his partner IN some far, open place.
He felt no sense of remorse. He
had simply set out to lay away his
partner-no less his partner be-
cause they had split at the end of
the trail.
And then the thought of seeing
horror in the eyes of his niece, who
would not underestimate suddenly
had seemed more than he could
face. Never before in all his long
career had Horse Dunn concealed
from the world anything that he
had done. Even this time, his wor-
ship of this girl prompted him only
to a single trick-the trick that had
fooled Old Man Coffee in the Short
Creek trailing. He was riding a
horse from which the shoes had
just been pulled, so that it had
deep, long hoofs, with nail splits.
He simply rode the horse into the
water, dismounted, and trimmed the
hoofs fiat to the sole, with his knife.
1t had fooled Coffee; it had not
fooled old Rock.
Nor had it fooled Cayuse Cage
tano. But Horse rested no great
weight in the killing at Ace Springs.
Cayuse had been worthless char
acter; Horse already owed him a
heavy debt in missing calves, for
Cayetano had been a cow thief in
his own right. Horse looked at this
shoot-out as an execution long over
due. Yet here as before he had CIV
en- his adversary better than even
break.
AS Wheeler and Coffee had sus-
pected, Lon Magoon had been dis
tant witness. Magoon was another
whose punishment for petty rustling
Dunn had considered too long de-
layed. He too had had best break.
But before the great old fighter less
er men seemed to go to pieces, los
ing their fighting mettle so that
there could be only one end.
To overtake Magoon, Horse Dunn
had muff1ed the hoofs of his pony
with pads cut from harness col
lar, and thus had advanced in ST.
lence over naked rock. 1t was only
incidental that the trail of the muf-
A<l = oh fDy-
Billy Wheeler to see.
That was all the story. One thing,
only one, had warped that whole
brief history into something mys-
FERROUS and strange, distorting it, to
Dunn's own bewilderment, past all
recognition: that was the old fight
er's abject humility, his pathetic,
unreasoning panic before the dis
approval of Marian, his niece. With
out that, that first simple shoot-out
would have ended where it had oc-
CURED, without any hue or cry or
storming up of range. 1t had been
that one effacing of the trail, and
thereafter the silence of Horse
Dunn, that had changed it all.
Horse" said Billy Wheeler,
we've got a good case yet! Wen
fight this to the last ditch, until
they're sick of fighting. They'll new
er prove"
'There'n be no fight on that"
Horse Dunn said. "All my life I've
faced things out. Behind this girl
there amt ever again going to be
shadow of any dark thing hid"
Marian said, "Horse-Horse-"
At the sound Of her voice the old
man seemed to crumple and break.
He sat down on the bare steel cot
within his cell, bent his head, and
slowly ran his big hands through