The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-01-19

G Alan lie May
wNU Service
CONCLUSION

SGcn rancn Tor more tnan Two
years!
Bob Flagg had neither been COM
pletely crooked, nor completely fool
ish; but a 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 Giscov-
cry, it must have seemed that Mar
ian's propertv-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 of facing the music
for two years; but in the end he
came and faced it like a man.
said to him, Bob, can't let this
pass He said, I know it, Horse
I said, Bob, aim 10 turn my back.
Fire your first shot into the air.
When | hear your gun, I'll turn
and draw His second shot sung
over me, for I had to stoop to go
for the only gun I had, which was
an old derringer III my boot; and in
the next second 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. 1t 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 single trick-the trick that had
AOOlC0 old NucIl OOllGC III tilG oiAoA
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 Caye-
tano. But Horse rested no great
weight in the killing at Ace Springs.
Cayuse had been a 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 a harness col
lar, and thus had advanced in 81
lence over naked rock. It was only
incidental that the trail of the muf-
fled hoofs had been too obscure for
Billy Wheeler to see.
That was all the story. One thing,
only one, had warped that whole
brief history into something mys-
terious and strange, distorting it, to
Dunn's own bewilderment, past all
recognition: that was the old fight
er's abiect 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 a range. It had been
that one etfacing 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 Il new
er prove"
"There'll 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
a shadow Of any dark thing hid =
Marian said, Horse Horse
At the sound of her voice the Old
man seemed to crump1a and break.
He sat down on the bare steel cot
within his cell, bent his head, and
slowly ran his big hands through
his hair.
The tears were running down Mar
ian's cheeks, but suddenly her head
went up. ssWhat he says he'll do
he'll do. No one understands that
better than l. But there's one other
way. There are still cattle, and
open country, and space!"
'You mean"
1.-THE Argentinel If he's spoken
of it once, he's spoken of it dozen
times. If he won't keep quiet and
let us fight this thing here-at least
we can. split this place wide open,
and start him on his way!"
Horse Dunn stood up slowly, like
a man rising to the light. why