Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1941-06-12
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Dusty King and Lew Gordon had built up
vast string OF ranches which stretched
from Texas to Montana. King was killed by
Ms powerful and INSCRIPTIONS competitor.
Ben Thorpe. Bill Roper. Kings adopted son.
undertook to break Thorpe's power. His
CHAPTER VIII-COntinued
Presently it began to appear that
the tough, VIGOROUSLY trouble-inak-
ing outfits under Cleve Tanner were
not holding together as they always
had before. Here and there men
were beginning to desert the Tanner
outfits = sometimes fired because
they had failed, sometimes volun-
tarily deserving to the ranks of the
raiders who were now almost open
ly Furnishing the Thorpe-Tanner
holdings.
Mid-August, in the season of driest
heat
Into the Potreros, by a little used
trail, black-sombreroed horseman
rode. He was tested gunman, a
proved man whose name was known
and feared half the length of the
Great Trail Misunderstanding for
Cleve Tanner now, he was moving
into the Potreros to find out what had
gone wrong with some of Tanners
choicest herds. He had come fast,
changing horses frequently, riding
far into the night.
Looping down the almost invisible
trail through the dark, his horse sud-
denly dropped from under him, head
long into nothingness. The pony
might have stepped into prairie
dog hole-or it could have been the
loop of rope. But as the dazed
rider struggled up, his mouth full
of dirt, rifle was proddir~ his bel
ly, and a voice was sayil 8, Don't
you think you might have took the
wrong way? :"
Vest Texas, far up the. lonely PecOs-
One of Cleve Tanners outfit bosses
was talking to the Ranger stationed
at Mustang Point.
''Such damn outbust of lawless-
ness has cut loose here as I never
seen BEFORE" he said.
The ranger here was Val McDon-
aid. He had gone out nineteen times
in battle, sometimes against Next
cans, sometimes against the Conan
ches, and he had hunted white rem
egades galore.
lawfully tough" he said in his
own sympathetic way.
The foreman of the outfit that was
busted up was fit to be tied. 81
tell you, we're being stolen blind"
he raved. 'Not just a calf here
and there, either-they take 'em in
swoops and punches. It's the bold
est thing I've ever seen. Even when
there's no chance of getting clear
with any cattle, they're game to
stampede a cut herd that it's took
weeks to round up, and scatter it
from hell to"
''This is one of Ben Thorpe's out
fits? No?"
"Does that mean"
"Well? How many times has Cleve
Tanner passed out the word, The
Rangers be damned?' He's put more
Instructions in the way of things
we was trying to do than any other
one man. Who was it had the legis-
lature cut down our pay until we
practically ride for nothing, and fur
nish all our own stuff"
''The question here is whether
we're going to have any law, or are
we going to have"
''F'rom what l heard" Mcdonald
said, "Cleve Tanner has left it be
known that he's the biggest end of
the law himself. Go talk to Cleve
Tanner if you want law"
''My understanding u.s." the fore
man argued, 'that the Rangers are
supposed to-"
''I'll move out and straighten up
your little old range" Mcdonald
said. "I'l be glad to. Just as soon
as I get orders from headquarters.
I'm waiting for them right orders
noW!"
But the weeks rolled by, and head
quarters was curiously still
End OF summer; a ,Uelcome end
Cleve Tanner himself, the Cleve
Tanner who represented Ben Thorpe
in the south, master of breeding
grounds, the man who controlled the
roots of all Ben Thorpe's plains Or
ganization, was talking to the Unit
ed States Marshal at San Antonio.
"There hasn't been such wave of
outlawry since the horse Indians
was put down. Damnation, man!
It's set us back ten years .
know what your policy has been.
Your idea is to let us fight it out for
ourselves, against Mexico, against
the Indians, against all hell. But
tell you, this thing comes from in
side; this thing might be something
that couldn't beat without help
The United States Marshal at San
Antonio smiled to himself little
smile; and he said, "Seems like this
must be terrible bad thing for you,
Clever"
"I'm telling you"
go ahead and tell me. You're a