The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-09-04

"Shot?" demanded the crook-nosed
Turley. "You mean, on purpose?"
yep. Some of the riders of his
ranch heard the shooting and came
a-running. They found him dead.
He had his six-gun out and had fired
it twice. Fellow had sent revolver
bullet right spang through the
heart"
Brand asked question. "Was Nc
Faddin shot from behind?"
"Cuth Rogers says not," answered
Afford. He saw the body. Says it
musta been duel. The bullet came
from directly in front and there was
no brush for several hundred
yards
That's funny" commented Tur-
ley. Looks like it may have been
one of his own men bumped him.
They got into a quarrel, maybe"
''The story is that it wasn't one of
the Flying V c men did it," Afford
said. ''They are all accounted for.
And the man was tracked for sew
eral miles"
Something queer about this"
Turley cut in, frowning. 1T don't
get it. If the fellow who did it was
one of our friends, say-he wouldn't
of shot it out in the open that-away.
He would of waited to get a crack
at him from the brush"
would he?" Brand asked. "May-
be not Maybe he wanted to show
the big outfits that we had the nerve
to do our killing in the open.'
Ellen felt a fiuttering heart beat
against her ribs. She was watching
jeff. He had spoken carelessly, but
in his slurring drawl she had read
an undertone implacable and dead
ly. She knew, as well as one could
know without evidence to back it,
that he had been the other party to
that duel.
''The way you talk sounds dumb
to me, jeff" snarled Lee Hart
What you expect a fellow to do?
Buck didn't have any chance, did
he? Not on yore tintype. They
rubbed him out when he wasn't ex-
pecting it. Why shouldn't l do the
same with one of them?"
Hard-eyed, Brand looked at Hart.
"I'm not telling you what you ought
to do. I don't give damn. What
I'm pointing out is how a white
man would want to settle a diff
ficulty."
Dark blood mantled Hart's flat
featured face. 'If you claim I'm
not white man." he clustered.
A faint expression of contempt
kindled in the narrowed eyes of JEFF.
II wouldn't be interested" he said,
his voice insolent and dry.
Ellen had work to do at the house,
and as soon as she had turned over
the office to her father she left.
jeff Brand was waiting outside. He
rose to join her, reaching his feet in
one swift movement of ripping ease.
You're certainly the workingest
girl I ever saw" he told her.
There's a proverb about that. All
work and no play makes jeff a dull
boy"
$50 you think I'm dull" she said.
''No, no, I'm dull when you work
too long. Have you ever thought
that maybe in sixty or seventy years
we may be too old to play? We have
to leave some time for love and
kisses, you know
She was not up to nonsense today.
1t was not worth trying, not while
she had this queer feeling of suffo-
cation in her breast.
''Why do you go out of your way
to insult men who are dangerous
men like Lee Hart?" she asked.
He looked at her, surprised. $50
you heard?"
81 couldn't help hearing"
"You pack a lot in one little ques-
tion," he said. First off, I didn't
go out of my way to insult Lee
Hart. I wasn't thinking about him
when I spoke, though he is sure well
come to take it personal if he likes.
For the fact is, I can't stand the
fellow. He's low-down mean. AS to
his being dangerous, I don't reckon
he is-long as he is in front of
you"
He spoke carelessly, as if the mat
ter were not important.
''You look to me like a man who
is booming himself" she said So
berly, with a kind of proud def
ance.- "You frirhten me, as f-as