The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-01-30

/ traiied anyone Hadn't no business
! up here, except maybe he was Curl
Gus. Paul pokes that nose of his
into places where he oughtn't, some
| times"
.sYou mean curious to have q look
at Powell?"
The old bronc rider nodded. He
stood silent for a moment, staring,
! then in a low voice with sudden
angry growl in it, he said: I'm
| tired of thisl I've had enough of
waitin' around to see. who's goin' to
be next I don't aim to put up with
| it much more neither"
Sure" Candy agreed. but what
are you going to do about it,
81 know what I'd do all righti'
'sWell, what?"
go get me seven, eight men !
know of. Boy, give me Shirtless
Bailey and Hack Bowers and them
fellows, and I'd make one outfit
hereabouts go on home and spend
quiet winter!"
| "You mean the 77?"
''I sure do! Me and Paul found
some n cows showed into the sink
today"
They had been moving slowly
along the corn rows. Now at the
edge of clear ground, Candy
stopped. "You go on in" he said.
"I'll cut a circle back up to the
house. want to locate Lavic."
Whenever Bent Lavic could not be
found at his chores, or anywhere
| among the sheds and corrals on the
lower ranch lot, look for him in the
swing. That popularity Walt had
!, already noted. He was trying to To-
/ cate the swing tree now.
Wind that had made a pressure
against his face, eased off; some
| where not far ahead, the building
! was sheltering him. He moved on,
and in another stop jerked back to
standstill. White horizontal lines
were before his eyes-the plaster
chinking between logs of the house.
With this discovery Candy stood
waiting until he could place the win
dows by their dark square patches
cutting the white lines. He was al
most beside Helen Cameron's end
room. And then he made out some
one standing close to the chinked
wall within dozen PAGES ahead of
him, while in that side window ap-
peared vague gray figure. Imme-
diately there came hoarse, tight
throated tones of Bent Lavic talking.
The low rasp of his words did not
carry enough to be distinguished.
They stopped in moment. Candy
strained to hear an answer, then
realized that the man was deaf and
there would be no audible reply to
what he had said. Next, in his jerk
| ing motion, Bent Lavic was retreat
ing along the house logs. The figure
in the window had vanished.
Walt Candy remained fixed in the
utter blackness of the night, stopped
completely by what he had just wit
messed and the number of things that
it seemed to reveal. 1t came to him
| that the deformed old man was not
so simple after all in this swing
business. The swing was near Hell
en-. Also, Candy realized, from this
slope behind the house Lavic would
have wide view of the basin in
which the G G was located; he could
watch the sheds and corrals, the
mountainside north and south and
the bench for miles to the west. The
swing undoubtedly was lookout.
Old Bent Lavic knew what was
| happening on this ranch Knew what
had happened! Tonight Helen had
known that Ranger Powell was
dead. Wasn't it Lavic who had
passed that information to her?
Less than half an hour ago there
had been gunshot-and this min
ute she must know who had been
shot at.
But as Candy stood there in the
dark, puzzled, blocked, this discov-
cry of Lavic and Helen raised a sim
lister question. Did the twisted devil
have his hands on that girl in some
way, holding something over her?
Or was he in fact, as Hollister had
said, her watchdog. If Bent Lavic
did have knowledge of what had
happened on the c c lately, no tell
ing how he'd use it.
Here was one question that could
not go unanswered
Hollister came back shortly after
eleven O'Clock. Lying dressed on his
blankets, Candy heard him enter the
kitchen, got up and went out.
Pouring coffee from a pot on the
stove, Hollister turned set mask
of face. He nodded. "It's all
right"
''You put him out of reach?"
"Safe," Hollister answered. "Cash
is with a friend of mine. Battle
showed up YETI"
mot yet"
Without asking, Candy knew that
Hollister would not want to tell
where he had taken Cash Cameron.
1t was more than the secrecy
brought by these troubled days. A
certain tone of voice in which every
man says "a friend of mine" was a
dead give-away. HOLSTERS friend
was a woman.
Then Sheriff Battle shouted his
arrival.
CHAPTER XVI