The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1941-08-15
CHAPTER XVII

- "hSS, 1lVlilS WITH JOOy
Goroon through the same hundred
mile snow which screened Bill Rop-
er and Tex Long in their raid on the
Little Dry, found himself the most
bewiIdered and the most unhappy of
men.
he could have refused to guide
Jody Gordon to Bill Ropers rendez-
vous; he thought it improbable that
joey Gordon would have been able
70 locate the rendezvous alone. But
whether She found it, or merely got
herself lost, Shoshone Wilce would
have been answerable to Bill Roper
for leaving her to attempt the ride
alone.
The alternative he had chosen Of
tered no greater prospect for long
and helpful life. Lew Gordon would
60 wild as a wounded silvertip at
the disappearance of his daughter;
and every king-Gordon cowboy in
the country would be securing the
brakes after Shoshone's scalp.
Jody believed now that the split
between Lew Gordon and Bill Roper
was the basis of inconceivable dis
aster-not only immediate and per-
sonal, but far-reaching in its import
to the cow country. Together, those
two very different cattlemen could
have beaten Thorpe, and CONSOLIDATE
ed the King-Gordon empire.
Separated, Lew Gordon and Bill
Roper were mutually destructive;
Lew Gordon was probably right that
Bill Roper'S savage attacks upon
the Thorpe interests were the cause
OF Ben Thorpe'S heavy reprisals
upon King Gordon. And even though
Roper might bring down Ben Thorpe
In the end, which still seemed in
credible, he could never profit by
his victory, even if he lived. Unless
Gordon and Roper could be recon-
ciled, Roper would in the end be-
come just one more outlawed cow
boy whose trails could have no
meaning, and only one end.
Jody Gordon had one other motive
in attempting the all but hopeless
reconciliation. She believed her ia
theirs life to be in the sharpest dan
ger. Bill Roper, an even harder
fighter than the old trail breaker
who had trained him, would auto
matically take those precautions
that would safeguard her fathers
life, if once they could be brought
to work together again.
But the first move toward recon-
ciliation must come from Bill Roper
himself. If she could persuade Rop-
er to this, there was a bare posi-
blllty that she could also manage
her father.
1t was forlorn hope; but, as she
saw 1T, of such vital importance that
1t could no longer be ignored. 1t
was as If events that would alter
the whole history of the COW country
lay in her persuasion of these two
stubborn men. She rode doggedly
now, with set face, trusting Sho-
shone to find the way.
They rode until after midnight,
blind, as far as Jody could see, in
the wet fall of the snow. They threw
down their bedrollS then in the shell
ter of Stunted snoW-laden trees, and
Shoshone Wilce measured grain for
the horses onto his own poncho.
They pushed on again early the
next morning, miserable in the raw
dawn, after coffee which Shoshone
made in frying pan. All day long
they rode steadily, stopping only
once for bread and bacon, and to
bolster their horses with more grain.
The snow Stacked off, giving place
to bitter wind. Jody's knees stiff
ened with saddle cramp and she
continu 'lv had to nurse her fingers
deep j. hlT pockets to keep them
from gong numb. She had strange
sense Of having taken an irreVocable
step which she might find great rea-
son to regret. The fact that the
snow had hidden the trail they had
made, so that no one could follow to
find her, gave her a feeling of be-
ing cut off from everything friendly
she had ever known. She no longer
knew where she was. She set her
eyes straight ahead, too proud to
ask Shoshone how far they had come
or how much farther they must 60.
Just before dusk they climbed a
long rocky ridge which commanded
the length of a shallow valley set
brokenly with juniper and ragged
cedar.
Shoshone motioned her TO stop her
horse. wait a minute"
Far down the valley Jody Gordon
could see a faint haze that blurred a
rabbit-fur grey and brown of the
brush and runty timber.
That's smoke" Shoshone Wilce
said at last. This ought to be the
place"
$50 we really got here at last . :"
1.-TWO hours more"
"The smokc-that means he's
there"
Shoshone Wilce, suspicious and
doubtful by temperament, was less
sure. Don't know if it's him. Some
body's there. Or, anyway, some
body's been there"
A swift panic chilled Jody at the
thought of meeting Bill Roper face
to face again after so long a time.
She tried to imagine what she was