The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-01-09


bunch Went Out 10 have a look.
Five men were U a draw. waiting
for just such q move, ! figure, but
I didn't see them till one put a bull
let at me. My fool scarehead horse
hucked, and | didn't stick"
Hollister scanned the high rim.
then the sink bottom. (Which way d
they GO, Cash,
West. They were II all right.
but too far off for me to get a good
look Using rifles
Worried, Hollis,er thrust his boot
toe in the stirrup and mounted, say
ing, WED better get on back and
see about Horsethief Fisher and
Paul" He made no mention then of
his own meeting with part of the
n crew
They climbed narrow steep
slanting trail single file and topped
out on the bench. There, holding in
to let the horses draw wind, he stat
ed fatty what had happened, max
ing no comment.
pete Kelso," he said, made
pass at turning back my bunch of
strays. Candy drilled one of his
men in the wrist--brought his thirty
eight along today in shoulder hol-
ster."
Candy did" Cash Cameron
jerked himself around in his saddle,
as near to fiaring up as Walt had
seen so far Look here. There
wasn't to be any cunning on the
c c! Now what have you done,
Cameron" said Candy, that
was sort of personal between Pete
Kelso and me, only he showed the
job onto one of his killers" He bent
toward the old man, doubled left
fist propped upon his thigh. "But
damned if l see what you're driving
at! Now that the first guns fired,
why don't we call it an opening shot
and go ahead?
&C c cattle are all there in the
sink, settled for the winter. Are
you going to hold it, or is the n
going to crowd their stuff in and
run yours out? Why don't we meet
that drive before it ever reaches
the west rimS?"
well, boy" said Cameron pa
tiently, you're right. It's what
ought to be done, except the c c is
straddling a keg of dynamite, re-
member that 1t isn't only the n
we've got to consider every
Emigrant Bench outfit is primed and
ready to blow US off the public do
main. A ranch needing as much
of that as we do, is always in a
ticklish position. Right now we've
got the law and the people against
US; we don't dare have any more
killings charged against the c c un-
til we come clear of what has al
ready happened Understand that,
don't you? So I'll ask you to keep
that gun of yours out of action
Candy shook his head, his eyes
hardening to dark and stubborn
bronze. Il don't get it! You mean"
he asked, unbelieving, "that you'll
let the II drive come in?"
Cash Cameron looked at Eollister.
Then his steady blue gaze came
back. YES" he said, II might"
1t was after three by the time
they had pushed across the bench
top and were Looping slantwise up the
timbered mountain skirt. In deep
ening forest shadow they reached
the home ranch trail, had just
passed the section corner where the
fence began, when from ahead came
a moaning of cattle.
Walt Candy chilled with recogni-
ton. Beside him, Cameron and Hol-
lister exchanged a sudden eye to
eye look. Wordless, they moved on.
The cattle were off on their left,
and had gone into that fenced Sec
ton where a panel of barbed wire
had either been let down, or had
not been put up in Bent Lavic's
recent mending. They were in thin
timber, near another fence that en-
closed the garden patch.
Ito be continued)