The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-08-28
CHAPTER XIV

1t had come on to rain, soft, fine
rain that blurred the landscape. The
mountains were no longer visible,
and the foothills were vague and
shadowy. Calhoun Terry had united
his slicker from the saddle and put
it on.
He had been in the saddle nine
hours-five on the way to the No,
BY Joe, and four on the return jour
ney. Now he was back on Diamond
Reverse B territory. In another hour
he would reach the ranch house and
Jim Wong would set about preparing
him good supper.
Terry descended a long slope at a
walk, forded a trickle of a stream
winding down the draw, and put his
mount at the slope. The rim above
was fringed with bushes, and back
of these rose small grove of aspen.
A bullet whistled past him. There
was a puff of smoke from the as
pens. Terry swung his horse swiftly
and raced for the wild cherries on
the bank of the little creek he had
just left. There was another shot.
A slug tore through the arm of the
slicker he was wearing. After this,
scarce three seconds later, two more
explosions sounded. But before the
echo of the last had died away Cal
houn was in the bed of the stream,
crouched behind a screen of wild
cherry tangle. He had freed the
horse and let it wander down the
draw, but not before he had with
drawn the rifle from its boot.
His gaze swept the slope, to make
sure his enemies were not circling
the hillside for a flank attack.
For there were at least two of
them. The first two shots were from
a rifle, the others from a revolver.
There was something strange about
this. The man with the revolver
had waited until Calhoun was practi-
cally out of range. Nor had Calhoun
seen the bullets strike on the hill
side.
While the foreman waited there
came to him news on the breeze.
Back of the rim and out of sight
man was riding from the aspens. He
heard the swish of bushes and the
clink of a hoof against rock. A
vague, distant rumor told Terry that
the horseman was still going. There
might be two of them. He could
not tell that.
The ambushed man did not intend
to make any mistakes. This might
be a trap. There were three posi-
bilities. Those who had lain in wait
for him, having failed to get him,
might be hurrying away to escape
detection. Or one of them might be
making wide circuit to take him in
the rear. Still another thought to
consider was the chance that one of
the attackers had ridden away to
draw him from his cover, and had
left confederate to deal with him
when he came into the open.
Terry did not intend to come into
the open, nor did he mean to wait
there for possible rear attack. He
slipped along the bed of the little
creek and reclaimed his horse.
Leading the animal, he came to the
end of the draw and circled a hill,
taking care not to let himself be
seen by anyone who might still be
watching from the aspens. He
mounted, but still kept to the low
country until he had made a circuit
which brought him back of and be-
low the grove from which the shots
had come.
This had taken time. Twenty-Five
minutes or half an hour, Calhoun
guessed. He tied the horse and be-
gan slow approach to the rock
rim. Before he left he meant to
find out all that could be learned
about this attempt on his life.
Darkness was beginning to fall.
He found the tracks of two horses
cut the sign of them where they had
come in and again where they had
left. A few moments later he came
on a discovery that shocked him.
The body of a man lay face down on
the mold formed by last years
leaves. To his back paper was
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