Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-04-23
W.NU. RELEASE


dulling eyes.
$50 you're done for, are you,
TOMB" said Waldron. He didn't ex-
actly taunt, didn't exactly smile, but
there was the stamp of infinite cru
city, callous and unfeeling, in his
look. He said quietly, no emotion
whatever tinging his tone, Here,
I'll lend you a hand"
Heavy man though Tom Cough
was, Rance Waldron lifted him cas-
lily and bore him the short distance
to the roadside. There he put him
down, not more than a score of
PAGES from where the still bodies
| of the Judge and Doc Joe lay.
Those two are dead, Tom," said
Rance. 'Folks'll find them tomor-
row. They'll find you, too They'll
say you stuck 'em up, and you three
shot it out-and all three of you
cut one another down"
For Gods sake, Rance!"
Rance shot him twice through the
body. 1t wouldn't do to have all
three men shot through the head!
He emptied the pockets of both
the Judge and Doc Joe. He glanced
at the two wills and put them into
mis- pocket. He gathered up the rest
of their personal effects, money and
watches, and dropped the lot close
to Tom Coughs outflung hand. Then
he went to Tom Coughs horse and
rode away into the thickest of the
wooded hills, leaving his own horse,
not dead yet, but dying slowly, to
| kick its life out.
1t was sweet day, averred young
Gaucho Ortega, idling homeward
from Bald Eagle, as he came first
Of all upon the wreckage of brutal
tragedy.
Only three or four miles from
town, where canyon debouched
upon the valley on the farther rim
of which Bald Eagle summed itself,
| he saw the runaway team. He rec
| ognized the horses with sweeping
| glance: Doc Joe and the Judge had
had a runaway. But where were
they?
Then, a couple of miles farther
on, he came upon the three bodies
asprawl in the road or at its edge.
''Holy Mother of God!" gasped
Gaucho, and turned sick, horror
struck. "Three men dead And the
old Judge and Doc Joe two of
| them!"
When his wits returned to him he
thought straight to the point: 1t was
less than half dozen miles back
to Bald Eagle, more than twice that
| distance to the ranch So he rode
| back toward Bald Eagle like dark
| streak through the afternoon sum
shine.
And it was the same Gaucho who
later brought the heavy tidings to
the King Cole Ranch.
| Aunt Jenifer and Ann Lee we're
in the patio, and when Gaucho burst
upon them they stared back at him,
speeches.. At first, so great was
the shock, that they felt nothing;
they couldn't make his running
| words make sense, there was no
reality in what he was voicing so
wildly. The Judge and Doc Joe,
dead? Dead! When so little while
| ago
| And they didn't say word, didn't
ask a question, didn't even look at
each other until Gaucho sped away
to find Cal Roundtree and the 9TH
| err boys and tell all that had hap
pened. For one thing, there was
nothing to ask, so complete if hur-
ried had been the boys details. And
there was nothing to say.
Slowly their impressive faces
changed and their eyes met. The
dazed look had gone and in its place
came horror, then grief splashed
| with sudden tears. Those two fine
| gallant old men, dead!
Ann Lee wept softly then, her face
hidden in her hands, her body rock
ing, conVulsed. Aunt Jenifer dashed
the tears from her eyes and sat very
straight, her head up, her eyes
steady now with almost the CLINT of
steel in them, bent upon far away
| distances. Presently she spoke very
| gently, but she did not stir from
| where she sat on the old green
| bench.
"They were two fine men, Ann
udl lllSy lllSy "ClC olo tllCy lldN "
60 sometime; like Early Bill they
| had had their fun" Her lips thinned
| to bleak silence; then she added
crisply, And they killed the muir
derer who shot them down! That's
something"
Ann was hushed, but not for long.
| Hope that will not down without a
death struggle sprang up in her
breast.
maybe they are not really
dead!" she exclaimed eXcitedly. "a
man can be shot, he can be badly
hurt, unconscious even. and yet
live!
And she started running to the
mems quarters.
She came upon a small knot Of
men, Cole Cody and Cal Roundtree
and Porfirio and two others, grouped
in a sort of circle, their heads down.
their boot toes for the most part
scraping in the dirt, as they listened
to Gaucho'S words. She screamed