Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-04-30
CHAPTER XVI

she, blinking her eyes furiously,
looked unseeingly down at the
ground and the queer designs the
mems boots had made.
"It-it's so terrible" she said,
her voice quivering, and he saw how
her breast filled to a deep draught
of air.
"It's awful" said Cody simply.
eyes, it is awful. Everything has
been awful, hasn't it? Since-Why,
since you and I first saw each 9TH
er, Cole Cody! And somehow you
and I seem to be to blame for it. !"
And then, for the first time he did
think of the two wills, and new
light flashed into his eyes. Maybe
you and I are somehow to blame"
he said, and she looked up at him
swiftly, near-frightened by his tone.
"And maybe it was robbery. And
maybe two men had hand in it,
and one of them got away!'
"What makes you talk like that?"
She drew back step or two from
him; his eyes fascinated her, hold
ing her gaze hypnotically.
ut just dawned on me-" he said,
cutting across her rush of words,
"that you gave a certain document
to Doc Joe to keep for you, and l
gave"
France Waldron!" she gasped,
and forgot herself and her pet feud
so far as to clutch his arm, tight in
both hands.
eff you guessed right, you know
what this is going to mean, don't
your" he said. eff Waldron staged
this affair. it was because somehow,
though I'm hanged if can figure
it out, he learned that the two old
boys had the two wills along with
them. And if he got away with
them-Well, then it's goodby for
keeps to any hope of yours of ever
coming to own this outfit"
Darn the outfit and all that goes
with it," she exclaimed passionately.
81 don't care what happens to it
now. It's just those two dear old
men"
"Why, shake!" cried Cole Cody,
and shot his hand out, and before
she knew it her hand had sped to
meeting with his, to be clasped tight,
held hard.
Hand in hand, there was almost
smile in their eyes, though trouble
lay back of it. Slowly their hands
fell apart and her eyes drifted away.
81 guess I'll drift along" he said.
He was turning away when she
called after him, sounding excited.
"Cole! It was Rance Waldron!
knew it at first and know it better
now! And l know how he found out
about the wills! told him myself!
Oh, I was right about that other
thing: Somehow you and I, or one
of US, seem to be to blame for ev-
erything! When Rance Waldron was
battering at our door, l called to
him that I was going to hand over
my will to Doc Joe the very first
chance got! wish I had bit my
tongue out first! Don't you see? He
couldn't have known that the
Judge"
"But he would figure that if he had
the one only. yours, he could may
be dicker! But don't you 60 blam-
ing yourself. Ann Lee girl tell
you things like this are either in
the cards or not. and that's all there
is to it,
"You are going to town."
He hesitated. then shook his head.
Bill Cole Cody rode straight to the
lonely, abandoned cabin in the
mountain ravinc to which he and
Cal Roundtree had followed Rance
Waldron and Tom Cough He had
no great hope of finding Waldron
lingering on here now that the Judge
and Doc Joe had been cut down and
robbed, now that Tom Cough was
dead and in all likelihood would be
judged the sole highwayman and
killer. Yet Rance must be some
where, and Cody meant to find him,
and here was as likely a place to
look as any.
The shadows were long across the
mountain slopes, the pines growing
black in the deep dusk in the ra-
vines, and there was no sign of life,
no up-drifting smoke from the rock
chimney when Cody came within
sight of it. He dismounted and went
to the door, his hand on the butt of
his gun. The door was ajar; he
threw it open and looked the place
over, staring frowningly into it's
thickening gloom. He saw pile of
blankets on the one bunk; other
blankets on the floor; some scraps
of food on sagging shelf. That
was all.
He went back to his horse, rode
out of the ravine and into the golden
sunshine again, crossed the creek
and struck across country toward
town. It was his thought that he
might possibly have word of Waldron
there: if not. he could Join Cal