Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-05-12
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his trickery unknown to them. He
had met, instead of Willy, Joe Wheat
and the cavalry troop under young
Lieutenant Eaton riding in an all
night search.
1t was clear enough then why the
boyish lieutenant offered to escort
them on north. There were few
women of joys kind in his frontier
life. For six days he rode beside
her wagon seat and paid his gallant
attention to her in the night camps.
But on the banks of the Canadian
he gave it up and turned east with
his men toward Fort Reno.
Now the Indian trouble was moro
than week behind the Cross T
herd, and except for one thing only
loss of two hundred cattle had re-
suited from that bad time. The one
holdover was in Clay Manning.
Watching Clay this week, puzzled,
Lew remembered how the big blond
stared at them the morning they
came backbone long look, turning
away afterward without word even
to Joy. He had thought it was only
Clay's jealous temper. But it was
more than that. For a moments
hot jealousy could not go on eating
a man day after day, turning him,
as Clay had turned, neither sullen
nor violent, but aloof and quiet al
most to being docile. 1t was thing
hard to understand in his loud and
full-blooded nature. In the night
camps during the short rest hour
after supper he sat alone with his
huge shape hunched, his blond head
propped on doubled fist like man
lost in deep thinking, and Clay had
never been a thoughtful man. AS
the herd rolled northward across a
well-watered country, growing fat on
the headed grama grass and easily
handled, the men could laze along in
groups, talking away the hours. Yet
he saw Clay riding an isolated swing
position, holding apart now even
from Steve.
He knew he was not the only one
watching him, puzzled. But he heard
no talk until. drifting along in front
of the point late one afternoon, Quar-
ternight brought it up.
Something" the old man offered,
"has made a steer out of him. He
used to be a bull"
"More than that, John" he said.
Looks more like something's cut
his mind"
Quarternight nodded. well, sure.
You know there's some men should
never get a good look at them
selves. They'd better stay blind.
chow a man that runs the biggest
bluff folds up mighty small when
someone calls his hand?"
"You think Clay's had his hand
called them"
"He did," Quarternight said,
"twice. He lost his head there
among the Indians. 1t could have
happened to any man. You get a
split second of time and you do the
wrong thing. But we all saw it and
Clay knows we did. He could have
grabbed Joy from the wagon. In
stead he charges the horses and
then you're the one who makes the
rescue. His sort can't stand that"
"Then there's the will Tom left"
Quarternight went on. "Clay's
our foreman, and yet that will
showed the old man didn't trust him
any. With it brought right out in
the open like that he hasn't much
face left. hate to see it. AS long
as man blows around big and
loud you can about tell what he'll do.
But let him turn inside himself and
you never can
"Well, sure" Lew said. 81 guess
you're right" Still he felt it was
only half the answer. Clay's con-
ceit could have built itself up again.
Whatever Joy might be seeing and
feeling about this he had little
chance to know For in these long
est days of the year he was keeping
himself and his men in their sad
dies for fifteen hours without a STOP,
They ate at night with their bed
rolls open and dropped asleep too
bone-tired for talk.
llC lllOQSL4l II (Oulull last. ouk
dawn after dawn broke clear and
untroubled. Rivers were down to
wading water; they were alone far
west of the trail in virgin land. On
the Fourth of July they crossed the
Cimarron and entered the state of
Kansas and that meant Dodge.
If there had been any sign of what
was brewing in Clay Manning's
head before they reached the Null
berry he missed it, seeing him so
little these days and not at all at
night, when the first guard was al
ready out before he came into camp
himself.
An extra long drive brought them
to Mulberry Creek after dark, an
Cling in from the southwest and con-
verg!ng now upon the main trail. Of
eastward during the afternoon he
had seen the dust clouds layered
above advancing columns. 1t had
set him to figuring. The Open A
could be among those outfits. Per-