Hungry Horse news and Columbian. [volume] (Columbia Falls, Mont.) 1946-1948, 1948-01-16
CHAPTER XII

draw sharp lines between good and
bad. Jeff Brand was an example.
Her interest in him was growing,
and with it reluctance to condemn
him utterly. No doubt he was a
thief, but she guessed he stole not
for profit so much as for the thrill.
And there was Calhoun Terry.
Most of those living near Black
Butte would call him traitor because
he had changed sides. But was that
| judgment final?
Right and wrong existed, OF
course, yet there was borderland
of conflict where the differences ran
thin. Ellen brought the more i'm
personal aspect of the difficulty to
her father. The time was after sup
per when he was reading one of Hor-
ace Garvey's editorials in the Ga
zette.
"Garvey takes a strong line about
these assassinations, he said. HE
sure enough hits out right from the
shoulder. Just what he should do,
too. Tells the big ranches they can't
sow the wind without reaping the
whirlwind."
Ellen was silent for minute. A
frown puckered her forehead. isn't
there any way to stop this dreadful
bitterness?"
! Lane Carey shook his grizzled
head. mot so easy, honey. The big
cattle outfits want wide-open free
range for their stock. They don't
want the land plowed up or the coun-
try along the creeks fenced. They
have grabbed what they can, one
way and another. by using their
riders as dummies for homestead
and presumption rights. But that
isn't enough if they are going to run
herds as big as they have been do
ing. So there you are. If the little
fellows fence and pillow the land the
big ranches can't have it for range.
Cattle came here first. The large
concerns feel the nesters and home
steaders are interlopers, and they
have gone some farther than the law
allows to let them know it."
"You think the Diamond Reverse
B and the No, BY Joe, with the
other big outfits, are to blame,
them"
They made it mighty hard for
the small fry to earn a living in
these lean years when they quit en-
ploying men who had places and
stock of their own. But there is
another side to it. Rustlers have
been very active, and I'm afraid
a good many of the nesters have
helped themselves to calves to build
up their herds and to steers for
food when they got hard up
$50 everybody is wrong and no.
body is right" she said.
He drew on the pipe for few
moments to make sure it would not
60 out. II wouldn't say that. You
might put it that there are conflict
ing rights hard to reconcile"
Ellen brushed tobacco from his
coat. ''You don't see any hope of
peace, them"
II wish l did," he said at last.
"But all the talk is the other way.
I heard that fellow Jack Turley say
at the dance he was going to carry a
rifle with him when he rode after
this. The men he was talking with
seemed to agree"
II don't like the man." Ellen cut
in, DETECTED from the main thought.
He has been hanging around me a
little"
Ellen kissed her father good night,
lit a lamp, and went upstairs to
her room. 1t was some time before
she could get to sleep. Into her
mind trooped thoughts connected
with ambushings and sudden death,
and even after she slipped into sleep
her dreams were wild and turbulent.
She saw Jeff Brand and Calhoun
Terry stalking each other in the
sage A gun would crash, but before
her flying feet could take her to
the scene the protagonists had |
changed 1t was her father lying |
and Jack Turley was
his body rifle in hand.
Strangely enough, Ellen saw next |
day at Black Butte all the four men
Of whom she had dreamed. Terry |
came up on the stage, on his way
back to the Diamond Reverse B
from Denver. Brand and TUrley
dropped into the post-office shortly