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About The Willamina times. (Willamina, Yamhill County, Oregon) 1909-1972 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 1935)
Thursday, August 22, 1935 TIMES. WILLAMINA. OREGON Pape 2 WINTER RANGE By ALAN LE MAY W N U Hsrvlcs. a l!; but he told me before he died. 'Where are you going, Jean? 'What do you care where I'm going?" Didn't Lee tell you that he hailed the she said In a small vague vole». “Who mnn he thought was Mason? lie hailed, In the doorway Bob Elliot stood, gives a whoop? Least of ail myself." nnd waved; the other didn’t answer— swaying on his legs like a drunken He went to his saddle, and took but It's certain that Elliot knew Le« man. The muscles about his mouth down his rope. She watched him shake law him, because McCord tried to pick a fight with Bishop, before you talked twitched, and his eyes were red In a out a little cat-loop. “What—what are you going to do?" to Elliot. Don't you see? The cards bloodless face. “Look each other over.” said Ken “I thought," he said, "I’d reach me were against Lee all the time, and you hnd nothing to do with It at all." tucky Jones. “A fine pair to draw to— down a horse, and come along." She lifted her face, and gripped both or to build a hanging around.” Her hand« dropped the látigo, and his arms. "Kentucky—Is this true—are she turned to face hlin. Bill McCord cried out, “Bob, what “No!” she told him. “No, nol I don’t you sure—" the h—1 you been telling these ----- ?” “Why, of course, child. I—" want you to come. I—I want to be “What the devil you talking about?" Once more she hid her face, this time alone—" Her face was white, and her said Elliot “I— weeping unrestrainedly. Kentucky gath mouth quivered Kentucky Jones offered Elliot the "Just as you want, Jean,” he an ered her Into his arms. "Whatever has butt of the gun that had killed San swered slowly. “Only—I Just thought hapi>ened here." he told her, ‘this thing ders. “Here's your gun. Elliot They’ve that you and I had been through too Is true: nobody In the world has ever matched It with the bullets that killed much here, together, to ride two trails been as game, and as brave, and as Zack." now. I don’t blame yon, though. If you true as you've been, through all this A light dared up In Bob Elliot's eye« long stampede. There Isn't your equal hate the h—I out of me.” and he turned on Bill McCord. “If Mc any place, and never has been, you “It Isn’t that," she said brokenly. Cord says this is my gun,” he exploded, Kentucky, It Isn't that. It'S myself that hear me? And not a roan of us here, “he lies.” or anywhere. Is fit to saddle your I hate the h—1 out of." “Ask Ted Baylor." Kentucky said. bronc." “Why, child, what's the matter?" ••Ted, tell the gentlemen where you Presently, as he held her, the shud Suddenly Jean broke. She sat down last saw this gun—after you won It at dering Jerk of her breathing subsided, in a heap upon a spare saddle, and craps from Joe S t Marie.” hid her face In het arma. “I—wish I and she was quiet In his arms. “It's Ted Baylor glanced at the gun again, were dead.” The words came to him been so lonely, so terrible, for so long," and he hesitated. Kentucky Jones half smothered, Innrtlculate. ”1 wish I'd she whispered at Inst.““Hold me tight waited, balanced In suspense. He be- Kentucky; don’t let me go." never b«?en born." believed that one of the two—McCord “No,” he answered; “not ever any He dropped to one knee beside her. or Elliot—would break under the one more." -Jean! What Is I t r last straw that Baylor might perhaps C H A P T E R X III [T I1 B E X D J “Lee Bishop—poor Lee—” provide. But he had not talked to Ted Kentucky considered. “Did you love Baylor—had found no chance to talk “Kentucky,” said Sheriff Hopper, W igs T riu m p h a n t him, Jean?” to him—and he did not know what “what’s happened here?" From the days of the Stunrts to For a moment she lifted her face to this man would say. The debris had been cleared away, the age of Johuson and Goldsmith the stare at him. “Did I what? Love him? “I guess you can remember when I by now. Elliot, not as seriously hit as, No. But—oh, dear G—d, Kentucky— wigmaker’s craft was one of the busi saw this gun last, yourself. Bob,” said under the circumstances, he might him est in London, but t now owes Its sur it's my fault he isn't alive today.” self have wished, was officially In cus Ted Baylor at last. tody, as was Bill McCord; and Floyd “What nonsense Is this?” he de vival to the lawyers. the full bottomed “You’re crazy,” said Elliot. wigs of Judges and the bobbed wig manded. “ I won that gun from Joe SL Marie, Hopper was four miles u» In the air. of the barristers being still nade of “Yon don’t need to watch Bill Mc She had hidden her face again, but In a crap game, one night last fall." the old-fashioned horsehair. The thea she shook her head. “1 killed him, Ken Ted Baylor said ; “but I didn't have It Cord so close,” Kentucky said; “he’s trical wigs, which make old men tucky; I killed him Just as sure as an hour before I sold It to you. Bob, for ready to tell you enough to convict young on the stage, and turn a pretty as If I'd gunned him myself." two dollats and a half, and the band Elliot before any Wolf Bench Jury, young actress Into « grandmother, are without any more trouble. Your case "That's the worst bunk I ever heard for a hat." not designed for long wear; but both In my life!" Bob Elliot said savagely, “You were was clinched the minute you found out She shook her head again; her words kinds are made entirely by hand, no so d—n drunk that night you don't re that Sanders was killed with the gun machinery being able to supersede the that was found In his hand. It’s been were muffled and Incoherent "You member what you did!” skilled craftsman.— Tit-lilts Magazine. plain all along that Sanders was killed don't know. . . . If only I'd trusted “So that's what you relied on?" said you then! I’ve trusted you sluce, Ken Kentucky Jones. “You thought Baylor because he witnessed the killing of Ma The B ritish Isles tucky; I have, I have. I’d put anything was so drunk that the gun could never son ; and you've beard McCord Identify It is scarcely possible to calculate I d the world In your hands, with never the gun that killed Sanders." ____ be traced?” h«»w many islands comprise the Brit Once Mora Sha Hid Her Faca. a flicker of a doubt But then—I But look here,” Hopper lnsIsted."“L ’p “I never saw that gun before In my to the time that you got Elliot and Hot, who propped himself up In bed thought I had to play It out alone. ish Isles, but more than 5,<JW have been life,” said Elliot “It was a good Idea of yours," said McCord all crossed np, you hadn’t even and smoked Interminably, saying noth Everybody trusted me. but I trusted, charted. Most of them are to be found nobody—Just as you said. After I<ee off the westcru shores of Scotland and Kentucky, “to throw Bill McCord to talked to Ted Baylor.” ing at all. Ted Baylor had left, and “I didn’t have time to get hold of Campo had drawn off by himself and told me he had seen Mason here the Irelund, where the coast has been brok the wolves. And It worked good enough so that we'll hang McCord all right; him," Kentucky explained, “In the lit Into himself, in what mood no one day Mason died—1 knew It waa Bob en up by the full fury of the Atlantic. Elliot he had seen. And when Elliot Most numerous are the Hebrides, which tle time after 1 found out from St. knew. but—” began swamping our range I phoned comprise about MO. although the ma Bill McCord took a step toward El Marie that the gun had passed through Kentucky Jones sat alone In the big jority of them are unlnhubited. There liot, his face contorted. "You dirty Baylor’s hands. But then that wasn t kitchen. He wanted to talk to Jean— him, and rode out to meet him. and I are more than 50 Inhabited Islands In sneak! So that’s your game. Is It?” necessary, hardly. Elliot had to have knew that he must talk to Jean; and tried to bluff him out. I told him that the Sbetlands and Orkneys, and there Lee had seen him there—that we could He swung crazily upon Sheriff Hopper. full Information before he dared to be dreaded It, for he had no remotest are about 150 others on which no one “He's lied to you,” he almost shouted. flood the Bar Hook range. And he notion of what he would be able to say. turn the case against him If he opened "He's lied to you like he lied to m e'. couldn’t have got all those cattle on Now that the war of the 88 upon Bar the play. I thought I could hold that lives. 1 knew he was crazy to get Bishop the move as quick as he did unless he Hook was killed at the source, and the over him, nnd bluff him off. Instead— Asbestos Is W oven killed, and I tried to pick a fight with had started working them the next death of Mason no longer was a mys It only meant Lee's death. Kentucky. Asbestos is a mineral that Is woven Bishop for that reason. But It never morning after Mason was killed. He tery which hung over Campo Itagland. Kentucky, It's my fault he's dead. If went through. He told me he killed could hardly have got such informa' Kentucky Jones found himself compre ever blame could be placed In this into cloth or sheets, and put to vari ous uses because It is Incombustible. Bishop himself In fair fight If I'd tlon so quick—unless he had killed Ma hending, as if for the first time, the world, that blame Is on me!” Asbestos cloth was formerly used as a Poor child." he said. "Poor child! known he laid for him on the rim and son himself.” full weight of the burden which Jean Jean, I guess I-ee didn't tel! you It shroud for dead bodies. “But you didn't know how many had chosen to bear alone. plugged him with a rifle, without fight, I'd have walked out on him the min hands that gun passed through besides At one time, he thought, Jean must Ted Baylor’s. Ted Baylor might have have believed her father guilty of the ute that 1 knew 1” Bob Elliot's voice rose violently. passed it on to almost anybody. You murder of Mason. For him she had “You fool, will you shut your d—n couldn’t count on him to name the gun smothered the evidence, at once con mouth before—•” as Elliot’s gun.” cealing her father’s supposed involve “Sure not But that didn’t matter. ment and concealing her knowledge “I suppose," said Kentucky to Bill McCord, “you didn’t even know that It’s McCord's Identification that counts. from Campo himself. To her I-ee Bish Of course, It might have been that the op had told a story which he himself Bob Elliot killed Mason.” gun had wound up at the Bar Hook, did not understand; she had known “No, 1 never—" “What did you suppose he wanted and that Elliot walked In and borrowed the exact status of SL Marie and Ken Bishop killed for? You didn’t know he It. the same as he did Campo's rifle. In tucky Jones, and the truth about the hired you to kill Bishop because Bishop that case, of course, there wouldn’t missing rifle and the picture that was saw him at the Bar Hook the day have been any tangible evidence gone from Its frame. What Kentucky against Elliot, and we'd have lost out had said was true—that every one had Mason died?” Bob Elliot began, "Bill, don’t you all around. But I figured that the killer confided in her, and she had confided would have shot quick with his own In none. And through every hour of let these—" “You d—n streak of yellow,” Bill gun, in Zack’s case; and then shoved those days she most certainly had A m e ric a ’ s m ost p o p u la r McCord snarled at him, “I see It now! the same gun into Zack’s hand. He known that she was carrying In her young woman author cornea I don't wonder you disown your d—n would have been in a hurry to get out own hands the lives of men who meant to you in th is new spaper of there about then.” more to her than any others In the gun! If I'd known when you killed w ith a story more vital, more “But how did you know that the gun world. J.ee Bishop that you lay off and plugged lo v a b le th a n h e r “ W aters In Sanders’ hand wasn't Zack's own As Kentucky considered this It him with a rifle—” Under the E a rth ” or “ Pro gun? Now there—that was the turning seemed to him that he had never wit “It's a d—n lie!” said Bob Elliot logue to Love.” point of the whole thing.” nessed In any man the gaineness, the again. "You didn’t see that that wasn’t courage, nor the fixed fidelity of pur • T h e r e ’ s A lw a y s A n o th e r “Is it?” McCord snarled at him. “1 pose that this one slender girl had Y e a r" is the exciting story suppose it's a lie that you strapped on Zack's gun?” “Can I know every gun In the rim shown. of Silver, the gangster’s m oll that gun and rode after Mason, that He wanted to seek her out now, and who found life and love in day when he laughed In your face—" rock? How could any man guess it tell her that he knew what she had the Dakota prairies. •*By G—d, McCord—” Elliot shouted. wasn’t his?" “You mean you thought Zack rode faced; and that the victory was not “Put It off on me, will you? McCord There’s always another th r ill shouted back at him. “I thought may all over Wolf Bench carrying that gun Sheriff Hopper’s, nor his own, but hers, fo r you in these pagesl and hers only. And he knew he would MARTHA OSTEN8O be you killed Mason, when you told me in his hand?” have no words to express any part of “In his hand? What you driving at?” you knew he was killed with Campo’s “He would have had to carry it In that He almost convinced himself rifle. Why, you dirty side-winder—” Begin with the first installment of Ids hand. Sanders had no gun belt,” this was not the time to try to talk Bob Elliot’s voice broke Into some to her; that he should pack out of Kentucky reminded him—“he wasn’t thing almost like a squeal. “You there, and go to Waterman, and come d—d— ” Suddenly he turned, lurched even wearing boots. And there wasn't a single pocket In his clothes that that back some time a long while later. crazily at the door behind him, and Then a door closed softly In another gun would go In!” was gone from the room. part of the house, and he Jerked *o his Willie Helmar cried, “Shall 1 get Within an hour after the showdown fe e t him? Shall 1 get him?” He found her at the Rtable shed which had thrown Elliot Into the sher “McCord,” roared Sheriff Hopper, “is where the saddles were. She had al iff’s hands. Hopper had forgotten his By Martha Ostenso this true?” ready roped a pony—the same pony gratification over the solution in his “Sure It's true!” McCord frothed. “1 with which she had met him early can see It now—and I can prove It on alarm over the storm which he was that morning upon the trail—and she 1 him every step of the w ay! Hang me sure would follow. Tomorrow word of was saddling with hurried, unsteady the charge against Elliot would have in his place, will he? Why, t h a t - ” hands, within the shadow of the shed. Suddenly Bill McCord s face changed swept the rimrock. Already Floyd Hop- C H A P T E R X II— Continued —16— as If It had been struck with a whip. He whirled like a cat, snatched at the holstered gun of Willie Helmar; and though Helmar seize«! McCord's arm as the gun came out, McCord wrenched free. In that instant Jean, in the next room, screamed, “Kentucky, look o u t!” And Bob Elliot's first shot spoke from the door. The next moment was one of those which witnesses afterward describe conflictlngiy, so that It la difficult to know the truth. Kentucky Jones shouted, “Jean, get out of line!” and though he fired In the direction of Bob Elliot, he seemed to fire at the floor. Elliot dropped to one knee. Kentucky Instantly fired again, his second shot smashing Bill McCord’s gun wrist, so that McCord was spun half about Almost In a<xonl with Kentucky’s second shot Bob El liot fired again. Kentucky Jones stepped sideways as he once more fired on Bob Elliot This time Bob went forward onto his face; and his gun, slamming from his relaxed hand, skid ded half way across the floor toward Kentucky Jones. Then gun and man lay still, and the room was still, heavy with the peculiar unforgettable smell of smokeless powder per could see himself facing the mob which he now supposed would wish to take the law Into their own hands— mobs made difficult by the unnolsy but I>ecullarly efficient purposefulness of cowmen who have made up their minds. If the sheriff knew his brush poppers—and he thought be did—un pleasantness was going to come down on him In sheets; and he was already more Interested in plans to smuggle Elliot to some far safe confinement than he was In what had already been accomplished. With only a few hours* margin for the completion of preventive nwasures the sheriff barged off to Waterman. With him went his brother. Doc Hop per, who had been rushed out mean time to administer first a id ; and Bill MeOsH» e’ I.ate afternoon found the Bar ^.ook locked In that restive, exhausted quiet which follows any kind of explosion. Somewhere In the bouse Willie lleltnar sat watchfully beside the wounded El- NEXT WEEK M a rth a Ostenso THERE’ S ALWAYS ANOTHER YEAR NEXT WEEK IN THIS NEWSPAPER!
