'rmmsDAY, i kihu aiiv r,. i&so.
THE SMtlN'GFlKM) NliWS
(JET some today!
You're going to
call Lucky Strikes
just right. Because
Lucky Strike ciga
rettes give you the
good, wholesome
flavor of toasted
Hurley tobacco.
CROOKED TRAILS
STRAIGHT
ffilll&in MzcZeodJ?3ine
COPY RIGHT. IVr CW. OII.IjIMOj f 1AM COM nyVTTf
Wlille they fed. watered inifl sad
dled ( hey swupped gossip with the
wrunglcr. It would tint (In to leave
the boy with u story of two riders In
such a hurry to lilt the trail that 1 1 1 y
could not unit to teed ilii'.r bronchos.
No they Muck ll out while tin animals
ate. At tluit, llii'.v shaved It Hue. for
us they rode away two men were
coming down the street.
"Kite Bonllls," Cm ly called to bis
liiirtner.
No f xiiinnt Ion whs n hd. Mmi-
flls wus I lie f i di'i i in n of (lit Pur
Double M. lit let out ll slim! ut lie
CUUght Mi li t (it' them lilid be-all to
run forward. Slmultui usly his nun
seemed to Jump from Us holster.
Mac's quirt sung nrnl his pony
Imped to u ciiiiter in two snides'. A
bullet Zipped hetween lliein. Another
truck the dust nt their heels. Inlnt
ly there mint' to the fugitives the
sound of the foreman's Impotent
curses. .They hint ('.-.ciiped for the
time.
Tresently they piissed the hist hart)
wire fence mid open country hiy he
fore them. It did not greatly mutter
which direction they followed, so long
as they heuded Into the desert.
Neither of them luul ever been In
serious trouble before nud both re
fretted the folly tliut hud turned their
drunken spree Into u crime. They
were stretched In front of the lire ihut
evening trying to make u smoke serve
Instead of supper. Miie broke a gloomy
Hence to grunt out Jerkily u situa
tion lie could no longer keep to hlui
elf. "Here's where I get "y walking pa
pers, I reckon. No rustlers ueed ap
ply." Curly shot a slant glance nt him.
"Meaulng the girl?"
The red heuded puncher took from
bl coat pocket u photograph and
ahowed It to his friend. The sweet
clean face of a wholesome girl smiled
t Curly.
"Mies eetllilliy II rurlii line young
Inly. I'll bet she stands by you ull
rlht. Where's she Uveal?"
Walts In a restaurant at Tomb
stone. We was Koine to be married
soon as we had saved live hundred dol
lars." Mac swallowed hard. "And I
mid to I'njure out this short cut to the
money whilst I was drunk. As If she'd
look at iimncy made that way."
Curly tried to cheer him up, but did
not make much of a Job at It. The In
disputable facts wire that Mao was
an outlaw and a horse thief.
The redheaded boy rolled another
cigarette, despondently. "Shol I've
cooked my noose. She'll not look at me
even If they don't send tne to the
pen. And she's the best ever, ller
nunie's Myru Anderson."
They slept under a live oak with the
soundness of healthy youth. For the
time they forgot their troubles. Neither
of them knew that as the hours sllpx?'l
a way red tragedy w as galloping closer
O them.
The sun was shining In his face
when Curly wakened, lie sat up and
rubbed his eyes. Mao was nowhere In
sight. I'robably ho had gone to get the
horses.
A sound broke the stillness of the
desert. I'lanclrnu leaped to his feet,
and at the same Instant Mao came
''Ulinini! over the brow of the hill. A
smoking revolver was In his hand.
From behind the hill a gun cracked
then u second nud u third. Mac
stumbled over his feet and pitched
forward full length on the ground. Ilia
friend ran toward him, forgetting the
'cvolver that lay In Its hoists under
the live oak. Kvery moment he ex
pected to see Mac Jump vip. but the fig
ure M retched beside the chollu never
moved. Klandrau felt the muscles
round Ills heart tighten, lie had seen
sudden death before, hut never hud It
come so ueur home.
A bullet sent up a spurt of dust In
front of him, uuother Just on the left.
Hlilure were njuking a hulf circle
round the knoll and closing in on him.
j In his right mind Curly would have
' been properly frightened, l'.ut now he
' thought only of Mac lying there so still
Mi the suiid. Illght Into the tire zor.e
' he run. knelt beside Ins partner and
lifted the red thatched bend. A little
hole showed back of the left ear and
' another st the right temple. A bullet
nnd plowed through the boy's skull.
! Softly Handrail put the head back
1 In the sand and rose to his feet. The
j revolver of the dead puncher was In
1 his hand. The riders were closing In
j on him. The nearest called to him to
j surrender. Almost at the fume time
a red-hot pain shot througn tne ien
arm of the trapped rustler. Someone
had nipped hltn from the rear.
Curly saw red. Surrender noth
ing I He would go down fighting. As
fust as he could blaze he emptied
Mac's gun. When the smoke cleared
the man who hal ordered him to give
up was slipping from his horse. Curly
was surprised, but he knew he must
have hit hi in by chance.
"We got him. Ills gun's empty,"
some one shouted.
Cautiously they closed In. keeping
him covered all the time. Of a sudden
the plain tilted up to ueet the sky.
Fluudruu felt himself swnylug on his
feet. Everything vent blucli. The
Uoy had fainted.
When he came to himself strange
faces were all around hltu und there
were no bodies to go wliu them. They
seemed to flout about In an odd, casual
sort of way. Then things cleared.
"He's coming to ull right," one said.
"How Is Culllson?"
This was said to another who had
Just come up.
"Hard hit. Looks about ull In. Got
him lu the side."
The ruge died out of Curly. In n
flash he saw all that had come of this
drunken spree: the rustling of the
Itnr liouhle M stock, the discovery,
the death of his friend ami maybe of
Culllson, the certain punish nt that
would follow. He was a horse thief
caught almost In the act. I'erhaps he
was a murderer, ton. And the whole
thing hud been entirely unpremedi
tated. "You've played h ," one of the
men told the boy.
He was a sawed olT little fellow
known us Hutch, t'landrau had seen
him in the Map of Texas country u
year or two before. The rest were
atrungers to the boy. All of them
looked at him out of hard, hostile eyes.
He was pea reel y a hutnuu being to
them; ruther a wolf to he stamped out
of existence us soon as It wus conven
ient At a shift In the group KlaiTUrnu's
eyes fell on his friend lying lu the
sand with fuce turned whltely to the
sky he never would see aguln. A lump
cain lto the boyji Jhroat andj!9 bud
to work It down before tie spoke.
"There's a picture In ll pocket, and
inline letters. I reckon. Send them to
Miss Myra Anderson, Tombstone, care
of one of the re to u rants. I don't
know which one."
".Vnd riothln'," aneered Dutch, and
rouplMl It with a remark no decent
man mskes of a woman on a guess.
HecHune of poor Mac lying there
with the little hoi In his temple Curly
boiled over. With a J-rk his right arm
wbs free. It shot out like a pile
driver, all his1 weight behind the blow.
Dutch went down as If a charging bull
had flung him.
Almost simultaneously Curly hit the
sand hard. Before he could stir three
men were straddled over his anatomy.
One of them ground his head Into the
dust.
"You would, eh? We'll (ee about
that. Jake, bring yore rope."
They tied the hands of the boy.
hauled him to his feet, and set him
astride a horse. In the distance n
windmill of the Circle C runch was
shining In the morning sun. Toward
the group of buildings clustered around
this two of his cuptors started with
Flundruu.
As they rode ulong a fenced lane
which led to the house a girl cuuie fly
ing down the steps. At slj:ht of those
coming towurd her she culled out
quickly :
"How Is dad?" The quiver of fear
broke In her voice.
"Don't know yet. Miss Kate," an
swered one of the men. "He's right
peart, though. Says for to tell you
not to worry. We've got here the
mungy sou of a gnu that did It."
I'efore lie had tiliUhcd she was of
liico mi arrow shot from a bow, but
not until !o-r eyes hud fallen on the
y.mth sitting ha reheinled und bloody
between the guns of his guard. Curly
noticed that iie had given R .shudder.
ms one mielit at sight of u mungle!
nud dog which bad just bit a dear
friend. Long after the pounding of
tier pony's hoofs had died away the
prisoner could see the startled eyes of
t'enr and horror that had rested on
him.
I lis guards put I-'landrau In the bunk
hoiise and one of them sat at the door
with a rifle across his knees. The cook,
the stable boy, and red-headed Hob
Culllson, a nephew of the owner of the
ranch, peered pust the voquero at the
captive with the same awe they would
have yielded to n caged panther.
"Why, he's only a kid. Buck." the
cook whispered.
Buck chewed tobacco Impassively.
"Old enough to be a rustler and a
killer."
Bob's blue eyes were wide with In
terest. "I'll bet he's a regular Billy
the Kid," murmured the half-grow u
boy to the other lad.
"Sure. Course he Is. He's got bad
eyes all right,"
"I'll bet he's got notches on his gun.
Say, If Uncle Luck dles " Bob left
the result to the Imagination.
The excitement at the Circle C In
creased. Horses cantered up. Men
; shouted to each other the new. Oc
casionally some one came In to ha a
look at the "bad man" who had ahot
Lack Culllson. Young Flandrau lay
on a cot and stared at the celling,
paying no more attention to them tban
'f they had been blocks of wood.
The crunch of wagon wheels oyer
disintegrated granlt drifted to the
hunkhouse, "They're bringing the boss back,"
Buck announced from the door to one
of his visitors.
The man Joined him and looked over
his shoulder. "Miss Kate there too?"
"Yep. Kay. If the old man don't pull
through It will break her all up."
The boy on the bed turned hla face
to the wall. He had not cried for ten
years, but now he would have liked the
relief of tears. A big lump rose la his
throat and would not stay down. Tba
Irony of it wus that he was ataged for
the port of a gray wolf on the howl,
while he felt more like a little child
that has lost Its last friend.
After a time there came again ths
crisp roll of wheels.
"Doc Brown," announced Buck cas
ually to the other men In the bunk
house. There was more than one anxious
heart at the Circle C waiting for the
verdict of the bowlegged, baldheaded
little man with the satchel, but not
one of them no, not even Kate Cul
llson herself wns In a colder fear
than Flandrau. for If Culllson should
die he knew that be would follow htm
within u few hours. These men would
take no chances with the deluys of the
luw.
The men at the buDkhouse had of
fered more than once to look at Cur
ly's arm, but the young man declined
curtly. The bleeding had stopped, but
there wim a throb In It as If some one
were twisting a redhot knife In the
wound. After a time Doctor Brown
showed up In the dxirway of the men's
qnurter.
"Another patient here, they tell me,"
he grunted In the brusque way that
failed to conceal the kindest of hearts.
"Let's have a look at your arm,
young fellow," the doctor ordered.,
(To he continued.)
Watch for the next installment.
DISTRICT GROWS GOOD STOCK
Livestock "as good as the stock
back east" is no longer good enough
for the Pacific northwest, and it is
high time for growers here to make
up their minds to have them better,
says E. L. Potter, head of the animal
husbandry department at O. A. C.
They can breed the best stock and
will find it profitable to let the world
know it, he believes Superiority 6f
western feed and climate for fine
stock production is not booster talk
hut a hard, plain fact that 6hould bo
made use of, he explains.
11 ksw 7
j
1
yV?3K M hi it. M I! II UH H,
ffJ UHtLLM li UML
mm
HEADQUARTERS
I have a new shipment
of very pretty Val
entines ranging in price
from 5 cents up. Come
in and look them over.
w
m
WILSON'S
VARIETY STORE
O. H. Wilson, Manager
337 Main Street