The Carrollton Chronicle (Carrollton, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, November 26, 1937 Page: 3 of 8
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THE CARROLLTON CHRONICLE
CATTLE KINGDOM
By ALAN LE MAY
C Alan h* May
WNU Service
CHAPTER VIII—Continued
—10—
Behind Marian's shadowed silhou-
ette the window glass itself shat-
tered, as if it had exploded inward;
out in the brush sounded the ringing
crack of a rifle. Then there was si-
lence and the window against which
Marian had stood was empty except
for the lamp-lit gleam of its shat-
tered glass.
Wheeler’s breath jerked in his
throat; he dropped to the ground
and raced for the house.
In the dark beside the shattered
window Douglas was holding the
girl in his arms, and though she
£lung to him, Wheeler saw that the
wagon boss was holding her up. He
heard Douglas say, “Are you hurt?
Are you—’’
I Billy Wheeler cried out, “In God’s
June, Marian—”
Marian’s voice said shakily, "I’m
all right.”
“You hit?”
“No.”
“Get a gun!” said Val Douglas
crazily. “We was standing here,
and somebody took a shot at—”
Wheeler turned and ran for the
bunk house. Half way he almost
crashed into Tulare Callahan.
"What’s up?”
“Get the boys out,” Wheeler told
him. “To hell with saddles, but
get ropes and guns. Somebody fired
into the layout—we’ve got to try to
stampede over him in the brush.”
Behind the 94 layout the buck-
brush stood ragged, much of it
shoulder high to a mounted man; in
its crooked brakes the hard sandy
ground showed barren in the light of
the near stars.
With some difficulty Billy Wheeler
restrained Gil Baker and Steve Hur-
ley from spurring their ponies head-
long into the brush, as if they were
trying to jump a bunch of steers.
"Stick together, move slow, and
keep stopping to listen,” Wheeler
said. “That’s our only chance.”
They trailed into the bush slowly,
single file, Wheeler in the lead. He
had accidentally mounted a horse
that believed in ghosts, and it moved
sidelong, stretching its nose warily
at the brush shadows, blowing long
uneasy whoofs. Repeatedly they
halted to sit listening.
For an hour they combed the dark
brush, alternately walking their
horses and listening.
Not until they came out at the
foot of a barren rise did they realize
that they had wandered almost a
mile from their starting point. When
you have seen one thicket of buck-
brush by starlight you have seen
them all. They had pushed through
a hundred thickets, in which a man
could have hidden under the very
‘ feet of their horses—yet in that mile
of country there were a thousand
thickets more. The riders were grim
and tight-mouthed.
Horse Dunn met them at the cor-
rals. He had been prowling all over
the place, rifle on his arm. He
spoke low-voiced, but no one of them
“I Don’t Believe He Knows a
Horse Track From a Hound’s
Ear.”
would have crossed him then, any
more than they would have fooled
yrith a 14-hand silvertip. His words
came out as hard as pieces of rock.
“Go on and turn in,” he told them.
“This is most likely all for tonight."
Once they were inside, Horse de-
imanlied of Wheeler, “What the devil
Igot into Old Man Coffee?”
“Whatever it was got into him,
It’s going to cost us plenty.”
“I don’t believe he knows a horse
track from a hound’s ear,” Dunn
declared angrily. “He puts me in
mind of some old moss-horn—he
’paws and blows and hollers, but
what’s he know about it when he
gets through? Nothing.”
“I’m not so sure,” Billy Wheeler
said.
* “Name one thing he found out!”
"He figured out that the murdered
,*nan was not Magoon.”
! Horse snorted in disgust. “I don’t
Ttelieve it Coffee thought he had to
say something, so he said the first
thing come into his head. Every
sign we got points to the fact that
Lon Magoon was killed, in his own
saddle, and on his own horse, and
at Short Crick."
“I’m thinking now,” said Billy
Wheeler, “that we can prove that
one way or the other—right here
and now.”
‘How?”
‘We’ve still got his saddle,
haven’t we?”
“It’s still under my bunk.”
“Let me see it.”
Horse Dunn stared at him irrita-
bly for a moment, then picked up a
lamp with a jerk, and led the way to
the clean bare room in which he
lived. By the yellow light of the
lamp the fine old saddles on their
racks against the wall glinted clean-
ly from silverwork and steel. Dunn
sat down on a box and hooked his
elbows on the table behind him.
‘Horse, how big a man is this
Lon Magoon? About my size?”
“Hell, no! Not by eight inches.
Little short wiry feller—put you in
mind of a grasshopper, or a flea.”
Wheeler hauled out Magoon’s sad-
dle. Billy measured the length of
the stirrup leather with his arm—
stirrup in armpit, fingers upon the
tree.
“I stand five-eleven,” Wheeler
said. “Yet these stirrups are too
long for me to ride. Horse, the
man that rode this saddle was over
six feet tall.”
Horse came across the room in
two strides and dropped to one knee
beside Billy. “Damn it, I know
that’s Magoon’s hull!”
“You mean it was Magoon’s hull.
You can see the short-rig bends
worn into the stirrup leathers. But
since then the leathers have been
let down long, and laced there with
rawhide whang.”
Horse Dunn measured the stirrup
leathers against his own arm. Then
he forked the saddle where it lay,
jamming his feet into the stirrups.
“Tall as me,” he breathed, unbe-
lieving. He stared at the saddle in-
credulously for several moments.
“D" you reckon,” he said at last,
“that infernal old lion hunter would
let down those stirrups, just to get
us balled up?”
“Look at the wear on the stirrup
leather. The saddle has been rid-
den since the stirrups were let
down.”
Horse Dunn got up slowly and
went back to his seat on the box.
For a long time he sat staring at
the floor. When at last he drew a
deep breath and got up, his move-
ments were those of a man pre-
occupied.
He got out a roll of adhesive tape,
pulled off a boot and woolen sock,
and began to tape up the outside of
his ankle bone, which appeared to
be skinned. “I’ve got to take a
hammer to those spurs,” he said,
his mind on other things. “Seems
like they—”
“Horse—Coffee was right! The
man that died in this saddle was not
Lon Magoon.”
Suddenly Dunn stood up, a shag-
gy towering figure, staring redly at
Billy Wheeler. “Then, in God’s
name, who’s dead?”
Wheeler regarded him without ex-
pression. Within the hour, a shad-
owy hunch had come over him. He
knew that he had no proof for the
thing that was in his mind; yet
somehow it stood clear and plain. He
went to the fireplace, and picked up
an old branding iron that had been
in use as a fire poker. He squatted
on his heels, and with this sooty iron
began to make marks on Dunn’s
clean-swept floor.
“Saying that the 94 is here,” he
said, marking a cross, “and Short
Crick over here; then here lies that
broken badlands called the Red
Sleep. Seems to me there used to
be a trail across the Red Sleep,
leading over to Pahranagat.”
“Yes, sure. But—”
Horse Dunn waited; Billy Wheeler
studied the floor. “Where would a
man be coming from, passing over
Short Crick toward the 94? Maybe—
Pahranagat?”
“Could," Horse admitted dubious-
ly.
“That little railroad spur ends
there.”
"Sometimes,” Horse Dunn made
a sudden contribution, “Lon Ma-
goon has shipped a few stolen beef
carcasses out of Pahranagat.”
Wheeler nodded. “From Pahran-
agat the spur runs down the Little
Minto to Plumas, then—let me
see—”
“Cheat Creek, Monitor, Sikes
Crossing,” Dunn supplied; “and so
to the main stem.”
“And so to the main stem,”
Wheeler repeated. “And maybe an
old-timer, a saddle man, working to-
ward the 94 by train, would figure
it was better to come by Pahrana-
gat—and there pick up a horse?”
They were silent, and the back-
ground of the outer night seemed
uncommonly still—perhaps because
Old Man Coffee’s hounds were gone.
“A saddle-minded man,” Wheeler
repeated, "coming from — say—
Flagstaff.” He threw the branding
iron into the fireplace; it sent up a
puff of white ash, against the black
opening. “Horse, where was Bob
Flagg last heard from?”
Dunn's voice came out thickly.
'Flagstaff,” he said.
CHAPTER IX
Horse Dunn sat relaxed, staring
morosely at the floor. In his eyes a
dark fire glowed. Wheeler wondered
what ugly and shadowy things the
old man was seeing. P' aps,
Wheeler thought, he would vish
to see in his life the like hat
Horse Dunn was seeing, a>. sat
looking at the floor.
Finally Horse Dunn jerked is
feet with an abrupt impau, !.
“This is all pipe smoke,” heJP a.
“For a minute you threw me up in
the air with that bunk. But hell!
You figure Bob come here a way
no man would ever think of coming.
There’s better than a hundred mil-
lion people in this country, and Bob
Flagg is one of ’em, so you figure
that maybe it was him got killed!"
“Well, we might anyway check
up at Pahranagat. There isn’t so
much travel up the Little Minto but
what we could find out if Bob Flagg
came that way.”
“I’ll send Val Douglas over there
tomorrow. I sure don’t aim to
leave any stone unturned. But if
a guess is an inch long, you sure
jumped a mile.”
“Maybe,” Wheeler admitted.
Horse Dunn took a turn of the
room and the fighting spirit that had
flared up in his eyes burned low
and smoky again. “This country’s
gone to hell in a handbasket. I’ve
never asked for any more than jus-
tice, and I’ve dealt out nothing less.
But where can you get it now? A
man’s hands are tied. There was
more honesty in the old six-gun than
in a thousand courts of so-called
law. I’d give ’em their cock-eyed
country. I’d wash my hands of the
whole works, and ’good riddance—if
it wasn’t for the girl.”
It always came back to Marian.
The old man didn’t dare lose be-
cause of what it meant to the girl;
he had labored for her too long, in
years that for any other man would
have been the twilight years of his
life.
She came before Wheeler’s eyes
now, between himself and Horse
Dunn, almost as clearly as if she
had really been in the room.
Dunn was saying, “Know what I’d
like to do? I’d like to cut out for the
Argentine. Where a man’s cows
have a chance to turn around, by
God. I’d—”
“Argentine, hell!” Billy exploded
at him. “If I’d been running this
outfit, this situation would never
have come up or started to come
up!”
“I suppose you’d have sold out,”
Dunn said, a hard edge on his voice.
“Maybe and maybe not. But I
wouldn’t have gone cow crazy,
range crazy, until I couldn’t afford
to work my stock!”
Strangely, Horse did not anger.
Wheeler saw that the Old Man
thought his tirade was merely based
on youth and ignorance, which he
had seen in unlimited quantities be-
fore.
“Maybe,” Dunn said now, “you’d
have k;ept the 94 a little one-horse
spread—in the best of shape. But
that ain’t the question now. We’re
where we are, and there’s no use
fighting over what went before.”
“I can save it yet,” Wheeler told
him rashly. “I can throw a hun-
dred thousand into the 94.”
“I didn’t know you could swing
that much. You got it, Billy?”
“What I haven’t got of it—I can
get.”
Horse Dunn studied him, sadly, a
long time. “That’s an offer, is it?”
he said at last.
“On one condition. That you give
me a free hand, to hire, fire, buy
or sell, land or cattle, for three
years.”
“I believe,” said Dunn, “I’d even
do that.”
“It’s a deal, then?”
“No! You and me’ll never make a
deal like that!”
“It’s your out,” Wheeler told him,
"and it’s your only out. Let me
take the finance and the outfit—and
all the other ruction falls to pieces.”
And now Horse Dunn’s eyes
blazed again, and his voice crack-
led. “You’ll never put a dime in
this brand!”
“It’s her brand,” Wheeler remind-
ed him. “You willing to let it bust
up and go down, and the girl and
her mother without a cent?"
“Let ’er bust—before it ever
hangs on your dough!”
“But damnation—why?”
“You want to know why? I’ll tell
you why! Because you want that
girl! You want that girl—you think
I’m blind? But she don’t want you.
“Isn’t This Pretty Early?
Couldn’t You Sleep?”
I’d no sooner put her in your debt
than I’d sell her to you outright.
You’re only making the offer be-
cause you’re in love with Marian.”
“You’re crazy! I’m making the
offer because I think I can coma
out on it.”
“You want the girl,” Horse per-
sisted.
“You old fool—” Wheeler held his
voice down—“do you think I’d ever
expect to get her'that way? Do you
think I’d want her on the basis of—”
“Anyway, that’s all over and
done, two years back,” Wheeler lied.
“Once she could have had me body
and soul. But that’s all over. I
wouldn’t tie myself up, not now, to
her or anyone else.”
“You lie," said Horse calmly.
“Horse, if you’ll let me take—”
“Never a dime of your money in
her brand," Horse said with utter
finality.
Wheeler turned in that night feel-
ing old and grim.
It was still dark as Billy Wheeler
let himself noiselessly into the cook
shack and lighted a lamp. He found
himself cold biscuits; and in a huge
pot on the back of the stove he found
bitter coffee above a banked fire.
He had about finished washing
down his cold biscuits when he was
annoyed to discover that another
early riser was about. Someone was
walking quietly toward the cook
shack. Hurriedly he blew out his
light, gulped down half a cup of
dregs, and let himself out of the
kitchen, anxious to be on his way
without conversation.
Then, rounding the corner of the
cook shack he almost ran into Mar-
ian.
“Morning, Billy.” He saw that
she was wearing belted overalls and
boots.
“Isn’t this pretty early? Couldn't
you sleep?”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Army Takes Pride in Great Naval Guns;
Rifles Throw Shells Twenty-Six Miles
The army uses navy guns to
guard Oahu, the island on which
lies the largest military concentra-
tion under the American flag, writes
a Honolulu United Press corre-
spondent.
This paradox of coast defense is
due to diplomats and the formula-
tion of the Washington Treaty. The
treaty banned the addition of six-
teen-inch guns to battleships, so the
surplus rifles were turned over to
the army.
Two of these guns, mounted on
carriages constructed by the army’s
Ordnance department, were proof
fired recently at Fort Barrette, 20
miles west of Honolulu, guarding
the western approach to the island.
Their performance showed strik-
ingly their defense capabilities in
time of emergency. Each is capable
of hurtling a 2,100-pound projectile
over a maximum range of 45,000
yards—nearly 26 miles. They can
be swung around and elevated to a
maximum of 55 degrees.
Hence they could drop a shall at
nearly any spot on a line described
by the perimeter of the island,
guarding it from attack from vir-
tually every side.
The guns weigh 140 tons each and
are a a large as any in the world.
Army experts believe they are of
infinitely more value for defense
than the lighter, mobile anti-aircraft
guns and indicate they may recom-
mend construction of similar bat-
teries at other points.
A similar battery at Fort Weaver
now guards the entrance to Pearl
Harbor, the navy s mighty Pacific
base.
These guns are capable of firing
200 rounds without being disman-
tled. Thus each of them could
throw 200 tons of steel at an enemy
fleet.
HCWJq SEW
4- Ruth Wyeth Spears
Silk Shades Give a Soft Glow
'T'HERE is subtility in the light
•1 that glows through a silk
shade, and many decorators are
using them for the room that
needs the softness of plaited folds
and the mellowness obtained by
placing two tones of fabric one
over the other.
Two tones of China silkj one to
be used for a plain lining and
the other for a gathered outside
covering will make an attractive
shade. Before you buy the ma-
terial it is best to experiment
with samples one over the other
trying them both in daylight and
over an artificial light. You will
also need a roll of silk binding
tape matching the top color of the
shade. This tape is to wrap the
wire frame. And fancy braid ei-
ther in gold, silver or a harmoniz-
ing tone of silk is used to bind the
top and bottom of the shade. Use
cotton thread to match the out-
side tone of the silk.
Slip the binding tape off the roll
and wrap a rubber band around
it as shown here at A. Working
from the inside end of the tape
wrap the frame as shown at B.
The outside layer of silk is put on
next. This is gathered both top
and bottom and pinned to the wire
covering as at C and D so that it
is stretched quite tight. Joinings
in the outside covering need not
be sewed but may be hidden un-
der the folds. This material is
sewed in place as at E.
Next, cut a straight strip for the
lining and fit it around the out-
side of the frame as shown here
at F. Trim the joining allowing a
seam as shown at G. Sew to the
frame at the bottom as at H. Trim
quite close at the bottom.
Turn lining to inside as at I.
Slip stitch the joining. Turn
in raw edges at top and whip
*Rsk Me Jlnother
£ A General Quiz
1. Is gasoline a stronger explo-
sive than dynamite?
2. How many acres of floor
space are there in the Capitol in
Washington, D. C.?
3. Is it true that the Golden Gate
bridge would sink instantly if it
should be destroyed by enemy
bombardment?
4. How does a nautical mile
compare with a land mile?
5. Why is Wall street so called?
Answers
First Eruption of Mount Etna
The first recorded eruption ol
Mount Etna was in the Eighth cen-
tury B. C. Another, occurring io
477 B. C., is graphically described
in Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound,"
1. According to Dr. George
Granger Brown of the University
of Michigan, gasoline as an ex-
plosive has 10 times the explosive
power of dynamite.
2. The building has a floor area
of 14 acres. The structure stands
in a park of nearly 50 acres. The
dome is 387 feet in height.
3. It is designed so that it would
immediately sink to the bottom of
the channel and not congest the
harbor.
4. It is almost 800 feet longer
than a land mile.
5. A wall, the northerly defense
of the city, once ran along it.
around top of frame. Pin the
binding around and then sew it
with stitches buried in the mesh
of the braid.
Every Homemaker should have
a copy of Mrs. Spears’ new book,
SEWING. Forty-eight pages of
step-by-step directions for making
slipcovers and dressing tables;
restoring and upholstering chairs,
couches; making curtains for ev-
ery type of room and purpose.
Making lampshades, rugs, otto-
mans and other useful articles
for the home. Readers wishing a
copy should send name and ad-
dress, enclosing 25 cents, to Mrs.
Spears, 210 South Desplaines St.,
Chicago, Illinois.
Cheap Sales Cost
United States census figures for
1929 show that at a cost of but
1.54 per cent advertising created
a market for the $70,434,863,443
worth of manufactured products
of that year.
HwobWS
rEILEB NT
St.Joseph
GENUINE PURE ASPIRIN
Faith and Logic
Faith is as much a normal func-
tion of the human mind as is
logic.—William W. Keen.
Constipated?
Don't Let Gas,
Nerve Pressure
Keep You
Miserable
When you are constipated two things hap-
pen. FIRST: Wastes swell up the bowels and
press on nerves in the digestive tract. This
causes headaches, a dull, lasjr
____i pressure causes headaches, a dull, lasjr
feeling, bilious spells, loss of appetite and dis-
siness. SECOND: Partly digested food starts
to decay forming GAS, bringing on sour
stomach (acid indigestion), and Heartburn,
bloating you up until you sometimes gaep for
breath.
ean* 1 2 3 4 5
sour.
abli
>le.
To get the complete relief you seek you
must do TWO things. 1. You must relieve
the GAS- 2. You must clear the bowels and
GET THAT PRESSURE OFF THE
NERVES. As soon as offending wastes are
washed out you feel marvelously refreshed,
bhies vanish, the world looks bright again.
There ia only one product on the market
that gives you the DOUBLE ACTION you
need. It is ADLERIKA. Thie efficient car-
minative cathartio relieves that awful GAS
at once. It often removes bowel congestion in
half an hour. No waiting for overnight relief.
Adlerika acts on the stomach and both bowels.
Ordinary Iaiatives act on the lower bowel only.
Adlerika has been recommended by many
doctors and druggists for 35 years. No grip-
ing, no after effects. Just QUICK results-
Try Adlerika today. You’ll say you hart
never used such an efficient intestinal cleanser.
fire Women Better Q
Shoppers than Men ■
GRANTING a woman’s reputation for wise buying, let’s trace the
methods by which she has earned it. Where does she find out about
the advantages and details of electrical refrigeration?What tells her
how to keep the whole household clean — rugs, floors, bathroom
tiling — and have energy left over for golf and parties? How does
she learn about new and delicious entrees and desserts that surprise
and delight her family? Where does she discover those subtleties
of dress and make-up that a man appreciates but never understands?
Why, she reads the advertisements. She is a consistent, thought-
ful reader of advertisements, because she has found that she can
believe them—and profit thereby. Overlooking the advertisements
would be depriving herself of data continuously useful in her job
of Purchasing Agent to the Family.
For that matter, watch a wise man buy a car or a suit or an insur-
ance policy .’Not a bad shopper himself! He reads advertisements, tco!
t
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Martin, W. L. The Carrollton Chronicle (Carrollton, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, November 26, 1937, newspaper, November 26, 1937; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth728857/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Carrollton Public Library.