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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 26, 1941)
BvALAN LE. MAY V/. N.U. Release INSTALLMENT IV THE STORY SO FAR: Dusty King and Lew Gordon were Joint owners oif the vast King-Gordon range which stretched from Texas to Montana. When building up this string of ranches, they continually had to tight the unscrupulous Ben Thorpe. Thorpe rl * * valed King-Gordon In power and wealth, but he had gained his position through wholesale cattle rustling and gunplay. King outbid Thorpe In an auction o1 valuable grasslands; the same afternoon he was killed. BUI Roper. King's adopt* * * I ed son, found out that he had been shot down by Thorpe and two aides. Against the strong opposition of Gordon. BUI de cided to start a cattle war against Thorpe. Bill went to tell his sweetheart. pretty Jody Gordon, about his plans. * CHAPTER V—Continued Bill glanced at Jody, and her star tled face was very lovely, high-light ed by the little fire. He laced his hand together to stop their shaking. “Toni, ht I told you father what I'm going to do. My idea is to give Thorpe his own medicine, and force It down him until he's finished; a wild bunch of our own, tougher than his, made up of men that hate him to the ground.” “And then—?” “Raid and counter-raid, and what he’s taken, take back! Until his credit busts, and his varmints drop from around him, and he’s just one man, so that another man can walk against him with a six-gun, and know that when that’s done he’s fin ished for sure ...” “Bill, are you crazy? You can’t— you can’t—” His voice was bleak; it could hard ly be heard. He was looking at his hands. "We’ve talked too many years of what couldn’t be done, or how. Until now, Dusty’s out there tonight, under that stone pile—and •till nothing to be done. I reckon it’s my turn to ride, now." “But—all his outfits—his sheriffs, his men—” “They’ll quit, as he breaks. I’m going after Cleve Tanner first, in the Big Bend; and when I’m through with him, Thorpe won’t be able to throw a feeder herd on the trail. Then Walk Lasham, in the north, where 'they’re already hurt for lack cf the Crying Wolf—until—” His words were monotoned, but Jody Gordon, bred and born to the gaunt Texan plains, knew what a wild bunch was, and what it meant to go against Ben Thorpe by his own means. Jody said, "And—what about us?” “Jody, I was hoping—I was hop ing you’d swing with me.” “What way is there for me to •wing with you?" “This may take a long time; but it won’t take forever. Some day all these war clouds will be cleared away. And—if you could see it my way, maybe you’d let me come back to you then.” There seemed to be no breath in Jody’s voice. “I’m supposed to wait around, and think well of you, while you gang with the wild bunch in a crazy, useless feud that you can’t win?” In the uncertain light of the Are Bill Roper’s eyes could not be seen; his face was a mask painted by the embers. He found nothing that he could say. Suddenly Jody flared up. Her eyes blazed, and her hair streamed back from her face as she sat up, as if she rode in the wind. “You can’t, you can't! I won’t let you—it isn't fair, nor right, nor decent—” “It’s what I have to do.” Jody stopped as if she had been struck. When she spoke again her voice was low and even, and so stony hard that he would not have recognized it. “I don’t believe you. I think to morrow you’ll be telling me that all this isn’t so. But if you do mean it —if you go on and do as you say —then you and I are through, and I don’t want to see you again, or hear your voice. We—we had ev erything; and you’re throwing it all sway . . .” The firelight caught the glint of her tears, and she turned away, head up, with a toss of her hair so that Its brown mist hid her face from him. Bill didn’t say anything. He had turned gray-faced, and he stared into the coals. Presently, as he watched the fire, he saw again a rift of brush, In which a little boy hid like a rab bit; and a gently grinning face, that was through with grinning now. He thought of Dry Camp’s story; “Seemed like he’d never fall ...” Roper got up silently, and went out of the house. Lew Gordon was playing solitaire when Bill Roper got back to the little shack by the loading pens. Roper took off his hat, tossed it aside, and sat down. “We can just as well figure up the terms of the split.” “What did Jody say?" “She’s quitting me. Lew.” “What the devil else can you ex pect her to do, if you go on with this wild, stubborn—” “I couldn’t expect anything else." Lew Gordon looked baffled; obvi ously he had counted on Jody to turn back Bill Roper. “You ready to draw up the terms?” “Hardly seems it can be done in a minute. It’ll take a few days to—” “I’m leaving in the morning. My terms are few and simple. You can work out the details any way that suits yourself.” “Let’s hear your idea of it." “I don’t figure to take much with me,” Roper said. “But there are some things I need. First thing, I want seven of our camps in Texas.” Lew Gordon stared at the table, picked up a pencil, fidgeted with it. “Which ones?” “I want the Pot Hook camp; and the winter camp of the Three Bar, and the southwest outpost of the old Bar-Circle. I want two of the border camps; Willow Crick will do for one, and the Dry Saddle Cross ing will do for the other. I want the new Bull Wagon camp, and the K-G horse ranch at Stillwater.” "The brands are going to be ter rible mixed up,” Gordon said. "I’m only taking such cattle as are running under odd brands; all our regular brands stay with you. I’ve placed my camps so that your stock can be worked as before. Except maybe the Pot Hook, and we’ll come to some special deal—" Gordon threw his pencil down. "You’re not getting anything out of this that anybody can use,” he de clared. "I think I’ll know how to use it. Later on I’ll send you a list of the northern camps I want; they’ll amount to about the same as the ones I want in Texas." "It sure sounds to me like you’re wanting me to buy you out in cash,” Gordon said. "And if that’s what’s I-1 1—r- I . . " 1 1 I ■ 'I ‘‘The brands are going to be ter rible mixed up,” Gordon said. in your mind—I can’t do it, Bill. There just ain’t the money.” “There won’t be any trouble about that. In Texas I may need up to fifty thousand dollars; but I don’t have to have it all at once. It’ll work out easy enough, Lew.” Even the rough provisional terms that they were noting here provided innumerable complications. In the next few hours, as they worked it out, many a consideration came up that Bill Roper hadn’t thought of. It was near morning before Roper left to seek out Dry Camp Pierce to complete his plans. CHAPTER VI Bill Roper headed south shortly after sunrise. Today Dry Camp would be going east by railroad, beginning the long roundabout way which would bring him to Texas long before Bill. With his camps as a secure base. Pierce was to begin the missionary work which would lay the foundations for Bill Roper’s wild bunch. Lew Gordon had shaken hands with him gravely at his departure; an uncomfortable job for Bill, which he was glad to get over with. But Jody Gordon—he had not seen her again at all. He was thinking of her now as she had flared up at him the night before, warlike as a little ea gle, but very lovely still, with the fire in her eyes. Watchful always, he knew when, two miles off, a horseman dropped from a lookout just at the crest of a rise; and he knew that the rider had seen him and was moving to in tercept his trail. He did not have so long to wait as he had thought. No more than ten minutes had passed when the unknown rider came dusting around the shoulder of a sand hill and head ed toward him at the dead run. Rop er turned his horse broadside to the approach and waited. The rider was Jody Gordon. She appeared to have taken to the saddle in a hurry, for she wasn’t wearing chaps, or anything else she should have been riding in. What distance she had come she had come fast, for her pony’s flanks were heaving. “You sure punish that horse,” he said. ‘‘I’ve got no call to save him. I’m not going any place.” There was a little silence, awk ward for Bill Roper, as she sat and looked at him. The lower lids of her eyes were violet, so that he knew she had not slept; but he could not read her faintly smoky eyes. She was more pale than he had ever seen her, and the passivity of her face made her look like a little girl again. "Sure sorry," he said, “that I didn’t get to say good-by to you. Didn't seem like you were any place around." For a second or two the familiar twinkle seemed about to come into her eyes. "Did you hunt real hard?” "Well—maybe I didn’t. I guess it kind of seemed like we’d already said everything there was to be said.” "Maybe,” she said slowly, "I didn’t say everything I ought to have said. I want you to know this: 'When you ride out of my life there isn’t going to be anything left in it.’ " "Jody," he said, "are you trying to turn me back now?" Her only answer was a little hope less motion of her hands. "Your father and 1 put in four hours last night, roughing out the terms of my split from King-Gor don. Think back yourself—did you ever see me turned back from some thing I figured I ought to do?” She shook her head, and her face had even less color than before. "What did you say to my father?” "What did he tell you I said?” "That I—quit you.” "Well—didn’t you?” "Don’t you know,” she said craz ily, "I wouldn’t ever do that?” He was silent, his eyes on his buckskin gloves as he adjusted his rope, the buckle of his rifle boot "I don’t care anything about King Gordon,” Jody said. "I don’t care whether you stay in King-Gordon, or get out, or where you go, or what you do. I’d go with you if you wanted me to go; and if you don’t know that you don’t know anything at all” “Jody—you mean that?” “In King-Gordon you were on the way to big things. But I don’t care anything about that. Let the break-up with my father go through. Quit King-Gordon without two bits to your name. Take the least out post camp there is under the brand, and let him have the rest. I’ll go with you, and stay with you; and I’ll help you in every way I can to build something of our own.” He wanted to say something, any thing; but he found he could not speak at all. Jody said, almost hysterically, “Aren’t you ever going to say any thing?” Bill Roper mumbled to his saddle horn, “Didn’t know you felt that way . . . Wouldn’t ever be any call —any reason—for you to let go all holts like that.” She was leaning toward him now, her voice gentle, coaxing, very ten der. “Our own little old outfit—any outfit, any place—don't you see what a happy place we could make that be? A place where we could plant trees near the water, and watch them grow into big trees; and we’d be there together—” Roper shot a quick glance at Jo dy, and immediately sent his eyes away again, as far as they could reach. If he had looked at her again, perhaps he would have kicked his pony stirrup to stirrup with hers and picked her out of the saddle and kissed her mouth, and kept her close to him—then, and forever. But he sat motionless on his waiting pony. “Look,” he said at last— “Look— if you mean that, come with me. Come with me, now.” He could hardly hear her as she said, “Don’t you think you ought to tell me where you’re going?” “Dry Camp Pierce is on his way, by a quicker way than mine is. If he don’t fall down there'll be the start of a wild bunch waiting for me when I land in the Big Bend Coun try. I figure to take that bunch, and build to it, and add on. After that —well, you know what comes after that.” “And now, you're asking me to swing with that?” “Jody, I’ve already told you what I’ve got to do.” The silence stretched out until you could have hung a saddle on it, and this time Bill’s eyes were on Jody, and hers were on the saddle horn. Slowly she shook her head. After a minute he said, “I guess that settles it, doesn’t it?” “I guess it does.” Her face seemed blind, and she was like a ghost of Jody Gordon. Suddenly Bill Roper knew that if he did not take the trail he had chosen now, he would never take it at all. “You sure, Jody? You won’t come?” • Again she shook her head. A long, loose end of Bill’s rope was in his hand, though he never remembered taking it down. Hardly knowing what he did, he struck the spurs into the buckskin pony. The snap of the rope’s end knocked a fly ing gout of fur from the rump of the black pack mule, and they were on the trail—the long trail, the dry trail, the trail of a hopeless war. (TO BE CONTINUED) Farm Topics PROTECT HORSES IN HOT WEATHER Plenty of Water, Rest Help Prevent Overheating. By J. L. EDMONDS (ChitI. Horae Husbandry at University oi Illinois. College oi Agriculture.) “Be kind to and as considerate of your horses as you would want to be treated yourself," is a safe rule to follow in handling work stock during hot wreather. Essentially the same rules which apply to the human being in hot weather also apply to the farm horse. Plenty of water and the proper feed, careful driving, suf ficient rest and the prevention of overheating are the principal pre cautions to observe in caring for the hard-working horse in summer. When horses are doing hard field work during hot weather, a barrel of water and a pail should be taken to the field so the horses can be watered once an hour. Since the freely perspiring work horse has a high salt requirement, he will stand the heat better when liberally supplied with salt In extremely hot weather it may be necessary to reduce working hours and lighten the load. The noon rest period may be lengthened or work begun very early and stopped before noon. Some farmers have successfully worked their horses at night. Like human beings, horses that are "off feed” should not be expect ed to do a hard day’s work in sum mer, since it is too risky. Instead, such horses should be kept in the barn or on pasture where there is shade. When the sweat “dries in,” and the horse starts to pant and gets “wobbly” in his gait, he has been overworked. The careful horseman will stop and rest his team before this stage is reached. An over heated horse should be put into the shade, and cold water or ice bags applied to his head, spine and legs. Serious cases of overheating are even difficult for experienced vet erinarians to handle. Prevention is therefore especially important. Once the horse is overheated, even though he recovers, he is seldom able to do hard work during high temperatures. Veterinarians Urge ‘War’ Against Swine Diseases The government’s recent appeal tor increased swine production as an aid to national defense has had one quick result in most rural com munities—farmers are exerting new vigilance to guard against prevalent swine diseases which annually take a toll of nearly 30 per cent of the nation’s hog population. Hog cholera is being looked upon as “public enemy No. 1” in the cur rent drive to reduce swine losses, because cholera kills more hogs than any other single disease. Veterinarians and livestock of ficials are urging utmost possible vigilance against fresh epizootics this season, and prompt control measures wherever cholera may make its appearance. Symptoms of the disease include sluggishness, a tendency to pile up, partial or total prostration, fever, and scours. At the first signs of such symptoms a veterinarian should be called. “The best insurance against this No. 1 swine killer is to have pigs vaccinated against cholera around weaning time,” says the American Foundation for Animal Health re port. “When pigs are young they require less serum and virus, and the immunization generally lasts un til they are ready for market. Cholera generally strikes so swiftly and kills so quickly that there is little that a farmer can do, once his hogs are down with the disease. That is why immunization is the best insurance against cholera losses.” Farm Notes A silage crop can be grown, har vested and put in the silo for about $2 a ton. • * • A cow must eat 100 pounds or more of grass daily to produce 20 to 25 pounds of milk. * * * Since the beginning of 4-H club work on a nation-wide basis, it has reached over 8,000,000 rural young people. • • * Hens lay about as many eggs dur ing March, April, May and June as they do all the other eight months of the year. i i $ Cows graze only 8 hours a day, no matter how luxuriant the pas turage, and spend 12 hours lying down, and 4 hours standing or walk ing around. * • • Bulls should be confined in pens as a safety measure, but to insure their value as herd sires, they should be fed hay and silage of as good quality as is available on the farm. The weight of the bull should be controlled by regulating the quan tity of grain and roughage not by supplying feed of poor quality. f NEW IDEAS —J&l atto*H+-mcJz«SUr-^ By Rt'TH WYETH SPEARg ~ “'blank wall,sink7~| ♦—TUB AN0U6HT CUPBOARDS,SHELVES ANO COUNTERS PLANNED TO ACCENT ROOM WIDTH AND ypffLAV P**«S-> BLAStf]»= OOOM[ IN A 1 STOCKS stzs H sgaS TOR jT COOK t BOOKS fcl TRAYS ft AND I mcssft SOLID doors for the cupboards at the sides of this sink would have placed the accent on verti cal lines and made the room seem narrower. But most important of all, this combination of glass doors and plywood doors gives an op portunity to display dishes and other things that lend color, and at the same time makes a place to hide away less decorative utensils. The lower cupboards and sink enclosure were built first. The vertical supports for the glass cup boards are 1 by 12-inch boards. These rest on the lower cupboards and are placed far enough apart to accommodate the glass doors. The 1 by 12-inch board across the room makes the top of the glass cupboards and the bottom of the upper cupboards. The ruffle trimmed shelf between the glass cupboards is 6 inches wide and the plate rail below it is made of two moulding strips. • • • NOTE: If you are Axing up your kitch en you will And complete direction* for fascinating new curtains on page 16 of your copy of Book 3, containing reprints of this series by Mrs. Spears. It also contains directions for a space-saving pantry door pocket. In Book 4 there Is a cook book shelf to be made for a kitch en table; also a twine bag that you will And useful. These booklets may be se cured by writing direct to: MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS Drawer 10 Bedford Hills $ew York Enclose 10 cents for each book ordered. Name .... Address. Uncle ^l\ll With Doers in Minority The world is divided into people who do things, and people who take the credit. So far, no navigator has made a reliable chart of the Sea of Matrimony. 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