Who Wants to Live Forever?

One of the ranch riders knocked at the door and came in with the mail. He looked curiously at Stevens.

'I walked into a door,' Hal explained, a grin on his battered face.

'I reckon Jim must have walked into half a dozen doors,' the cowboy guessed. He handed three letters and a newspaper to Frank. 'There's one from the draft board,' he told the boy. 'Looks like this is it.'

Frank ripped open the letter and glanced it over. 'You're a hundred per cent right, Shorty,' he said. 'I'm to report at Tucson within forty-eight hours.'

After a moment his sister spoke. 'Maybe it is a good thing to have the call come now. Once you're in the army, these fellows won't bother you.'

'What fellows?' Shorty asked bluntly. 'Mebbe it's none of our business, Miss Dale, but then again mebbe it is. We boys in the bunkhouse can't quite figure this business out. If anything is liable to pop sudden, we'd be better prepared if we knew what it is all about.'

'You're right, Shorty,' Dale answered. 'Tell the boys to come to the house.'

'Has Frawley gone yet?' Frank inquired.

'He was saddling that pinto of his when I left.' The white teeth in the brown face of the cowpuncher flashed to a wide grin. 'Jim don't feel so awful good this mo'nin' — since he ran into them doors.'

'Keep an eye on him until he leaves,' Dale ordered. 'He's crazy enough with hate to start something.'

'Yes'm. We'll see him on his way and then come to the house.'

Dale finished giving first aid, cleaned up, and washed her hands. She stood beside the fireplace, a hand on the mantel, frowning down at the rug.

'Even though we think Black's crowd is doing this raiding, we are not much farther forward,' she said. 'How can we prove it? And, more important still, how can we prevent them from killing you two? If you were together, and we could keep you guarded— But even that would be difficult, since we don't know where and when they will strike.'

'You ought to have been a lawyer, Miss Lovell,' Hal responded. 'In three or four sentences you have summed up all our difficulties. Let's take one at a time. First, our personal danger. I suggest Frank and I go to Tucson this morning and stay there till Frank has joined up. We'll be safe there.'

'And after he is in the army, how safe will you be?' Dale wanted to know.

Her eyes met the quizzical gaze of their guest. The color beat up into her cheeks. She was annoyed that his cool, not unfriendly derision had so much power to disturb her, and she hastened to explain away her anxiety.

'Since the M K ranch is on our side during this trouble, I don't want to lose its help on account of an accident to its owner,' she said defensively.

'Neither do I,' he agreed. 'But we needn't worry about that. I'll come home unexpectedly and be all right.'

'And after you get there?'

He laughed, shrugging his shoulders. 'One bridge at a time, lady.'

Frank's mind could not leave the subject so lightly. 'You can't just toss the danger aside, Hal. If these fellows want to shoot you from ambush, they can do it. Out in the open you can't guard yourself every minute. You'll have to stay away until this wolves' den is cleared out.'

Hal did not argue the matter. 'About the other point you raised, Miss Lovell, the matter of proof. We can work at that from two ends — here where the thieving takes place and at the place where the cattle are delivered.'

'Which may be anywhere within a radius of two hundred miles,' Frank said.

'Make it a hundred,' Hal differed. 'Let us say the last raid took place about midnight. Certainly it would not be before that. Frank was playing cards with them until after eleven. At ten o'clock next morning, I found three of these beauties at the Rest Easy. Black would not operate with a gang any larger than was necessary to do the job. All of them except Black himself and Frawley guarded the stock to the delivery point. I took the trouble to find out that Hanford, Fenwick, and Polk reached Big Bridge about seven-thirty. That would leave them not much over six hours to truck the cattle to the buyer, unload, and get back.'

'Maybe they have the stock cached somewhere in the hills to wait for a favorable chance to get rid of it,' Dale objected.

'Possible but not probable. Why risk making two trips when one will do? These fellows are not expecting to sell to some chance buyer. They know exactly where their market is. They would travel right to it. Of course, it is a black market. My guess is that some packing plant is running it in with their legitimate stuff.'

Casey, Bill, and Shorty trooped into the house.

'If I was a correspondent for the Star,' announced Shorty, 'I would write in that Mr. James Frawley, former foreman of the Seven Up and Down, with his pinto hoss, his war bag, and his six-gun minus cartridges, is now taking the valley road for the hills where he expects to spend some time with friends and make medicine.'

'The gent is frothing at the mouth and spittin' hate,' Bill added. 'His friends will have to look at him twice before they recognize his ugly mug. There wasn't a dry eye at the bunkhouse when he pulled his freight.'

'He sure enough knew how not to make friends,' Shorty commented. 'I was aimin' to buy him a copy of that Carnegie book for Christmas.'

Dale told them with one or two elisions the story of the past twenty-four hours.

'Do we put on our war paint?' Casey asked. He was a well-set red-headed Irishman just past the draft age. For eight years he had been employed by the Seven Up and Down. His frank face and steady blue eyes were better than letters of recommendation. Already Dale had decided to put him in Frawley's place.

'You had better carry revolvers — in case you should see rattlesnakes on the ridge.' The girl's voice was dry and brittle. 'But don't have any trouble with these fellows if you can help it. Avoid any arguments, and in case any of them get nasty, ride away and leave them.'

'Not so easy to do when a mean guy is crowding you, Miss Dale,' Shorty said. 'Talk nice to him, and he thinks you are scared and rides you harder.'

'I know. But do your best not to have any difficulty. We must stay on the side of the law.'

Casey shook his head. 'For us to talk and act humble won't do any good. This has gone too far for that. Frank knows too much. They dare not let him be a witness against them. And Mr. Stevens has hurt their pride so badly they won't rest till they have paid him off. They are a bad bunch. Don't forget that for a minute.'

'Frank is leaving this morning to join the army,' Dale explained.

'If the army wants him, it had better come and get him,' Casey said bluntly. 'Soon as Frawley reaches a phone, he will report to Tick Black, who will start stirring up trouble right then.'

'I'm driving to Tucson with Frank,' Hal said.

'That will make it fine and dandy.' Casey's smile was blandly sarcastic. 'They can get you both at one gather.'

'It can't be as bad as that.' Dale spoke with no conviction in her voice. 'They wouldn't go as far as open murder.'

'Wouldn't they?' The smile had been wiped from the face of Casey. 'I thought you knew Black.'

'I know he is a bad man, but—'

'A bad wily old devil who would stick at nothing,' Casey interrupted. 'And he has a pair of killers ready to jump when he gives the word, not to mention Frawley. Black is a smooth villain. The job won't be in the open probably. He'll cover it up somehow.'

'We had better get out before he has his trap set,' Frank said.

Dale was worried. 'Pack up and go,' she cried. 'Don't wait a minute longer.'

CHAPTER 9

A Young Woman Unafraid

HAL STEVENS and Frank Lovell did not take the valley highway to Big Bridge. They followed a little-used trail along the ridge, one too rough for ordinary travel by car. Frank drove, and his companion sat beside him, a rifle in the brown competent hands of the M K man. They did not do much talking. Hal's eyes searched the scenery to right and left. He thought it unlikely that their enemies would be guarding this trace so soon, but he did not want to underestimate the sly wariness of Tick Black. If he made one mistake, he might not live to make another.