J. Allan Dunn

“ I want the girl and I’m going to get even with this lover of hers. I’d have got him out of the way to-day, but for that sheriff of yours interfering.’ ‘He can shoot too straight for you,’ said my uncle. ‘That’s another reason for you to leave him to me. As for Jarrett, your methods are too crude, Moore. I tell you you can’t put a man out of the way in this county and get away with it. ”

“ He liked the looks of her at first sight, not so much for the trim figure and regular features as for the frankness of the hazel eyes and the firmness of her mouth, well shaped, full enough for affection but indicative of both good humor and steadfastness of will and purpose. ”

“ There are other methods besides killing a man to get rid of him. Listen.’
“They lowered their voices while uncle did most of the talking. In a little while Moore laughed and pounded on the table.
“‘By God,’ he said, ‘you’ve got the brains, Bradey. I’ll take my hat off to you. We break him and add to our own pile. That suits me. I creased him in the ribs anyway.’
“That meant Bud, of course. ‘You can try your hand at Gorman,’ he went on, ‘but I’ll take a crack at that sharp-shootin’ sheriff before I quit the country. ”

“ And—I expect to marry Bud Jarrett.”
“You play yore own hand, Miss White an’ make hearts trumps,” said Gorman. “You won’t go far wrong if you do that. I’m talkin’ from other people’s experience, but I’ve seen a heap of it. First an’ foremost, a man an’ a woman, when they’re sure of each other—I ain’t over handy at expressin’ myse’f at these sort of things, but you’ll git my meanin’—a man an’ a gal belong to each other. It’s their life ahead of the one that’s goin’ out, meanin’ their own generation. ”

“ What they’re after is to run off his cattle, fake the brand—Dave Lorton’s a wizard at that sort of thing—an’ I reckon he’s bin doin’ it for Moore and Bradey right erlong—an’ then laff at Bud. Not much of a trick to change Two-Bar into a Lazy-H, one of Bradey’s own brands.”
“Oh!” Her eyes widened with understanding. “Then you’ll tell Bud to ride herd or bring them in.”
“No. He ain’t got the feed to bring ’em in. Grass is gettin’ scarce an’ they want all they kin git of it right now. Ridin’ herd might, mean shootin’. They’ll have fifty men if they need it, to Bud’s four or five. ”

“ They had been almost ready to shoot each other before, but now they were close friends again. And they were both getting drunk—drunk enough, I mean, to bring all their viciousness out and to brag a little. Whisky doesn’t seem to affect them like it does some people. They can always walk and talk. It just makes them ugly.
“My uncle went to the telephone that goes to the bunk house and I heard him tell Dave Lorton to come over.
“Then Moore leaned over the table. ”