Rimrock Trail

ake butter on

ve need for the riders. Riders demanded the best quality in the "found" part of their wages and the three partners supplied it. The butter came over weekly from the Bailey ranch to be kept under the spring cover for cooling. Usually the gangling young Ed Bailey brought it over in the crotchety

on groaned aloud as the rattlebang car chugged up and was braked, shaking all over until the engine was shut off. Ed Bailey crossed his legs and rolled his cigarette. No o

'em. I heard you was shot," she went on to Sam. "That sling ain't right. You

am. "I'm pure-blooded an' m

da sn

w then, I come on business. Sandy Bourke, you ain't

in what we're d

u that. You-all

he talk. He did not agree with the spinster. It was Molly's prime affair and he knew that she would resent being treated too childishly in regard to her own concerns. Sandy had gentled too many

at the Three Star unpleasant? Fur as jest gossip is concerned, it don't h

. Here 'tis. I got it direct from my brother who's heard the talk that's goin' round. You've run foul of Jim Plimsoll-or he foul of you, which is more likely. Plimsoll an' Eke Jordan, the sheriff, are like two peas in a pod. The sheriff's got the inside of local politi

' house for three unmarried men, leastwise three men who ain't livin' with their wives." She looked pointedly at Mormon. "They'll rouse up opinion enough for a change. They'd

d stood behind it, her eyes widening,

dainty, is in cahoots with Jordan an' Plimsoll. Ed heard they figger on goin' before Judge Vanniman, one of their crowd, to get an order of court. She's a minor. They can git her away from you. If we crowd them too hard for them to app'int one of their own ring-an' they're figgerin' on Plimsoll, he claimin

t go with 'em. I'll run away. They can't take me. Jim Plimsoll is a damned liar

I won't. Wil

you got an' ever hope to

mon, but he scratched his frin

My brother Ed has got somethin' to say in this community an' I'm likely to control a few votes this fall myself. I figger if you cam

en," flared Molly. "I'm no kid

r shaking shoulders. She wheeled and bu

t we got other plans an' we aim to carry 'em out. Plimsoll's a skunk an' I'll block his game about the mines ef they amount to a

he leading suffragist of the county for lack of brains. But there was true regret in her voice as she went on. "I'm sorry she don't cotton to the idee of comin' over to o

nty to the railroad ter-morrer?" she

hat all right. We'll git ready soon's we can. Meantime, we'll k

I'll bring it over ea

me showed an intelligent interest i

car ag'in' the sheriff's 'ud be like matchin' a flea ag'in' a grasshopper. Dern it, she's balked ag'in." He wrestled with the crank, conquered it and the machine shi

"That's the kind of woman you

ed now, dema

eagerly. "Will you wait till

said Sandy. "I figger we'll git a start on

t got muc

uy you a

seba

at her with p

o tuhn in an' git a good rest. Ef we slide out it won't be all a pleasure trip. I recko

take

remember you by?" asked Sandy. "Somethi

t Dad," she said. "But Grit..

the regulations at them schools. I reckon the best way w'ud be fo

erly, her fingers twinin

that. I know you w'ud. He's goin' to be jest as lonesome as me for a bit, ain't

" she said.

lent for a moment or

y. "How you goin' to fix to git her away, Sandy?

to the county line is west through the Cabezas R

olsa...."

checke

to the railroad an' then me an

uh

edding Ranch. I reckon Barbara Redding'll handle the thing. She'll

d down on Sam's thigh

wise ol' son of a gun," he

mself, "but you don't have to break my lai

ce he had rescued Barbara Barton from horse rustlers with a grudge against her father and once again he had rendered her even greater service when members of the same crowd kidnapped her two-year-old son whom Barbara Redding ha

' their money," went on Sandy. "An' here's the way I fig

e, the dog beside her. Presently she heard the martial strains of Sam's harmonica, cuddled under his big m

ve figgered out something or they w'udn't be

athed out his melody into the night that was very still and very quiet,

El Ca

misanthro

is indepe

h him if

hampion bey

ly Porthos, if Sam was hard to recognize as Aramis. "One for all and all for one" was their motto, and neither Mormon nor Sam

o be; not so much a flight, as a deliberately calculated laying of a trail for the pursuit. So might an old dog fox, sure of his speed and wisdom, trot leisurely across a field in full sight of the pack. Sandy had no intention of waiting until the lawhounds arrived, he neede

ckin', rovin

min' gam

as generally mature, suggesting deliberation of mind if not of action. This morning youth was hi

sed badinage among one another like a ball. Mormon and Sam, seated

es, Mormon?"

fun 'fore the day's out. Sandy can

e w

hat out of a moving pitcher magazine down to Heref

ave to move some to git all that's movin' this tr

Grit beside her. Sandy nodded to her, busy giving instructions to two riders. Mo

. Take a flash-glass with you. If any of the sheriff's crowd comes erlong, any one who looks like he might be servin' papers, sabe, you flash in

s already caught-up and saddled horse, turned stirrup and set foot in it, caught hold of mane and horn, beat the quick swirl of his pony sidewise with the fling of leg over

ter that's got a seal to the bottom of it. We won't be to home. You'll be the only one to home 'cept Pedro an' Joe. They've got their instructions to know nothin'. They ain't supposed to know nothin'. You-you've stayed to the ranch to do some fixin' of yore saddle. Started, bu

an image, his dark ey

an' sort of indifferent to this he

d's gone, which they probably will, knowin' this outfit fairly well, an' the sheriff not bein' a dumbhead; lead up to it. Then you might horn it out of Pedro that

o that. I sa

, git the grub an' water aboard. Sam, help me wit

ood-by to Dad, or

alone. Suppose you take Grit with you to the

her eyes showed lack of sleep but she had fought the thing out with herself and she was going to be game. She gave

buckskins were sinewed with whalebone and used to desert work. They surged forward at the word, tightening the tugs in an eager leap and settled down to a fast trot, out across the prairie. The r

ted again toward the far-off range. There was no apparent road, but Sandy chose a compass course between the sage for the first f

e Pass of the Goats. Some says it's named 'cause the cliffs is fair lousy with goats, some 'cause on'y a goat

rough the pass?"

es up with us, he'll have to foller afoot or go clean round the mesa. The Goat's Pass ain't no place fo' an automobe

stal atmosphere, sometimes distorted, changing hue from chocolate to indigo, never seeming to get any farther away, just as th

little sign of the grueling trip through the soft dirt. A strip of lava, half a mile of ancient flow, lay between them and the long up-slope of the desert to the mesa. As they ate lunch in the shadow of some barrel cactus, Sandy sudden

hirty-five to make. Take 'em mo'n two hours, countin' questions with Buck. Good en

ed with Sandy rode out of a straggling thicket of cactus a