Bull Hunter

f death. A greater man than Uncle Bill, he felt at once-a far greater man. It was impossible to conce

t face, and then turned from the b

r man?" aske

for time as they stood in fron

t, son, but first I want to know what you got

g. That he should be the means of bringing that terrible and active little man to an e

ruined it at the same time. But suppose he added his evidence and allowed the law to take its course with Pete Reeve? Where would be his own reward for his long march south and all the pain of travel and the crossing of the moun

waited impatiently. "I figure that w

te all this time on you?" he asked Bull. "Why

ed the great arm and put his hand behind his head, th

him with a grunt of di

great end he must first free him from the jail. He went back to the hotel and went into the kitchen to find food. The propriet

e biggest man that ever come into the hotel, I'll make an exce

began Bull bluntly. "

he other. "Ain

N

nge. He tells us he was out to Dan Armstrong's place when, about noon, a little gray-headed man that give the name of Pete Reeve came in and asked for chow. Of course Johnny Strange pricks up his

t make the man! Well, Armstrong trotted out some chuck for Reeve, and after Pete

offered to bet everything he'd won, or double or nothing, and when the boys didn't want to do that, it give him a clean hand to stand up and get out. He got up

ange told about Pete b

in the room a

r is losing money, most like he'll fight to win it

at he slopes o

e last few years hating each other. When one of 'em is in office the other goes around saying that the gent that has the plum is a crook; and then Anderson goes out, and Armstrong comes in, and Anderson says the same thing about Armstrong. Take 'em g

so after dark we hear two men come walking up on the veran

by the sound?" ask

enough to nab Reeve. Seems that when he was riding up to the house he heard a shot fired, and then he seen a man run out of the house and jump on his hoss, and the sheriff didn't stop to ask no questions. He just out with his gat and drills the gent's hoss. And while Reeve was struggling on the ground, with the hoss flopping around and dying, the sheriff runs up and sticks the irons on Reeve. Then he goes into the house and finds Armstrong lying shot through th

nomous as to take a mean advantage of a gambling companion seemed to Bull altogether too strange to be reasonable. Certainly, if he had had a difference with this fellow, thought Bull, Pete Reeve was

g his head. "And they

mily. "They found the

str

ed on his hoss and tried to get away. So there you are. But it pretty often happens that way! Take the oldest gunfighter in the world, and, if his stomach ain't resting just right, it sort of upsets him to see a crimson sta

he done the killing?"

ry to bluff us ever since. He says that he was sitting peaceable with Armstrong when all at once without no warning they was a shot f

e, he made a jump through the door and got onto his hoss. He says that he wanted to break away to the trees and try

any shots

his hoss was falling, and that the other shot that was found fired out of Reeve's gun was fired into the heart of A

something wrong, for his mind refused to conjure up the picture of Reeve pulling his gun and shooting across the table into the breast of a helpless, unwarned man. That would n

r his eyes. "I'd kind of like to see the pla

't more'n a mile and a half out the north trail. Take that pat

ut, having thanked his host, he stepped out i

season of rain, and, even in the driest and hottest part of the summer, marshy in places. He followed the twisting little tra

the little cabin he re

razily, as though it had not recovered from a violent shock on one side. One chair was overt

nd on the farther side, two hands were printed distinctly into the wood, in the

er and darker as the money was transferred from his pocket to the pocket of the jovial Armstrong. Then, a sudden taking of offense at some harmless jest, the cold flash of steel as Reeve leaned and jumped to his feet,

for his horse. Luckily retribution had overtaken the murderer in the very moment of escape. Bull Hunter sighed. Never had the strength of the arm of the law been so vividly brough

approaching, and, with the feeling of night, there was a ghostly sense of death, as though the spirit of the dead man were returning to his old home. On the o

ould see at a glance. There was a field which had been recently upturned by the plow, perhaps the work of yesterday. The furrows were still black, still not dried out by the sun. Today would have been the ti

d started for the east window through which Reeve had sai

rough, ragged. Certainly a man stalking a house to fire a shot would never co

into the room and into the breast of a man sitting on the far side of the table. Armstrong was found there. Bull looked down to his feet

d come away from the rock. It was as if the rocks had been rubbed with lead or a soft iron. And then, stran

chance for a crafty mind! To kill his enemy and place the blame on the shoulders of one already known to be a