Crooked Trails and Straight

ay he takes his medicine. So now young Flandrau ate his dinner with a hearty appetite, smoked cigarettes impassively, and occasionally chatted with his guards casua

ther watchers about noon. The squat puncher came up

f you make any breaks I'll fill you

be bluffed, Curly came back with a jeer. "Much obliged, my sawed-off and hammered-down fr

alone, Dutch. If he lands on you again like he did b

l get yours pretty soon, Mr. Curly Flandrau. T

, doesn't it?" the

entify him as the horse thief. The two were Maloney and Kite Bonfils, neither of them friends of the young rustler. The foreman in par

," he said to Buck without answerin

has he got?" Buck asked,

. "Bad. Always been a tough character. Fri

Dollar saloon onct. Pretty near beat

"That's right. Keep a-coming,

as well have it

been a little wild," Maloney testified. "And I reckon we a

Bad Bill? Do we all rustle stock and

ttle puncher for a moment, then passed on

t them hollering loudest for justice are most general

turkey rooster. "Wha

vely. "I reckon you can gu

n found carrying his brand. The man had been full of explanations, but there came a time when explanations no longer were accepted. He was invited to become an absentee at his earliest convenience. This

d desperado he could not quite live up to the part. As Buck

llison?" he a

at about him?" he demanded out load, his

ow is he

Ain't he dying fast

eacher when he jumps at him with a cane. He understood how the men w

p carelessly on Curly's shoulder and looked at him with a friendly smile in his eye

he'll make i

gain in a hurry. There had been a good deal of lawlessness of late, for which Soapy Stone's band of followers was held responsible. Just as plainly as if he had heard the arguments of Dutch and Kite Bonfils he knew that they were urging the others to make an example of him.

ted a little with his captors. But as he sat there hour after hour, feelin

seemed to Curly. But presently he discerned a drift in the talk. The

t you lads at Saguache to hold the s

his accomplices. "Wrong guess. Soapy and Bad

in it with you. I guess they we

law agains

ng to pump out the information by finesse. "You've got to speak, Fland

grim frowning face and his heart

t's

it," ord

p that under my hat,"

Circle C outfit. Others had ridden over from neighboring ranches. All of them plainly meant business. They meant to stamp out

ys ain't trifling about this thing. They mean to find

ugh me, t

you. And

et him off. He had kept telling himself not to show yellow, that it would not last long. Now the fear of breaking down sl

l you a thing

th the tip of his tongue. Two thoughts hammered in his head. One was that he had c

boy's head and drew it taut. Two or three of the faces in the circle were almos

ell now?" B

him eye to

along

at the place where he had been

see you're hurting his bad

m right under

all to be rou

hurt him," Buck

e was making it up to his conscience for what he m

from his shirt and climbed up his neck. It had black polka dots and was badly frayed. Sweeney was che

amest ever?" so

iskey does a man who has been on a bad spree. His heart was chil

oods down by the creek," Buc

ed his head in assent. "All right.

smothered an oath of surprise. Kate Cullison sto

guessed exactly what they intended to do.

t is

n the territory. Not one man in a million could have phased them, but this slender girl dumfou

Miss Kate," Sweene

t his remons

with each repetition of the word. "I won

dark eyes shining like stars. Some of these men were old enough to be her father. Any of them could have crushed

elongs to Soapy Stone's outfi

ou pro

im double

e law put hi

e paw," Buck

hy you're

"That's why,"

ssion. "Then I've got more against him than y

awyer and wiggle o

tle puncher. "You know

Dutch had once been tried for stea

e doing and we know why we're doing it. This ain't any business for a girl t

y. "It's work for a man, isn't it? No, not for one. For nine-eleven-t

ckets. Nobody had noticed him before. He had come in after the girl. When Curly came to think it over later, if he had b

on, I expect any of the boys will be glad to escort you

him. They brought him here as their prisoner. Do you think we'll

re trying to do the dictating your own s

e boys to do murder. If they haven't sense enough

stically. "You hea

s Kate. I reckon you better s

nds her compliments in a swi

s dead right, boys. There's nothing t

but what he can do mu

ho had been worked up to the lynching by the arguments of Bonfils began to resent his activity. Flandrau was their prisoner, wasn't

breath. "I'm sure you didn't think or you would never have done anything to trouble me more just now. You know I didn't half mean it." She looked from one to another

and one grass widower drew a laugh by saying tha

The boy for whose life she was pleading t

knew you would when you thought it over,"

None of them spoke except Maloney. Most of them were with her in sympathy but none wanted to be first in

. Two steps brought her directly in front of one. She caught him by the lapels of his c

rassment. "I reckon I have, Miss Kate. What

a mind of you

ever's righ

w what is righ

exp

hurt this man,

ing against him

You won't stand by and l

Miss

in trouble you-you think only of making it worse. I'm worried to death

ime she was cajoling them, explaining how good it was of them to think of avenging her father, how in one way she did not blame them at all, though of course they had seen it would not do as s

the edge of her dress and put his curly head in the dust before her. The ice in his heart had melted in t

ll you-how much I'm

out to strike, her hand instinctively gathering he

e told him, and her voice was

l, for an impulse carried her forward to take the rope from his neck. While his heart beat twice he

g a good deal and he felt feverish. The men of the Circle C and their guests sat down and argued the whole thing over. But aft

n is doing fine. He has dropped into a goo

the girl who had f

et him die, D

h for that, Lu

on after that Curly fell asleep and dreamed about a slim dark girl