15 Western Short Stories — page 76: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

76 WESTERN SHORT STORIES his arms. She was sobbing softly, her head pillowed on his shoulder. But after a while she stopped sobbing, and lifted her tear-bright eyes. _ “I-—-I know you won't ever forgive me,’ she said. “And I don’t blame you —JI was such a simple fool.” Powder asked softly, “Forgive you —-for what? You just saved my life, didn’t you?” “Not that,” she said swiftly. “It wes my fault, you being here in the first place. I lied to you—you know that now. You think I helped to trap you, to collect the bounty Turk Brule had offered for you.” Powder Mace shook his head. “I don’t think that, not now. I know you had a good reason for doin’ everything you did.” “I—I thought I was doing the best thing,” Nancy declared. “You see, a little while ago I found out that Turk Brule had framed you with that cat- tle-stealing charge. I didn’t have posi- tive proof—proof that I was sure would convince a jury—but I thought that could come later. I knew that, bitter as you were, you'd never agree to surrender to the sheriff and stand trial. So I told my—my step-father, and he promised to help me. I was sure I could prove your innocence— I still am—or I’d never have thought of doing such a thing. You believe that, don’t you?” Powder Mace nodded, saicy “I sabe that. And I sabe that Judd Rayder lied to you, tricked you. Instead of riding for the sheriff, as he’d prom- ised, he brought Turk Brule, aim- ing to collect the bounty Brule had RAW-RED LAW OF THE REBEL LEGION because it didn’t affect Dan Casey or the Territory of Colorado. But he knew now why Red Masters was an officer in the volunteers. Why Rose O’Hearn had risked her life as a spy in the Alamo. And he knew why Cap- tain John Tilton had stood with a gun in his back. Set up alongside these three, Dan Casey saw himself as a small man. They had reached the old Denver offered for me. Is that right?” “That’s right,’ Nancy agreed. “I— I was sick, when I found out what I'd done; that, trying to help you, Id tricked you into Brule’s power. But now everything’s fine. Now Turk Brule can’t testify against you. And folks in the basin will be so glad Brule is dead that no jury would con- vict you, even without me telling what I know. You'll get your ranch back.” FROWDER MACE looked about the room, at the still bodies of Brule and Rayder. “Mebby, when folks find out I killed these gents, there’ll be a murder charge—” Nancy Rolfe smiled, put a tanned finger on his lips. ‘Maybe they won’t find out about that,” she said. ‘“Maybe, in just a lit- tle while, I'll ride into town; maybe I’ll tell folks that Turk Brule, Judd Rayder and Ike Torgin just got drunk and shot each other to pieces. Every- body’ll be glad, and there'll be no rea- son for them to think you did it. It could happen that way, couldn’t it?” “But it might get you into trou- ble—” “T’ll take that chance,” Nancy de- clared staunchly. “Then, in a few days you could ride into town. You could surrender to Sheriff Cody and say you wanted to stand trial. The jury would turn you loose, then we could get married and...I’ve got a hunch things will happen like that. They've got to!” And, because of the staunch loyalty and courage of a slim, dark-eyed girl, they did happen that way.... @END (continued from page 67) House at the Elephant Corral. Casey turned the girl so that she faced him. “T love you and I’m proud of you and tomorrow would be a good day to get married.” “Yes, Dan,” she said, “but—what are you going to do?” “Tm going to see if Gilpin’s vol- unteers can use another good man.” @END oO CoOMmicboOoks.€@