2-Gun Western, February 1954 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

WHEN A TEXAN TAKES OVER UDDENLY, he was conscious of a presence. In the shadowed room he had seen nothing. Now his hand dropped to his gun and he started to turn. “Don’t shoot, Ryan. It’s me. Hitch.” In a quick step Ryan was at the bedside. Fred Hitch lay in the bed, his face drawn and pale. His shoulder and arm were bandaged. “It was them.” He indicated the men outside. “Gerlach egged me into sellin’ some of the KY cows for gam- blin’ money, said it would all be mine, anyway. Then he began sellin’ some himself, dared me to tell the old man. “Lee Dunn was in it with him, and I was scared. I went along, but I didn’t like it. Then when you saw the old man they got worried. They couldn’t find you, and they decided to kill the old man, then to take over. I wouldn’t stand for it, and made a break. They shot me down, but I got to a horse, Kitty hid me here...she went after medicine.” “They'll wonder why she isn’t here now,” Ryan said, half-aloud. Then he looked down at the man on the bed. “What about Tom? Did they kill him?” “Don’t think so. They want me for a front...or him. Then they can loot the ranch safely. After that, other outfits.” Ryan stepped to the window. With luck he could make the trees without being seen. He put a hand on the window and slid it up. “Yeah.” “I ain’t much, but the old man was good to me. I wouldn’t see no harm come to him, Tell him that, will you?” “oure.” He stepped out the window and walked swiftly into the woods. There he made the saddle and started for the KY. He had no plan, he had not even the right to plan. It was not his fight. He was a stranger and...but he kept riding. It was past midnight when he found the KY. He had been lost for more than an hour, took a wrong trail in the bad light,..there were no lights down below. He rode the big horse down through the trees 55 and stepped out of the saddle. There were a dozen saddled horses near the corral. He could see the shine of the starlight on the saddles. He saw some of those horses when he drew closer, and he knew them. They were riders from Thumb Butte ...80, then, they had the ranch. They had moved in. And this ranch was the law. There were no other forces to stand against Gerlach and Dunn now. There were ten thousand head of cattle in the hills, all to be sold. It was wealth, and a community taken oyer. He stood there in the darkness, his face grim, smelling the night smells, feeling the danger and_ tension, knowing he was a fool to stay, yet unable to run. The old man might still be alive. If he could move in, speak to him once more...with just the shadow of authority he might draw gool men around him and hold the line, He was nobody now, but with the authority of old Tom Hitch, then he could move. He loosened his gun in his belt, and taking his rifle walked across the clearing to the back door. He saw a man come to the bunkhouse door and throw out a cigarette. The man started to turn, then stopped and looked his way. He kept on walking, his mouth dry, his heart pounding. The fellow watched him for a min- ute, barely visible in the gloom, and then went back inside. ATT RYAN reached the back of the house and touched the latch. It lifted under his hand and he stepped in. Carefully, he eased across the room, into the hall. When he made the old man’s room, he hesi- tated, then spoke softly. There was no reply. He struck a match...it glowed, flared. Matt looked at the old man, who was slumped back against the headboard of his bed, his flannel . nightshirt bloody, the eyes wide and staring. They had murdered Tom Hitch. Killed him without a chance. Matt drew back, hearing a noise at the bunkhouse. The match died and he dropped it, rubbing it out with his toe. Gomichooks (C@