2-Gun Western, February 1954 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

TIME FOR A HANGIN" 9 was part Indian and looked it, with oily black hair and coal-chip eyes. He was one of the lucky ones, if you wanted to look at it that way—he rode his own trail and to hell with everyone else. He’d been raising cat- tle here before the boom and had fat- tened on the sale of beef to hungry miners. Now he said thickly, “Pull out of this, Rocklin, while you still can. We got this rustler dead to rights. He range-butchered one of my critters and packed the beef to some prospectors up in the hills. We found the hide buried right near his shack.” Jed looked at the oldster. “That right, Jump?” “No, by hell, it ain’t right!” Ta- tum was standing with his weight on his good leg, his glance pinned to Jed’s lean face in a fixety of hope. “They found that hide, but I don’t savvy how it ever got there. An’ Lucy don’t either. I been out prospect- B0V ioe “You’ve heard how it was, gents,” Jed said. ‘““He’s got cows of his own— if he could sell beef, why would he butcher somebody else’s? Eli, get those ropes off him.” For a long moment no one moved. Then Jed moved the muzzle of his rifle meaningly. The sodden cigarette stub that had been sticking.to Denn’s protruding lower lip dropped to the ground as the rancher jumped to do as he’d been told. Black Jack shouted, “Damn you, Rocklin’, put down that rifle and we'll settle this with our sixes!” Jed smiled and shook his head. “Seme other time, Jack—right now you've got too much help handy.” He flicked a glance over the hard, taut faces of the others. Kelly and Strat- ton, Black Jack’s cowboys, and Wy- mer, the new rancher. Wymer was a former lawman who had come to the basin with enough money to ride out the hard times. His mustached face was plump, his boots were polished— he worked hard at being a gentleman rancher. “I’m some surprised, Cline,” Jed said dryly, “to find you ridin’ on an errand like this. Hell for law an’ order, ain’t you?” Wymer looked uneasy. “Jack con- vinced me that it was a duty to per- form,” he said weakly. “Damn right it is!” Black Jack snapped. “We've had rustlin’ in the basin before, an’ we've stopped it pronto. There ain’t any law closer’n Tucson, an’ we got to stand togeth- er in this.” “Are you certain it’s rustlin’ you've got here, now?” Jed asked. “I know Jump pretty well, and I'll take his word any time.” “No man’s word is worth a damn to me!” Black Jack blurted. Jed shrugged. Old Jump was freed now; and Jed said, “Get their guns, Jump.” When the weapons had been. pulled from the holsters of the tense, angry-eyed men, Jed added, “Mount up, boys, and ride.” Black Jack stepped to his saddle, but turned his thick body to level a final glance upon Jed. “We'll not be forgettin’ this, Rocklin. You sav- vy where it puts you—on the wrong side of a tall fence. Next time we'll come straight for you.” ‘ “Might be,” Jed said. “An’ might not. You’ll get your guns back, may- be, after Jump and me look into this and find out what side of that fence you're on.” Black Jack reined his horse savage- ly around and rode down the dump, followed by the others. Old Jump limped to a timber and sank down on it. “I’m obliged,” he said. “Man gets to be my age, you'd think dyin’ wouldn’t scare him much. But I kep’ thinkin’ about Lucy bein’ left alone—” He got to his feet. “Tarna- tion! When they come after me she swarmed all over ’em an’ they tied her up. We’d best be gettin’ down there to the shack.” ATUM’S PLACE was in a draw immediately south of the Golden Lady. When the mine closed down the oldster had decided that he liked the basin well enough to stay, and he had laid out his homestead and had gone to cattle raising to make a liv- ing. Jed’s ranch was beyond Tatum’s, at the very end of the basin. Lucy Tatum was tied to a chair in old Jump’s one-room shack, and from the marks on the floor she had hopped it all around the room, trying to reach the cupboard and a butcher- knife. The chair had toppled over, though; and now she lay on the floor, COPMICLOOOKS (C@