2-Gun Western, November 1955 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

BLOOD AND SWEAT - OR BULLETS? much for visual evidence. Now he had to think. There would bea lot of bumble- heads thinking about this too, re- flected Barney grimly—and probably jumping at conclusions, like they al- ways did. And the usual criticism would begin to be whispered about. That Barney Carr had been a good sheriff, but was getting a little old for the job now. That he spent too much time sitting around his office and not enough in the saddle. That if Longhorn County had a younger sheriff with plenty of ‘git-up-and- git’ to him, this sort of murder and banditry would not take place. That when next election time rolled around it might be a good idea if folks started voting with their heads and not with their hearts. . Barney had heard it all before. It took place every time any sort of a _major crime hit the county. And ‘those who did most of the criticising neglected entirely to keep track of the subsequent arrests and convic- tions, which, Barney reflected with a grim and sober pride, had been well nigh perfect. And when they started talking a younger man for Barney’s’ office, the name most often mentioned was that of Ed Dow. That was all right with Barney, for Ed was a good boy. Like his daddy had been, old Grizzly Dow, afraid of nothing under the sun. Strong and rugged, Ed could ride five horses into the ground and come up smiling, A better than average hand _ with a gun and a good head on him. But a little too chock full of the bust "em wide open spirit of ebullient youth. Which led him to jump at con- clusions a little too readily. Given time and the right sort of training, Ed would make a right smart law man. That was why Barney had_hired Ed on as deputy, though there were plenty who said at the time that Bar-. ney Carr had pinned a deputy’s star on Ed Dow to move competition from the field. The fools! Couldn’t they get it through their thick heads that a good law man had to be trained, same as for any other profession? That was the trouble in a lot of counties. They elected a backslapper, a gent with swagger and big mouth—and nothing else. Then wondered why so much 77 crime danced loose and free across the range. 3 Well, Ed Dow was out with a posse now at the scene of the hold-up, try- ing to pick up a trail and run it down. Maybe it would all turn out that sim- ple. Once ina while it did. Though Barney figured this case as being a little different. There were certain angles about it which needed think- ing over, And Barney Carr was still in his office, thinking over those an- gles when Ed Dow and the posses came clattering back into Prairie City, just at sundown. Ed reported immediately, his wide shouldered, dusty figure filling the doorway as he came in, chaps swish- in, spurs clashing. : “No luck, chief,’ he reported suc- cinctly. “There was a trail—two men. We followed it clear back into the Cutbank country, They split up there, one going east, one west. I sent Tom Garson and half the posse along one set of tracks while me and the rest of the boys followed the other. My set ended up in Whit Horse Creek and Tom’s ran out in the Hardin Valley trail. Both broncs were bare-foot with nothing about ’em to tell off from any other set of bare foot bronc tracks. All we could go on was the orginal direction of the getaway trail, which was back into Cutbank. That set Tom and some of the boys to wondering about—well, they mentioned the names of Buck Caspian and Milo Studinger.” “What do you think, kid?” asked Barney Car quietly. RD? DOW spread his long length in a chair and built a smoke. He . stirred a little restlessly, “Well,” he blurted finally—“Caspian and Stud- inger both got records. They both did time for this same sort of thing stage robbery. And I’ve heard my old Dad say that a sheep killin’ dog never gets over his taste fur mutton.” Barney Carr nodded slowly. “Some- thing in what you say. I’m going to rustle a bite of supper and ride out to have a talk with Buck and Milo.”* “Fi “Them two jaspers gone bad again, they’d know right off what you were riding in for and they’d smoke you down without giving you a single oO S jog along,” said Ed Dow.’ C@ im Ccomicloo