Read Online Gunsmoke over Texas by Bradford Scott - Free Book Online

every appearance of being a deplorable accident. The affair had been handled neatly, and to all appearances nobody but himself and the instigators of the attempt had the slightest notion of what had been intended. Persinger had played his part adeptly. Bill Ayers, Kent’s head driller, possessed the usual fighting skill, or lack of it, of his class. Roundhouse punches thrown at random, easy for a man with even a smattering of the art of self-defense at his command to avoid. Persinger on the other hand undoubtedly knew how to use his fists and how to exploit the other man’s lack of knowledge to the best advantage. He had faked the knockdowns in a very convincing manner. Apparently getting the worst of the fight it was not unnatural that he would lose his head and go for his gun; such things often happen and in such a community an accident, while regrettable, would be regarded lightly. Yes, the whole affair had been carefully thought out and expertly staged.
    The question that puzzled the ranger was what was back of it? Bob Kent had intimated that Blaine Richardson nursed an almost insane hatred against cattlemen, but Slade felt it was ridiculous to think that Richardson would go in for such an elaborately planned killing just to glut his hate. It just didn’t seem to make sense. Revenge for the role he played in extinguishing the burning well? If that was the motive, it would seem to let Richardson out. An oilman himself, Richardson would hardly go around setting fire to wells unless he was a pyromaniac, which Slade doubted. Hatred or revenge seemed hardly the answer.
    The logical assumption, Slade concluded, was that somebody for reasons unknown had decided that his elimination was necessary. Which predicated something going on that must be concealed at all hazards. Had he been recognized as a ranger? Not impossible. Or as El Halcon, an outlaw all set to horn in on somebody’s good thing? That also was possible. But what was it his presence in the section jeopardized? He’d just have to wait and follow the course of events. What he hoped more than anything else was that he had been able to put over his own act to an extent that neither Persinger nor whoever else was in on the plot realized that he had caught on to the fact that he was the intended victim. Slade believed he had put it over.

SEVEN
    I T WAS LATE when old Curly Nevins finally decided to call it a day. “Coming back to the spread with me?” he asked Slade.
    “Guess I might as well,” the ranger replied. “I want to see how Clate is making out.”
    A few miles north of the creek, Nevins turned into a narrow track that joined the Chihuahua. “This is a short cut which will miss that big bend and knock off quite a few miles,” he explained. “It isn’t bad going and the moon will be up in a little bit.”
    They had covered a couple more miles when Nevins uttered an exclamation. “Don’t I hear horses coming this way?” he asked.
    Slade listened intently. “You hear more than horses,” he said. “You hear cows, a lot of them, and horses with them, coming fast.”
    “What in blazes!” sputtered Nevins. “Nobody’s got any business running cows down here at this time of night.”
    Slade glanced around. Not far to the left of the trail was a belt of thicket. To the east was open prairie. “Into that brush over there till we see what’s going on,” he told his companion.
    “You think …” Nevins began as they turned from the trail.
    “Don’t take time to think now,” Slade broke in. “Come along!”
    Muttering under his breath Nevins followed the ranger into the growth. They halted where they could look across the trail but not be seen from it.
    “Be ready to grab your horse’s nose if he should take a notion to neigh,” Slade warned.
    The drumming of many hoofs grew louder and louder. Suddenly a little distance out on the prairie a dark mass came into view, veering south by east. It quickly resolved into a large herd of cattle