The Long Dim TrailHooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
General
The Long Dim Trail
Hooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
Arizona -- Fiction; Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Western stories
"He's dead," said the cowboy. Then, reading the unspoken question in the
doctor's eyes, he added, "No. It was the lightning done it. A tree fell
on him and his horse."
"Thank God!" said Powell, but his tone was reverent, not jubilant.
"Is she all right?" asked Limber anxiously.
"Resting quietly. We'll take her over to Mrs. Traynor in the morning,
Limber. She needs a woman friend, now."
"The Little Lady will look out for her," said the cowboy. Then he
glanced at Chappo, and after a slight hesitation continued, "I wish
you'd come out and take a look at Peanut's ankle, Doc."
Powell, catching the peculiar tone, nodded and followed to the barn
where the ponies stood contentedly in their stalls. Limber closed the
stable door and spoke in a low voice.
"Glendon was ridin' the horse and saddle he stole in Tombstone. It's a
Lazy F pony. The lead-rope on Fox was busted."
"All right. I'll notify the Lazy F people," Powell replied wondering why
Limber thought secrecy necessary.
"That ain't what's troublin' me. You see when Glen was arrested he rid
his own saddle to town with the posse. I was with 'em, and I knowed his
saddle. Besides, I bought it from Juan afterwards, when they was hard up
for dinero. Mrs. Glendon didn't know I bought it. That saddle's over to
the Diamond H and been thar for two months."
He walked to the corner of the barn and pointed at the saddle he had
taken from Fox.
"That's the saddle that was on Fox," he said slowly. "It belonged to old
Doctor King--we all thought the Apaches got it."
Powell grasped Limber's arm. "You don't think Glendon killed King, do
you?"
"Thar ain't no way I can see to think he didn't," responded the
cowpuncher. "From all we could find out, King and Glendon rid to the
forks together and separated. King was goin' down the San Pedro and
Glendon to Jackson's Flats. You can see how easy Glendon could of shot
from the upper trail. The bullet went into King's head above the left
temple and came out behind the right ear. You seen that yourself. I
thought it was kinder queer when I heard Mrs. Glendon say the Apaches
didn't reach the Circle Cross till noon and you said King had been dead
over night. But then I figgered the Indians was snoopin' round that part
for a couple of days."
"What object would Glendon have had?"
"He'd pick a fight with any one when he was tanked up a bit. You know he
always wanted the Hot Springs, and King wouldn't sell it to him. He
didn't know the land was patented, and mebbe he figgered that if King
was dead it would be easy to jump the Springs. Of course, he didn't know
about King makin' any Will, nor that you and the Boss was workin' up a
deal with King. That's why Glendon's had it in for the Diamond H and for
you ever since."
The chain of circumstantial evidence seemed conclusive as forgotten
details were recalled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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