W. C. TUTTLE THE MORGAN TRAIL A Story of Hashknife Hartley HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York 1928 COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY WILBUR C. TUTTLE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. CONTENTS I. Realization and a Job II. The Fighting Nesters III. The Deadline IV. Sorrowing Cowboys V. Rex Gets a Ride VI. Shifting the Evidence VII. Hashknife and Sleepy Drift In VIII. Rex Uses his Brains IX. ‘Kind of a Misfit’ X. Lynch Lawyers XI. The Navajo Rug XII. An Empty Safe XIII. A Slide for Life XIV. Saved by Condensed Milk XV. The Cave Man XVI. Hashknife Sings a Song XVII. Buzzards XVIII. The Man in the Black Mask XIX. Hashknife Writes a Note XX. In the Smoke of a Forty-Five CHAPTER I—REALIZATION AND A JOB Rex Morgan came back from his mother’s funeral and sat down on the front porch of the little place he had always known as home. He was a slender young man, twenty years of age, with the complexion of a girl, well-moulded features, somber brown eyes, and an unruly mop of black hair. His black suit was slightly threadbare, the cuffs of his shirt rough-edged from many washings. He smoothed back his hair, staring at the skyline of the little city of Northport, California. It had suddenly occurred to him that he was all alone in the world. The death of his mother had been a great shock to him. The doctor had said it was heart failure. The rest of it had been a confusion of neighbors, who wanted to assist with everything, the sympathetic minister, the business-like, solemn-faced undertaker, who had talked with him on the price of caskets. It seemed that there was a difference in price between sterling silver handles and the plated ones, but Rex did not remember which they had selected. Just now he stared at the skyline and wondered who would pay for everything; because he had suddenly remembered that he had no money. As far as he knew he was all alone in the world. There were plenty of Morgans, of course, but he had never heard his mother mention one of them as being a relative. He had never given this a thought before. In fact, he had never given anything of that kind any thought. Mrs. Morgan had always been an enigma to her neighbors. They had seen Rex grow from boyhood to manhood, practically tied to his mother’s apron-strings, as they expressed it. He had no companions. She had never allowed him to go to a public school, but had always employed a tutor. Whence her income was derived, no one knew. But she was not wealthy. On the contrary, Mrs. Morgan practiced the strictest economy in order to make both ends meet. She was a slight little woman, evidently well-bred, who lived solely for her son; shielding him from the world in every way.