The Quirt by B. M. Bower (good novels to read .TXT) 📗
- Author: B. M. Bower
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"Now I want to tell you folks a few more things about Bill Warfield. If you want to stop the damnest steal in the country, tie a can onto that irrigation scheme of his. He's out to hold up the State for all he can get, and bleed the poor devils of farmers white, that buys land under that canal. It may look good, but it ain't good—not by a damn sight.
"Yuh know what he's figuring on doing? Get water in the canal, sell land under a contract that lets him out if the ditch breaks, or something so he can't supply water at any time. And when them poor suckers gets their crops all in, and at the point where they've got to have water or lose out, something'll happen to the supply. Folks, I know! I'm a reliable man, and I've rode with a rope around my neck for over five years, and Warfield offered me the same old five hundred every time I monkeyed with the water supply as ordered. He'd have done it slick;[Pg 293] don't worry none about that. The biggest band of thieves he could get together is that company. So if you folks have got any sense, you'll bust it up right now.
"Bill Warfield, what I've got to say to you won't take long. You thought you'd make a grand-stand play with the law, and at the same time put me outa the way. You figured I'd resist arrest, and you'd have a chance to shoot me down. I know your rotten mind better than you do. You wanted to bump me off, but you wanted to do it in a way that'd put you in right with the public. Killing me for kidnapping this girl would sound damn romantic in the newspapers, and it wouldn't have a thing to do with Thurman or Frank Johnson, or any of the rest that I've sent over the trail for you.
"Right now you're figuring how you'll get around this bawling-out I'm giving you. There's nobody to take down what I say, and I'm just a mean, ornery outlaw and killer, talking for spite. With your pull you expect to get this smoothed over and hushed up, and have me at a hanging bee, and everything all right for Bill! Well——"
His eyes left Warfield's face and went beyond[Pg 294] the staring group. His face darkened, a sneer twisted his lips.
"Who're them others?" he cried harshly. "Was you afraid four wouldn't be enough to take me?"
The four turned heads to look. Bill Warfield never looked back, for Al's gun spoke, and Warfield sagged at the knees and the shoulders, and he slumped to the ground at the instant when Al's gun spoke again.
"That's for you, Lone Morgan," Al cried, as he fired again. "She talked about you in her sleep last night. She called you Loney, and she wanted you to come and get her. I was going to kill you first chance I got. I coulda loved this little girl. I—could——"
He was down, bleeding and coughing and trying to talk. Swan had shot him, and two of the deputies who had been there through half of Al's bitter talk. Lorraine, unable to get up and run, too sturdy of soul to faint, had rolled over and away from him, her lips held tightly together, her eyes wide with horror. Al crawled after her, his eyes pleading.
"Little Spitfire—I shot your Loney—but I'd have been good to you, girl. I watched yuh all[Pg 295] night—and I couldn't help loving yuh. I—couldn't——" That was all. Within three feet of her, his face toward her and his eyes agonizing to meet hers, he died.
[Pg 296]
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR ANOTHER STORY BEGINSThis chapter is very much like a preface: it is not absolutely necessary, although many persons will read it and a few will be glad that it was written.
The story itself is ended. To go on would be to begin another story; to tell of the building up of the Quirt outfit, with Lone and Lone's savings playing a very important part, and with Brit a semi-invalided, retired stockman who smoked his pipe and told the young couple what they should do and how they should do it.
Frank he mourned for and seldom mentioned. The Sawtooth, under the management of a greatly chastened young Bob Warfield, was slowly winning its way back to the respect of its neighbors.
For certain personal reasons there was no real neighborliness between the Quirt and the Sawtooth. There could not be, so long as Brit's memory remained clear, and Bob was every day[Pg 297] reminded of the crimes his father had paid a man to commit. Moreover, Southerners are jealous of their women,—it is their especial prerogative. And Lone suspected that, given the opportunity, Bob Warfield would have fallen in love with Lorraine. Indeed, he suspected that any man in the country would have done that. Al Woodruff had, and he was noted for his indifference to women and his implacable hardness toward men.
But you are not to accuse Lone of being a jealous husband. He was not, and I am merely pointing out the fact that he might have been, had he been given any cause.
Oh, by the way, Swan "proved up" as soon as possible on his homestead and sold out to the Quirt. Lone managed to buy the Thurman ranch also, and the TJ up-and-down is on its feet again as a cattle ranch. Sorry and Jim will ride for the Quirt, I suppose, as long as they can crawl into a saddle, but there are younger men now to ride the Skyline Meadow range.
Some one asked about Yellowjacket, having, I suppose, a sneaking regard for his infirmities. He hasn't been peeled yet—or he hadn't, the last I heard of him. Lone and Lorraine told me they were trying to save him for the "Little Feller" to[Pg 298] practise on when he is able to sit up without a cushion behind his back, and to hold something besides a rubber rattle. And—oh, do you know how Lone is teaching the Little Feller to sit up on the floor? He took a horse collar and scrubbed it until he nearly wore out the leather. Then he brought it to the cabin, put it on the floor and set the Little Feller inside it.
They sent me a snap-shot of the event, but it is not very good. The film was under-exposed, and nothing was to be seen of the Little Feller except a hazy spot which I judged was a hand, holding a black object I guessed was the ridgy, rubber rattle with the whistle gone out of the end,—down the Little Feller's throat, they are afraid. And there was his smile, and a glimpse of his eyes.
Aren't you envious as sin, and glad they're so happy?
THE ENDTHE RANCH AT THE WOLVERINE
A ringing tale full of exhilarating cowboy atmosphere, abundantly and absorbingly illustrating the outstanding feature of that alluring ranch life that is fast vanishing.—Chicago Tribune.
JEAN OF THE LAZY A
A spirited novel of ranch life in which the fascinating heroine poses for film pictures that she may make money necessary to prove her father innocent of a crime for which he has been convicted.
It possesses all the popular ingredients—a quick-action plot, color and picturesqueness aplenty, and an unflagging interest—to be found in Bower's earlier successes.—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
THE PHANTOM HERD
Another western tale in which the Happy Family become real "movie" actors.
There has been so much truck written in the last few years about motion pictures, that it is a positive relief to find a book by an author who knows exactly what to talk about in an entertaining manner with a knowledge of actual conditions as they exist.—Boston Post.
THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX
A Flying U story in which the Happy Family get mixed up in a robbery faked for film purposes.
Altogether a rattling story, that is better in conception and expression than the conventional thriller on account of its touches of real humanity in characterization.—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
RIM O' THE WORLD
An engrossing tale of a ranch-feud between "gun-fighters" in Idaho.
THE LOOKOUT MAN
A tale of action, excitement and love, full of the charm of the great outdoors, in which the story of the life at a Forest Reserve Station on top of a California mountain is vividly portrayed.
The signature of B.M. Bower is a valuable trade-mark. It stands for fiction filled with the spirit of ranch life in the northwest.—Boston Herald.
CABIN FEVER
How Bud Moore and his wife, Marie, fared through their attack of "cabin fever" is the theme of this B.M. Bower story.
The author has put some real sentiment into a story that gives a rapidly filmed "movie" of Western life.—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
STARR, OF THE DESERT
A story of mystery, love and adventure, which has a Mexican revolt as its main theme.
The tale is well written, with the fine art of artlessness, and of unflagging interest; a book worth the reading which it is sure to get from every one who begins it.—New York Tribune.
THE FLYING U'S LAST STAND
What happened when a company of school teachers and farmers encamped on the grounds of the Flying U Ranch.
The Northwestern cattle country has never had a better chronicler in fiction of its deeds and its people than B.M. Bower.—New York Times.
GOOD INDIAN
A story named for its half-breed hero, who dominates this stirring Western romance.
There is excitement and action on every page.... A somewhat unusual love story runs through the book.—Boston Transcript.
THE UPHILL CLIMB
How a cowboy fought the hardest of all battles—a fight against himself.
Bower knows the West of the cowboys, as do few writers to-day.... The word pictures of Western life are realistic, and strongly suffused with local color.—Philadelphia North American.
LONESOME LAND
A story of modern Montana, giving a wholly different phase of life among the ranches.
Montana described as it really is, is the "lonesome land" of this new Bower story. A prairie fire and the death of the worthless husband are especially well handled.—A. L. A. Booklist.
SKYRIDER
A cowboy who becomes an aviator is the hero of this new story of Western ranch life.
An engrossing ranch story with a new note of interest woven into its breezy texture.—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
THE THUNDER BIRD
Further aeronautic adventures of "Skyrider" Johnnie Jewel.
"A good story with numberless thrills and a humorous quality throughout its pages."—New York Sun.
LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers, Boston, Mass.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quirt, by B.M. Bower
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