The cattle would be gone then. There would be no rollicking cowboys, with their gaudy shirts, singing their songs to the moon. Painted Valley would be a dust heap, its walls echoing to the bleating of sheep, the streams and springs trampled—and Jim Kelton would be broke. He was already heavily mortgaged with the bank. He could sell off every head of stock he owned and just about satisfy the mortgage, but if he could hold off for better prices, he might still pull out ahead of the game. So much for Kendall H. Marsh.
Jim Kelton had known Blaze Nolan for years, and when Blaze had asked him for Jane he had patted Blaze on the shoulder and told him he was pleased. Blaze was foreman of the Triangle X, hard-bitted, forceful, capable, making good with the owners and saving money for his own herd.
Marsh’s own son, Alden, worked for the Triangle X, learning the business. At least he was supposed to be learning the cattle game, while in reality he was spending a great part of his time around the War Dance Saloon with a tough gang who appreciated Alden’s money, his monthly allowance from his father exceeding the pay-roll of the Triangle X.
Ben Kelton was also of a wild disposition, but limited as to funds. Alden Marsh, barely twenty-one, plunged heavily, while Ben played piker bets. There was no friendship between them.
Kendall Marsh was in Medicine Tree when the big smash suddenly came. A splatter of revolver shots in an alley adjoining the War Dance Saloon one night, Blaze Nolan found kneeling down beside the body of Ben Kelton, two empty shells in the revolver the sheriff took from his hand; a half-drunk Alden Marsh babbling about a quarrel between Nolan and Kelton over a dance-hall girl.
Kendall Marsh led his son away, while the sheriff took Blaze to jail. Ben’s gun had been fired once, which was the one thing that saved Blaze from the rope. Ben had been shot twice. The evidence showed that Ben was very drunk, while Nolan was cold sober. So the jury decided that Blaze Nolan might have taken an unfair advantage, and they made it second degree murder instead of self-defence. Perhaps the jury was influenced by the fact that Blaze fought over a dance-hall girl while he was engaged to marry Jane Kelton. But the dance-hall girl did not testify, because they were never able to locate her. She had faded out of the picture.
CHAPTER III: THE MORTGAGED VALLEY
It was about two weeks after the shooting of Kendall Marsh, when Blaze Nolan rode into Medicine Tree, astride one of Jules Mendoza’s pinto horses, riding the saddle he had given to Mendoza. Blaze had managed to get out of Southern California without being apprehended, but up to the present time he did not know whether Kendall Marsh was alive or dead. He had managed to accumulate some cowboy clothes, and looked considerably like the Blaze Nolan of Painted Valley before his arrest.
He tied his pinto in front of the War Dance Saloon, but did not go in. A lean, lanky cowboy, with a long, sad face was standing on the opposite side of the street, watching him, and after hitching his horse Blaze went across. The lanky, sad-faced one, was “Bad News” Burke, deputy sheriff to Buck Gillis of Broad Arrow.
Bad News shoved his sombrero back on his head and shut one eye. Then he shut the other eye, as though taking a careful aim at Blaze Nolan, who stopped a few feet away.