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16 - Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up by Clarence Edward Mulford · Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up

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  Speaker 1: According by LESE. Mawley, Apolong Cassidys round up by Clarence
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  Speaker 1: Edward Mulford, Chapter sixteen, Rustlers on the Range. The affair
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  Speaker 1: at Cactus Springs had more effect on the life at
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  Speaker 1: the Bar twenty than was realized by the foreman. News
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  Speaker 1: travels rapidly, and certain men whose attributes were not of
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  Speaker 1: the sweetest heard of it and swore vengeance. For Slim
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  Speaker 1: Trebanz had many friends, and the result of his passing
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  Speaker 1: began to show itself. Outlaws have as their strongest defense
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  Speaker 1: the fear which they inspire, and little time was lost
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  Speaker 1: in making reprisals, and these caused Buck Peters to ride
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  Speaker 1: into Buckskin one bright October morning and then out the
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  Speaker 1: other side of the town. Coming to himself with a start,
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  Speaker 1: he looked around, shamefacedly, and retraced his course. He was
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  Speaker 1: very much troubled, for as foreman of the Bar twenty,
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  Speaker 1: he had many responsibilities, and when things ceased to go aright,
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  Speaker 1: he was expected not only to find the cause of
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  Speaker 1: the evil, but also the remedy. That was what he
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  Speaker 1: was paid seventy dollars a month for, and that was
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  Speaker 1: what he had been endeavoring to do. As Yet, however,
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  Speaker 1: he had only accomplished what the meanest cook's assistant had done.
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  Speaker 1: He knew the cause of his present woes to be rustlers,
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  Speaker 1: cattle thieves, and that was all. Riding down the wide,
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  Speaker 1: quiet street, he stopped and dismounted before the ever open
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  Speaker 1: door of a ramjackle one story frame building. Tossing the
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  Speaker 1: reins over the flattened ears of his vicious pinto, he
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  Speaker 1: strode into the building and leaned easily against the bar,
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  Speaker 1: where he drummed with his fingers and sank into a reverie.
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  Speaker 1: A shining bald pate bowed over an open box, turned
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  Speaker 1: around and revealed a florid face said with two small,
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  Speaker 1: twinkling blue eyes. As the proprietor, wiping his hands on
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  Speaker 1: his trousers, made his way to Buck's end of the bar,
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  Speaker 1: mornin' buck, How's things? The foreman, lost in his reverie,
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  Speaker 1: continued to stare out the door, mournin', repeated the man
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  Speaker 1: behind the bar, How's things? Oh? Ejaculated the foreman, smiling,
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  Speaker 1: purty cussid anything flew the c eighty lost another herd
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  Speaker 1: last night. His companions swore and placed a bottle at
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  Speaker 1: the foreman's elbow, but the latter shook his head. Not
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  Speaker 1: this mornin, I'll try one of them vile cigars. However,
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  Speaker 1: them cigars are the very best, pet began the proprietor,
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  Speaker 1: executing the order. Oh heck, exclaimed Buck with weary disgust.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have to pull aver none. I sure knows
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  Speaker 1: all that by heart them cigars, repeated the proprietor. Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: them cigars. I know all about them cigars. He gets
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  Speaker 1: them for twenty dollars a thousand, and hypnotizes us into
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  Speaker 1: pana a hundred, replied the foreman, biting off the end
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  Speaker 1: of his weed. Then he stared moodily and frowned. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder why it is, he asked. We punchers like good stuff,
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  Speaker 1: and we pays good prices with good money. What do
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  Speaker 1: we get Why? Cabbage, leaves and leather for our smokin'
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  Speaker 1: and alcohol and extract for our drink. Now up in
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  Speaker 1: Kansas City, we goes to a sumptuous layout, pays less
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  Speaker 1: and gets bang up stuff. If you smelled one of
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  Speaker 1: them k C cigars, you'd sure have to ask what
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  Speaker 1: it was, And as for the liquor, why you'd think,
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  Speaker 1: Saint Peter asked you to have one with him. It's
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  Speaker 1: sure wrong. Somewhere they have more trade in k c,
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  Speaker 1: suggested the proprietor. And help, and taxes, and a license
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  Speaker 1: and rent and brass cut glass, mahogany and French mirrors,
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  Speaker 1: countered the foreman. They have more trade, reiterated the man
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  Speaker 1: with his cigars. Forty men spenned thirty dollars a piece
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  Speaker 1: with you every month. The proprietor busied himself under the bar.
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  Speaker 1: You'll feel better tomorrow anyway. What do you care? You
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  Speaker 1: won't lose your job, he said. Emerging Buck looked at
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  Speaker 1: him and frowned, holding back the words which formed an anger.
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  Speaker 1: What was the use, he thought, when every man judged
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  Speaker 1: the world in his own way. Have you seen any
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  Speaker 1: of the boys, he asked, smiling again, narry a boy hoodier?
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  Speaker 1: Reckon's doin all this rustlin? I'm reckonin, not shoutin, responded
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  Speaker 1: the foreman. The proprietor looked out the window and grinned,
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  Speaker 1: here comes wan o yarn. Now. The newcomer stopped his
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  Speaker 1: horse in a cloud of dust, playfully kicked the animal
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  Speaker 1: in the ribs, then entered dusting the alkali from him
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  Speaker 1: with a huge sombrero. Then he straightened up and sniffed.
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  Speaker 1: What's burnin? He asked, simulating alarm. Then he noticed the
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  Speaker 1: cigar between the teeth of his foreman and grinned. Gee,
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  Speaker 1: but you're a brave man. Buck Hullo hop along, said
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  Speaker 1: the foreman, want of smoke, waving his hand toward the
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  Speaker 1: box on the bar, Mister Hopolong cassidy side stepped and
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  Speaker 1: began to roll a cigarette. Sure, but I'll burn my own.
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  Speaker 1: I know what it is. What was you doin to
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  Speaker 1: my cayus before you come in, asked buck nothin, replied
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  Speaker 1: the newcomer. That was mine when I kicked in the corrugations.
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  Speaker 1: How is it you'll ride in the calico, asked the foreman.
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  Speaker 1: I thought you was stuck on that piebald. The piebald's
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  Speaker 1: a goat. He's beIN livin off my pants lately, responded
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  Speaker 1: hop Along. Every time I looks the other way, he
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  Speaker 1: ambles over and takes a bite at me. You just
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  Speaker 1: wait till this rustler business is roped and branded. Then
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  Speaker 1: you'll see me edicate that blessed scrap heap than to
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  Speaker 1: eating grass again, He swiped Billy's shirt the other day,
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  Speaker 1: took it right off the corral wall where Billy's left
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  Speaker 1: it to dry. Then, singing, Buck raise his eyebrows, he explained,
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  Speaker 1: sure he washed it again. That makes three times since
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  Speaker 1: last fall. The proprietor laughed and pushed out the everready bottle,
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  Speaker 1: but hop Along shoved it aside and told the reason,
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  Speaker 1: Ever since I was up to k C, I've been spoiled.
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  Speaker 1: I'm drinking water and slush for Pete's sake. Has any
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  Speaker 1: more you fellas been up to k C, queried the proprietor,
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  Speaker 1: in alarm. Sure, Red and Billy was up there too,
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  Speaker 1: responded hop Along. Red's got a few remarks to shout
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  Speaker 1: to you about your painkiller. You'd better send for some
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  Speaker 1: decent stuff before he comes to town, he warned. Buck
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  Speaker 1: swung away from the bar and looked at his dead cigar.
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  Speaker 1: Then he turned to hop Along. What did you find,
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  Speaker 1: he asked, Same old story, nice wide trail up to
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  Speaker 1: the staked plain. Then nothing. It sure beats me, soliloquised beforeman,
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  Speaker 1: it sure beats me. Think it was Tomali Jose's old gang,
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  Speaker 1: asked hop Along if it was, they took the wrong
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  Speaker 1: trail home. That ain't the way to Mexico. Hop Along
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  Speaker 1: tossed aside his half smoked cigarette. Well, come on home,
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  Speaker 1: what's the use stewing over it? It'll come out all
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  Speaker 1: okay in the wash. Then he laughed, there won't be
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  Speaker 1: no pieball waiting for it. Evading Buff's playful blow, he
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  Speaker 1: led the way to the door, and soon they were
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  Speaker 1: a cloud of dust on the plain. The proprietor, despairing
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  Speaker 1: of customers under the circumstances, absent mindedly wiped oil on
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  Speaker 1: the bar and sought his chair for a nap, grumbling
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  Speaker 1: about the way his trade had fallen off, For there
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  Speaker 1: were a few customers than those who did call were
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  Speaker 1: heavy with loss of sleep and with anxiety, and only
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  Speaker 1: paused long enough to toss off their drink. On the ranges,
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  Speaker 1: there were occurrences which tried men's souls. For several weeks,
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  Speaker 1: cattle had been disappearing from the ranges, and the losses
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  Speaker 1: had long since passed the magnitude of those suffered. When
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  Speaker 1: Tomali Jose and his men had crossed the Rio Grande
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  Speaker 1: and repeatedly levied heavy toll on the sleek herds of
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  Speaker 1: the Pecos Valley to Malyi Jose had raided once too often,
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  Speaker 1: and prosperity and plenty had followed on the ranches, and
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  Speaker 1: the losses had been forgotten until the fall round ups
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  Speaker 1: clearly showed that rustlers were again at work. Despite the
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  Speaker 1: ingenuity of the ranch owners and the unceasing vigilance and
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  Speaker 1: night rides of the cowpunchers, the losses steadily increased until
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  Speaker 1: there was promised a shortage which would permit no drive
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  Speaker 1: to the western terminals of the railroad that year. For
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  Speaker 1: two weeks, the banks of the Rio Grande had been
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  Speaker 1: patrolled and sharp eyed men searched daily for trails leading southward,
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  Speaker 1: for it was not strange to think that the old
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  Speaker 1: raiders were again at work, notwithstanding the fact that they
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  Speaker 1: had paid dearly for their former depredations. The patrols failed
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  Speaker 1: to discover anything out of the ordinary, and the searchers
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  Speaker 1: found no trails. Then it was that the owners and
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  Speaker 1: foremen of the four central ranches met in Cowan's zualoon
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  Speaker 1: and sat closeted together for all of one hot afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: The conference resulted in riders being dispatched from all the
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  Speaker 1: ranches represented, and one of the couriers, mister Red Connors
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  Speaker 1: rode north, his destination being far away Montana. All the
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  Speaker 1: ranches within a radius of one hundred miles received letters
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  Speaker 1: and blanks, and one week later the Pacos Valley Cattle
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  Speaker 1: Thief Elimination Association was organized and working with Buck as
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  Speaker 1: chief ranger. One of the outcomes of Buck's appointment was
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  Speaker 1: a sudden and marked immigration into the affected territory. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Connors returned from Montana with mister Frenchy McAllister, the foreman
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  Speaker 1: of the Tin Cup, who was accompanied by six of
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  Speaker 1: his best and most trusted men. Mister McAllister and party
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  Speaker 1: were followed by mister Eubette Solmes, foreman of the two
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  Speaker 1: x two of Arizona, and five of his punchers, and
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  Speaker 1: later on the same day, mister Pye Willis, accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: mister Billy Jordan and his two brothers, arrived from the Panhandle.
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  Speaker 1: The O bar O, situated close to the town of
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  Speaker 1: Muddy Wells, increased its payroll by the addition of nine men,
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  Speaker 1: each of whom bore the written recommendation of the foreman
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  Speaker 1: of the bar twenty. The C eighty Double Arrow and
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  Speaker 1: the three Triangle also received heavy reinforcements and even Carter,
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  Speaker 1: owner of the Barred Horseshoe, far removed from the zone
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  Speaker 1: of the depredations, increased his outfits by half their regular strength,
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  Speaker 1: but believed that if a thing was worth doing at all,
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  Speaker 1: that it was worth doing very well, and his acquaintances
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  Speaker 1: were numerous and loyal. The collection of individuals that responded
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  Speaker 1: to the call were noteworthy examples of gunplay, and their
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  Speaker 1: aggregate value was at par with twice their numbers in cavalry.
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  Speaker 1: Each ranch had one large ranch house and numerous linehuse
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  Speaker 1: houses scattered along the boundaries. These latter, while intended as
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  Speaker 1: camps for the outriders, had been erected in the days
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  Speaker 1: none to remote when Apaches, a Rapahose, and even Cheyenne
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  Speaker 1: raided southward, and they had been constructed with the idea
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  Speaker 1: of defense paramount. Upon more than one occasion a solitary
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  Speaker 1: line rider had retreated within their adobe walls and had
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  Speaker 1: successfully resisted all the cunning and ferocity of a score
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  Speaker 1: of paint bedaubed warriors, and when his outfit had rescued him,
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  Speaker 1: emerged none the worse for his ordeal. On the bar
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  Speaker 1: twenty Buck placed these houses in condition to withstand siege
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  Speaker 1: Twin barrels of water stood in opposite corners. Provisions were
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  Speaker 1: stored on the hanging shelves, and the bunks once again
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  Speaker 1: reveled in untidiness. Spare rifles in pattern ranging from long
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  Speaker 1: range sharps and buffalo guns to repeating rifles, leaned against
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  Speaker 1: the walls, and unbroken boxes of cartridges were piled above
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  Speaker 1: the bunks. Instead of the lonesome outrider, he placed four
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  Speaker 1: men to each house, two of whom were to remain
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  Speaker 1: at home and hold the house while their companions rode
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  Speaker 1: side by side on their multi mild beat. There were
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  Speaker 1: six of these houses, and instead of returning each night
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  Speaker 1: to the same line house, the outriders kept on and
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  Speaker 1: made the circuit, thus keeping every one well informed and
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  Speaker 1: breaking the monotony. These measures were expected to cause the
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  Speaker 1: rustling operations to cease at once, but the effect was
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  Speaker 1: to shift the losses to the Double Arrow, the line houses,
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  Speaker 1: of which boasted only one puncture each. Unreasonable economy usually
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  Speaker 1: defeats its object. The Double Arrow was restricted on the
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  Speaker 1: north by the staked Plain, which in itself was considered
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  Speaker 1: a superb defense. The White sand Hills formed its eastern
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  Speaker 1: boundary and were thought to be second only to the
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  Speaker 1: northern protection. The only reason that could be given for
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  Speaker 1: the hitherto comparative immunity from the attacks of the rustlers
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  Speaker 1: was that its cattle clung to the southern confines, where
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  Speaker 1: there were numerous springs, thus making imperative the crossing of
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  Speaker 1: its territory to gain the herds. It was in line
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  Speaker 1: House number three, most remote of all that Johnny Redmond
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  Speaker 1: fought his last fight, and was found face down in
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  Speaker 1: the half ruined house with a hole in the back
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  Speaker 1: of his head, which proved that one man was incapable
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  Speaker 1: of watching all the loop holes in four walls at once.
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  Speaker 1: There must have been some casualties on the other side,
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  Speaker 1: for Johnny was reputed to be very painstaking in his
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  Speaker 1: gun play, and the empty shells which lay scattered on
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  Speaker 1: the floor did not stand for as many ciphers of
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  Speaker 1: that his foreman was positive. He was buried on the
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  Speaker 1: day he was found, and the news of his death
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  Speaker 1: ran quickly from ranch to ranch and made more than
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  Speaker 1: one careless puncher arise and paced the floor in anger.
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  Speaker 1: More men came to the Double Arrow, and its sentries
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  Speaker 1: were doubled. The depredations continued, however, and one night a
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  Speaker 1: week later, Frank's swift reeled into the ranch house and
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  Speaker 1: fell exhausted across the supper table. Rolling hoof beats echoed flatly,
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  Speaker 1: and died away on the plain, But the men who
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  Speaker 1: pursued them returned empty handed. The wounds of the unfortunate
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  Speaker 1: were roughly dressed, and in his delirium he recounted the fight.
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  Speaker 1: His companion was found literally shot to pieces twenty paces
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  Speaker 1: from the door. One wall was found blown in, and
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  Speaker 1: this episode, when coupled with the use of dynamite, was
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  Speaker 1: more than could be tolerated. When Buck had been informed
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  Speaker 1: of this, he called to him hop along Cassidy, Reed, Connors,
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  Speaker 1: and frenchie McAllister, and the next day the three men
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  Speaker 1: rode north, and the contingents of the ranches represented in
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  Speaker 1: the association were divided into two squads, one of which
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  Speaker 1: was to remain at home and guard the ranches, the
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  Speaker 1: other to sleep fully dressed and armed, and never to
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  Speaker 1: stray far from their ranch houses and horses. These latter
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  Speaker 1: would be called upon to ride swiftly and far when
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  Speaker 1: the word came end of chapter sixteen