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Updated: June 11, 2025
After you return to Ord give Poggin these orders. Keep the gang quiet. You, Poggin, Kane, Fletcher, Panhandle Smith, and Boldt to be in on the secret and the job. Nobody else. You'll leave Ord on the twenty-third, ride across country by the trail till you get within sight of Mercer. It's a hundred miles from Bradford to Val Verde about the same from Ord.
No; there must be a master craftsman behind this border pillage; a master capable of handling those terrors Poggin and Knell. Of all the thousands of outlaws developed by western Texas in the last twenty years these three are the greatest. In southern Texas, down between the Pecos and the Nueces, there have been and are still many bad men.
"Ah!" exclaimed MacNelly, softly. Then he grew businesslike, cool, and of harder aspect. "Duane, it's your game to-day. I'm only a ranger under orders. We're all under your orders. We've absolute faith in you. Make your plan quick, so I can go around and post the boys who're not here." "You understand there's no sense in trying to arrest Poggin, Kane, and that lot?" queried Duane.
Then he turned to Poggin with a rude dignity. "Poggy, he's my pard, an' he's riled. I never told him a word thet'd make him sore. I only said Knell hadn't no more use fer him than fer me. Now, what you say goes in this gang. I never failed you in my life. Here's my pard. I vouch fer him. Will you stand fer me? There's goin' to be hell if you don't. An' us with a big job on hand!"
There's talk of Vigilantes, the same hat were organized in California and are now in force in Idaho. So far it's only talk. But the time will come. And the days of Cheseldine and Poggin are numbered." Duane went to bed that night exceedingly thoughtful. The long trail was growing hot. This voluble colonel had given him new ideas.
Poggin entered the vestibule first, with Kane on one side, Boldt on the other, a little in his rear. As he strode in he saw Duane. "HELL'S FIRE!" he cried. Something inside Duane burst, piercing all of him with cold. Was it that fear? "BUCK DUANE!" echoed Kane. One instant Poggin looked up and Duane looked down. Like a striking jaguar Poggin moved. Almost as quickly Duane threw his arm.
Duane's second glance, not so blinded by the sudden bright light, made out other men, three in the shadow, two in the flare, but with backs to him. "It's a smoother trail by long odds, but ain't so short as this one right over the mountain," one outlaw was saying. "What's eatin' you, Panhandle?" ejaculated another. "Blossom an' me rode from Faraway Springs, where Poggin is with some of the gang."
Had his father's blood and the hard years made Duane the kind of man who instinctively wanted to meet Poggin? He was sworn to MacNelly's service, and he fought himself to keep that, and that only, in his mind. Duane ascertained that Fairdale was situated two days' ride from Bradford toward the north. There was a stage which made the journey twice a week.
There seemed to be a rushing in his ears through which pierced sharp, ringing clip-clop of iron hoofs. He could see only the corner of the street. But suddenly into that shot lean-limbed dusty bay horses. There was a clattering of nervous hoofs pulled to a halt. Duane saw the tawny Poggin speak to his companions. He dismounted quickly. They followed suit.
He fell with a scream like a wild thing in agony. Duane did not see Knell die. He watched Poggin. And Poggin, like a stricken and astounded man, looked down upon his prostrate comrade. Fletcher ran at Duane with hands aloft. "Hit the trail, you liar, or you'll hev to kill me!" he yelled. With hands still up, he shouldered and bodied Duane out of the room.
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