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His smooth features were set to a pattern of indisputable sorrow. Josefa wavered. "What was your pet doing here?" she asked, making a last stand. "There's no camp near the White Horse Crossing." "The old rascal ran away from camp yesterday," answered Givens readily. "It's a wonder the coyotes didn't scare him to death.
Warden left the sheriff's office, after turning the bodies of Link and Givens over to the official. He sent his men to the Two Diamond, and spent some time at a window in the rear of the Wolf Saloon, examining hoof prints on the snow in the vicinity of the Willets Hotel, a short distance from the Wolf. He was in a vicious mood.
He might have further increased the sheriff's rage by showing him the signed confession in his pocket the confession he had secured from Link and Givens but he preferred to keep silent until he discovered why Della Wharton had brought the charge against him. There were two possible motives.
The "rucus," as Givens called it afterward, was brief and somewhat confused. When he arrived on the line of attack he saw a dim streak in the air, and heard a couple of faint cracks. Then a hundred pounds of Mexican lion plumped down upon his head and flattened him, with a heavy jar, to the ground.
Lawler stepped forward, leaned over the platform. "Warden," he said; "you are going East. You are not coming back. If you ever step a foot into this state again I will send you to prison for a term that will make you wish you were dead. I have a signed confession from Link and Givens that convicts you of a crime for which this state provides an adequate penalty. Do you understand?"
He knew she had told him the truth he could see truth in her eyes. "He killed Link and Givens," said Warden. "Did you see it?" At her nod he went on: "Just how did it happen?" She told him, and he evinced disappointment. Then, during a silence, he watched her keenly, a gleam of craft in his eyes. "How much do you hate him, Della?"
Warden had quickly recovered his composure. It was evident from Lawler's manner that Link and Givens had not talked. He had been afraid they might have told Lawler that he had ordered them to cut the fence.
In those days in the Nueces country a man was a man. And, after all, the title of cattle king does not presuppose blood royalty. Often it only signifies that its owner wears the crown in token of his magnificent qualities in the art of cattle stealing. One day Ripley Givens rode over to the Double Elm Ranch to inquire about a bunch of strayed yearlings.
He dropped the grudge as he tumbled backward through the stable doors and slammed them behind him. That same day he went to Mr. Ham Givens and announced his intention of immediately breaking off his present associations with the firm. "Me, I is done quit foolin' wid ole ice waggins," he announced airily after Mr. Givens had given him his time. "Hit seems lak my gift is fur machinery."
They'll head straight for that break because they'll hit it before they hit the basin. An' Givens an' Link will send 'em through, to hell an' then some. An' them damn fools, Davies an' Harris, is layin' in the back room of the Wolf, paralyzed by that forty-rod that Big Jim Lafflin has been slippin' over the bar to 'em.
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