Hopalong Cassidys Rustler Round-Up | Page 4

ways, including
marksmanship.
One year before this tale opens, Buck Peters, an example for the more
recent Billy the Kid, had paid Perry's Bend a short but busy visit. He
had ridden in at the north end of Main Street and out at the south. As he
came in he was fired at by a group of ugly cowboys from a ranch
known as the C 80. He was hit twice, but he unlimbered his artillery,
and before his horse had carried him, half dead, out on the prairie, he
had killed one of the group. Several citizens had joined the cowboys

and added their bullets against Buck. The deceased had been the best
bartender in the country, and the rage of the suffering citizens can well
be imagined. They swore vengeance on Buck, his ranch, and his
stamping ground.
The difference between Buck and Billy the Kid is that the former never
shot a man who was not trying to shoot him, or who had not been
warned by some action against Buck that would call for it. He minded
his own business, never picked a quarrel, and was quiet and pacific up
to a certain point. After that had been passed he became like a raging
cyclone in a tenement house, and storm-cellars were much in demand.
"Fanning" is the name of a certain style of gun play not unknown
among the bad men of the West. While Buck was not a bad man, he
had to rub elbows with them frequently, and he believed that the sauce
for the goose was the sauce for the gander. So be bad removed the
trigger of his revolver and worked the hammer with the thumb of the
"gun hand" or the heel of the unencumbered hand. The speed thus
acquired was greater than that of the more modern double-action
weapon. Six shots in a few seconds was his average speed when that
number was required, and when it is thoroughly understood that at least
some of them found their intended bullets it is not difficult to realize
that fanning was an operation of danger when Buck was doing it.
He was a good rider, as all cowboys are, and was not afraid of anything
that lived. At one time he and his chums, Red Connors and Hopalong
Cassidy, had successfully routed a band of fifteen Apaches who wanted
their scalps. Of these, twelve never hunted scalps again, nor anything
else on this earth, and the other three returned to their tribe with the
report that three evil Spirits had chased them with "wheel guns"
(cannons).
So now, since his visit to Perry's Bend, the rivalry of the two towns had
turned to hatred and an alert and eager readiness to increase the
inhabitants of each other's graveyard. A state of war existed, which for
a time resulted in nothing worse than acrimonious suggestions. But the
time came when the score was settled to the satisfaction of one side, at
least.

Four ranches were also concerned in the trouble. Buckskin was
surrounded by two, the Bar 20 and the Three Triangle. Perry's Bend
was the common point for the C 80 and the Double Arrow. Each of the
two ranch contingents accepted the feud as a matter of course, and as a
matter of course took sides with their respective towns. As no better
class of fighters ever lived, the trouble assumed Homeric proportions
and insured a danger zone well worth watching.
Bar-20's northern line was C 80's southern one, and Skinny Thompson
took his turn at outriding one morning after the season's round-up. He
was to follow the boundary and turn back stray cattle. When he had
covered the greater part of his journey he saw Shorty Jones riding
toward him on a course parallel to his own and about long revolver
range away. Shorty and he had "crossed trails" the year before and the
best of feelings did not exist between them.
Shorty stopped and stared at Skinny, who did likewise at Shorty.
Shorty turned his mount around and applied the spurs, thereby causing
his indignant horse to raise both heels at Skinny. The latter took it all in
gravely and, as Shorty faced him again, placed his left thumb to his
nose, wiggling his fingers suggestively. Shorty took no apparent notice
of this but began to shout:
"Yu wants to keep yore busted-down cows on yore own side. They was
all over us day afore yisterday. I'm goin' to salt any more what comes
over, and don't yu fergit it, neither."
Thompson wigwagged with his fingers again and shouted in reply: "Yu
c'n salt all yu wants to, but if I ketch yu adoin' it yu won't have to work
no more. An' I kin say right here thet they's