Frontispiece: He had been shot through the body and was dead.
His rifle lay across a rock trained carefully on the trail.
THE KILLER
BY
STEWART EDWARD WHITE
AUTHOR OF
THE BLAZED TRAIL,
THE RIVERMAN,
ARIZONA NIGHTS, Etc.
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF
TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,
INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
COPYRIGHT 1919, 1920, BY THE RED BOOK CORPORATION
CONTENTS
| The Killer | 3 |
| The Road Agent | 135 |
| The Tide | 157 |
| Climbing for Goats | 189 |
| Moisture, a Trace | 211 |
| The Ranch | 229 |
THE KILLER
[Pg 3]
ToC
CHAPTER I
I want to state right at the start that I am writing this story twentyyears after it happened solely because my wife and Señor Buck Johnsoninsist on it. Myself, I don't think it a good yarn. It hasn't any lovestory in it; and there isn't any plot. Things just happened, one thingafter the other. There ought to be a yarn in it somehow, and I supposeif a fellow wanted to lie a little he could make a tail-twister out ofit. Anyway, here goes; and if you don't like it, you know you can quitat any stage of the game.
It happened when I was a kid and didn't know any better than to do suchthings. They dared me to go up to Hooper's ranch and stay all night; andas I had no information on either the ranch or its owner, I saddled upand went. It was only twelve miles from our Box Springs ranch—a niceeasy ride. I should explain that heretofore I had ridden the Gila end ofour range, which is so far away that only vague rumours of Hooper hadever reached me at all. He was reputed a tough old devil with horridhabits; but that meant little to me. The tougher and horrider they came,the better they suited me—so I thought. Just to make everythingentirely clear I will add that this was in the year of 1897 and the SodaSprings valley in Arizona.
[Pg 4]By these two facts you old timers will gather the setting of my tale.Indian days over; "nester" days with frame houses and vegetable patchesnot yet here. Still a few guns packed for business purposes; Mexican