Free Savage Range by Luke; Short Page B

“How?”
    â€œBy crowdin’ Max Bonsell so hard that he’ll have to strike hard to save his life.”
    â€œYou mean we side in with the squatters?”
    â€œIt’ll look like that. And when Bonsell strikes, he’ll strike at them.”
    Cope was silent a long moment. “It’s risky. And Mary will hate it.”
    â€œWhat if it is?” Jim retorted. “And Mary won’t have to know.”
    Cope said carefully, “If she finds out you’re behind that, Jim, she’ll hate you. It ain’t that she isn’t used to murder. She saw her daddy killed. But that’s why she hates it. And what you’re proposin’ is murder and more murder.”
    â€œNot murder,” Jim prompted. “Justice. A man pays for what he does. That crew killed Buckner in cold blood.”
    â€œBut it’s murder to her.”
    â€œNot to me.”
    â€œNor to me,” Cope murmured. He rolled another cigarette and smoked it down and then said, “I’ve got to get down to the saloon.” He rose and tucked his stout crutch under his arm, which was as huge as an ordinary man’s thigh. And then his chill blue eyes settled on Jim.
    â€œThat’s our hole card, Jim,” he said. “Play it.”
    Jim only nodded, and Cope stepped to the door, then paused. He turned to regard Jim. “It strikes me,” he said, “that you see in Mary Buckner what I’ve seen in her, Jim.” He held Jim’s gaze. “If anything ever happens to me, I think you’ll take up where I left off. Am I right?”
    â€œI think you are,” Jim replied. And that, both of them knew, was the bond that sealed them forever.

Chapter Seven: TWO CATS BY THEIR TAILS
    At midday, Cope let himself in with his key and wakened Jim.
    â€œBonsell is in town,” Cope announced.
    â€œHe’s got the nerve, all right.”
    â€œAin’t he?” Cope murmured, and swore softly. “He went straight to Haynes and offered to give himself up. But he asked one privilege before they locked him up.”
    â€œWhat was that?”
    â€œTo hunt you,” Cope said, grinning wryly. “He said that he never suspected you was a killer. He said it made him sick to think of what you’d done. He said that although he’d been in town at my place the night the killin’ took place, and although he’d never given the orders, didn’t know anything about it, he was willin’ to take his punishment. But he wanted to find you and kill you first.”
    â€œWhat did Haynes say?”
    â€œWhat I told him to say,” Cope said mildly. “I was there when Bonsell talked to him. I turned to Haynes and said, ‘That’s a white man’s act, Link. I never liked Bonsell much, but I got to give him credit, he’s shootin’ square as a die with you.’ When Link heard me say that, he said the same thing.” He grinned. “So Bonsell walked out, free as air.”
    â€œWhat about his crew?”
    â€œPaid them off and drove them off the Excelsior with a rifle, he said.”
    â€œAs far as the hills?” Jim murmured.
    â€œNot that far, I reckon,” Cope said. “As far as the second story of the house.” He turned to go and then paused. “I dropped a letter to Harvey Buckner today.”
    â€œSaying what?” Jim asked, rising on an elbow.
    â€œI didn’t say much. Just told him if he aimed to keep the Excelsior, he better get up here. Max Bonsell was changin’ boundaries on him just as fast as he could dig up the corners. I told him by the time he got up here, he’d find a ten-mile ribbon surveyed off two sides of the grant and home-steaded under Bonsell’s name.” He waved casually and hobbled to the door. “I’ve never tied two cats together by their tails, but I reckon I’ll have a good idea of how they act when Bonsell and Buckner meet.”
    Jim was