ROBBERS’
ROOST
y
Zane Grey
¥
Copyright.—~WNU Service
LULL IID
SYNOPSIS
Jim Wall, young cowpuncher from
Wyoming, in the early days of the cat.
tle industry, seeks a new fleld in Utah,
He meets Hank Hays, who admits be-
ing a robber, and tells Wall he Is
working for an EngMshman, Herrick,
who has located a big ranch in the
mountains, Herrick has employed a
small army of rustlers and gun-fight-
ers, and Hays and others are plotting
to steal their employer's cattle and
money. Hays gets into an argument
with a gambler over a poker game.
Wall saves Hank's life by bluffing the
gambler out of shooting.
CHAPTER II—Continued
—
“H—l—you say,” panted Stud. But
that ringing taunt had cut the force
of his purpose.
“You've got a gun in each Inside
vest pocket,” sald Wall, contemptu-
ously,
The gambler let his hands relax and
slide off the table.
Stud shuffled to his feet,
and beaten for the moment,
“Hays, you an’ me are even,” he
said, gruffly. “But I'll meet your
new pard some other time and then
there'll be a show-down.”
“Shore, Stud. No hard feelin's on
my side,” drawled Hays.
The little gambler stalked to the
bar, drank and left the saloon.
Hank Hays turned round.
“Jim, thet feller did have two guns
inside his vest. I never saw them, till
you gave it away. He—would have
killed me.”
“I think he would, Hays," returned
Wall. “You were sitting bad for ac-
tion.”
“Right you are, Jim, and I'm much
obliged to you. I'd like to know some-
thin""
“What's that?”
“Did you bluff him?™
“Hardly. I had him figured. It was
a pretty good bet he wouldn't try to
draw. But If he had made a move—"
“Ahub. It'd been all day with
him, This gambler Stud has a
name out here for beln' swift on the
draw. He's killed—"
“Bah!” cut In Wall, good-humoredly.
“Men who can handle guns don't pack
them that way.”
Presently they bade Red good night
and went outside,
“Where you sleepin’? asked Hays.
“Left my pack in the stall out back
with my horse. What do we do to-
morrow 7"
“lI was thinkin’ of thet. We'll shake
the dust of Green River. I reckon to-
morrow we'd better stock up on every-
thin' an’ hit the trall for the Henrys.”
“Suits me,” replied Wall
“Wal, then, good night.
here early,” concluded Hays
A red sunrise greeted Wall upon his
awakening. When, a little later, he
presented himself at the back of Red's
house for breakfast he was to find
Hays, Happy Jack and Brad Lincoln
abead of him.
They had breakfast. “Brad, you
fetch your pack horses round back™
ordered the leader, when they got
outside. “Happy, you get yourself a
hoss. Then meet us at the store quick
a8 you can get there... Jim, you
come with me.”
“Hays, I'm In need of some things”
sald Wall,
Hays drew out a handful of bills
and pressed them upon Wall
“Shore. Buy what outfit you need
an’ don't forget a lot of shells,” re
plied Hays. “If I don't miss my guess
we'll have a smoky summer, Haw!
Haw! , . Here's the store”
A bright young fellow, who looked
to be the son of the proprietor, took
charge of Wall. A new saddle blan-
ket was Wall's first cholee, after which
he bought horseshoes and nails, a
hammer and file, articles he had long
needed, and the lack of which had
made Bay lame. After that he select.
ed a complete new outfit of wearing
apparel, a new tarpaulin, a blanket,
rope, and wound up with a goodly sup-
ply of shells for his 45 revolver. Like
wise he got some boxes of 44 rifle
shells,
Half an hour later the four men,
driving five packed horses and two
unpacked, rode off behind the town
across the flat toward the west. Com.
ing to a road, Hays led on that for a
mile or so, and then branched off on
a seldom-used trall,
Towards sunset they drew down to
malignant
Breakfast
range rider could see the Influence of
water,
Hays halted for camp at a swampy
water oozed out and
“Aha! Good to be out again, boys”
sald Flays, heartily. “Throw saddles
an’ packs, Turn the hosses loose.
Happy, you're elected cook. Rest of
us gustle somethin’ to burn”
Jim rambled far afield to collect
an armload of dead stalks of cactus,
sunflower ; and dusk was
mantling the desert when he got back
to camp, Happy Jack was whistling
about a little fire; Hays knelt before
a pan of dough, which he was knead.
ing; Linclon was busy at some camp
chore,
“Wall, I don't llke store bread,”
Hays was ‘saying. *“Glve me sour-
dough biscuits, . . . How about you,
Jim?
“Me, too. And I'd like some cake,”
replied Jim, dropping his load.
“Cake! Wal, listen to our new
hand. Jack, can you bake cake?’
“Sure. We got flour an’ sugar an’
milk. Did you fetch some eggs?’
“Haw! Haw! , . Thet reminds
me, though, We'll get eggs over at
Star ranch. None of you ever seen
such a ranch. Why, fellers, Herrick's
bought every durn’ hoss, burro, sow,
steer, chicken In the whole country.”
“So you sald before,” returned Lin-
coln, “I'm sure curious to see this
Englisher, Must have more money
than brains’
“He hasn't got any sense.
Lordy, the money he's spent!”
Jim sat down to rest and listen.
“Queer deal—a rich Englishman
hirin' men like us to run his outfit,”
pondered Lincoln, In a puzzled tone.
“I don't understand it."
“Wal, who does? I can't, thet's
shore. But it's a fact, an’ ‘we're goin’
to be so rich pronto thet we'll jest
about kill each other.”
“More truth than fun in thet, Hank,
old boy, an' don't you forget It." re
Joined Lincoln. “How do you alm to
get rich?
“Shore, I've no idee. Thet'll all
come. I've got the step on Heeseman
an’ his pards.”
“He'll be almin’ at
same deal as you"
“Shore. We'll have to kill Heese
man an’ Progar, sooner or later. I'd
like it sooner.”
“I don't like the deal,” concluded
Lincoln, forcibly.
Presently they sat to thelr meal,
and ate almost in silence. Darkness
But
precisely the
He Feit an Overpowering Sense of
the immensity of This Region,
settled down, One by one they sought
their beds, and Wall was the last,
Dawn found them up and doing.
Wall fetched In some of the horses:
Lincoln the others. By sunrise they
were on the trail, which about mid.
afternoon led down through high
gravel banks to a wide stream bed,
dry except In the middle of the sandy
waste,
“This here's the Muddy,” announced
Hays for Jim's benefit. “Bad enough
when the water's up. But nothin’ to
the Dirty Devil. Nothin’ at all”
“What's the Dirty Devil?" asked
Jim.
“It's a river an’ it's well named,
you can gamble on that. We'll cross
it tomorrow some time"
Next camp was on higher ground
above the Muddy. Here Hays and
Lincoln renewed thelr argument
about the Herrick ranch deal It
proved what Wall had divined-this
Brad Lincoln was shrewd, cold, doubt-
ful and aggressive. Hays was not
distinguished for any cleverness. He
was merely an unscrupulous robber,
These men were going to clash. That
was Inevitable, Jim calculated.
Early the next day Jim Wall had
reason to be curious about the Dirty
Devil river, for the descent Into the
defiles of desert to reach it was a
most remarkable one. The trail, now
only a few dim old hoof tracks,
wound tortuously down and down
inte deep canyons.
The tracks Hays was following
failed and he got lost Ina labyrinthine
maze of deep washes Impossible to
climb, and scemingly impossible to
escape from,
Lincoln got off his horse and went
down the canyon, evidently search-
ing for a place to climb up to the
rim above, He returned In an as
sertive manner and, mountings called
for the others to follow,
“I hear the river an’ I'm makin’
for it,” said Lincoln,
Jim had heard a faint, low mur
mur, which had pzzuled him, and
which he had not recognized They
all followed Lincoln. Eventually he
led them Into a narrow, high-walled
canyon where ran the Dirty Devil
The water was muddy, but as it was
shallow the riders forded it without
more mishap than a wetting.
Still they were lost. There was
nothing to do, however, but work up
a side canyon. Hays led them to a
camp-site that never could have been
expected there,
“Fellers, I'll bet you somethin,” he
sald, before dismounting. “There's a
roost down In thet country where
never In Gawd's world could anybody
find us”
“Ha!
only our
Lincoln,
There never had been any love lost
between these two men, Jim conjec-
tured.
After supper Jim strolled away
from camp, down to where the can-
yon opened upon a nothingness of
space and blackness and depth. The
hour hung suspended between dusk
and night. He felt an overpowering
sense of the immensity of this region
of mountaln, gorge, plain and butte,
While Jim Wall meditated there in
the gathering darkness he was vis
ited by an inexplicable reluctance to
go on with this adventure.
CHAPTER III
Next morning they got a late start.
Nevertheless Hays assured Jim that
they would reach Star ranch towards
evening.
The trail led up a wide, shallow,
gravelly canyon full of green growths.
They rode on side by side. The trail
led Into a wider one, coming around
from the northeast. Jim did not miss
fresh hoof tracks, and Hays was not
far behind in discovering them.
“Woods full of riders,” he
tered.
“How long have
Hays?" inquired Jim.
“From Star ranch? Let's see,
Must be a couple of weeks, Too long,
by gosh!
Junction,
cled.
Green River”
“Did you expect to
Jack and Lincoln there?
“Shore.
fit. But I guess you'll more'n make up
for the other fellers."”
“Hope 1 don't disappoint you,” sald
Jim, dryly.
“Well, you haven't so far. Only
I'd feel better, Jim, if you'd come
clean with who you alr an’ what you
alr”
“Hays,
me on.”
“Shore, you're right. Reckon 1
figured everybody knew Hank Hays
Why, there's a town down here named
after me, Hankville.”
“A town? No one would think it"
“Wal, It ain't much to brag on. A
few cabins, the first of which I threw
up with my father years ago. In his
later years he was a prospector, We
lived there for years.
up here In the mountains
got to know the whole country except
An' when they did It'd be
bleached bones,” scoffed
mut-
you been gone,
meet Happy
I didn't ask you to take
hellhole of the Dirty Devil. , . .
old man was shot by rustlers™
“1 gathered you'd no use for rus
tiers, Well, then, Hays, how'd
you fall Into your present
business?
“Haw! Haw! Present line
& good one. Now, Jim, what do you
reckon thet line is7*
“You seem to be versatile,
lieved people of surplus cash.”
“Very nice put, Jim.
a low-down thief.
an honest man once, not so long nko.
women”
Jim, stirred a
crude pathos
little
confide further.
They rode
foothills, with ever-increasing evi
dence of fertility. But Jim's view
had been restricted for several hours,
permitting only occasional glimpses
up the gray-black slopes of the
Henrys and none at all of the low
country.
Therefore Jim was scarcely pre
pared to come round a corner and
out Into the open. Stunned by the
espled Hays walting for him ahead.
“Wal, pard, this here is Utah,” said
Hays, as Jim came up, and his volce
held a note of pride. “Round the
corner here you can
valley an’ ranch.
and thirty miles long an' half as
wide, narrowin' like a wedge, Now
let's ride on, Jim, an’ have a look
at it"
Across the mouth of Herrick's gray-
escarpment from which Jim gazed,
extended vast level green and black
lines of range, one above the other,
each projecting farther out into that
blue abyss,
“Down In there somewhere this
Hank Hays will find his robbers’
roost,” soliloquized Jim, and turned
his horse again into the trail,
Before late afternoon of that day
Jim Wall had seen as many cattle
dotting a verdant grass, watered
valley as ever he had viewed In the
great herds driven up from Texas tn
Abilene and Dodge, or on the Wind
River Range of Wyoming. A rouch
estimate exceeded ten thousand head,
He had taken Hays with a grain of
salt, But here was an Incomparable
range and here were the cattle, Ne
doubt, beyond the timbered bluff
across the valley lay another depres
sion like this one, and perhaps there
were many extending like spokes of a
wheel down from the great hub of
the Henry mountains. But where
was the market for this unparalleled
range?
{IT8
E
| HAT to wear “first
day of school” and the
| day after the day after and
{| for months to come in the
class room-—an ever i{m-
i portant problem which the
month of September never
fails to present as it sings
the swan-song of happy vacation time.
To doting mothers and others whose
responsibility it Is to see that the
| children of the household go suitably
and modishly appareled to school, the
message in regard to juvenile fashions
according to early fall showings is
sure to prove nothing than in-
| spirational. That designers are giving
| 80 much of their best efforts to create
altractive, at the same time practical
styles for little folks ought to be a
very encouraging sign for future cos
tuming.
The
less
trio of cunning models ple
fall Juvenile
charming
i llustration
style trends,
fashions were
from among
These
selected for
a host of
sters as displayed In recent style
| shows held by the Chicago Wholesale
The young miss stand-
ing to the left In the picture shows
erope, and green as the color eard
Then, too,
the
fabric realm. Being
school wear, for the little maiden can
enjoy a fresh blouse each day if she
so chooses,
gain brother and sister outfits are
advanced, in which cosumes showing
pattern are
sized to fit little girls of different ages,
In the instance of the brother and sis-
ter outfits pictured, plaid in a gay new
cotton weave will go off to school in
a manner to delight every eye that
beholds this adorable two-some,
duplication of color and
tively emphasized,
Speaking generally of style items
children's fashions one
with the radical color
little folks’ costumes.
dainty childish colors
girls are
blue,
an Increasing number of
floral
glory.
parade looks
costume with
prints considerable of
like 8 genuine Scotch
its red
blouse. Frocks of unusual
four colors,
nificant
strong
that woolens are
factor. Wool
on a wool-llke texture.
@. Western Newspaper Union,
SMARTLY SIMPLE
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
This frock of navy and white coin
dot print In a chulla crepe weave is
& good example of the new vogue
which 1s being so enthusiastically ac-
claimed for simplicity in one's daytime
apparel, It is just such a type as the
well-dressed school girl will wear, as
it will be equally at home in the class.
room or at an informal dormitory tea,
Just as good form in the office, for that
matter, Note that it ia styled without
pleated or ruffled elaboration, fancy
lingerie touches or any other detail
that would be difficult to handle In
laundering, for as most women have
found out to their joy and satisfac
tion these all-rayon crepes wash per
Rings
Bignet rings
Over
of London,
HAT TRENDS FOLLOW
Three trends are the outstanding hat
news. The first is the rule “over the
curls up In the back. The second is
swooping down from the crown, turn-
such 1910 fabrics as panne velvet,
beaver, soft drape felts and feathers,
Feathers are everywhere,
wings
from the back of a black felt. Five
little rose birds lie flattened on the
crown of another black felt
Muffs Assume New Shapes
for Fall and New Furs
Muffs for fall are assuming new
shapes and new furs.
There's just enough room in them
for your two hands, and after all
that's all the room a muff needs, when
you consider the situation impartially,
These are shown In sleek, flat furs,
for wear with furless coats and suits,
and they're the last whisper from the
last boat from Paris
Practically the same effect is gained
by the new muff gloves shown in re
cent displays of advance winter
styles.
These are of Angora knit, with a
long cuff which may be pulled down
over each hand, Place the hands to-
gether In the approved fashion for
muff-holding, and lol-you have a
CHURCH HYMNALS
DEAR TO HEARTS
OF WORSHIPERS
In every religious system, the sing-
ing of songs and hymns is an Impor-
tant part of the ritual, Some of the
finest poetry of the ages has gone In-
to the hymnals of the Christian
churches, and skilled musicians have
contributed the best of thelr art to
provide suitable tunes.
Naturally, the hymnals have been
changed, as the years went on, just
as have other forms and ceremonies
The change in hymnology, it must
be confessed, has not always been
for the best.
The president of the Hymn Lovers’
Boclety of America protests that
most of the hymns sung today are
atrocious, His society, he says, will
attempt to raise the standard in all
denominations,
The fact that a hymn is old does
not, of course, militate against it.
Nor does the fact that it is a rel
atively new production argue that it
There are old hymns that
Such hymns as “Rock of
*
God to “Loron:
Thee,’
somery, are
ago, and, it is to
NO ots #4
any geperatio
Along with them are songs, regard-
but, by comparison, relatively
g them is Wash-
Me Walk With
breathes resign:
steadfastness of
devotion.
The aim and purpose «
Lovers’ society
One hopes, however, that there will
be no wholesale deletion of the old
and popular hymns to make room for
modern ones, just on the score that
the old hymns are old
new ones are new.~—Ohlo State Jour
» 3
and that the
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Florida Times Union,
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