Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/161

 here in the Big Country who 's been sniping unpopular sheepmen and water-hole homesteaders with a Long Tom. Maybe you can tell me, just to satisfy my curiosity, what 's been the effect of this man's private feud; how—um—have people taken it?"

Original kept his unwavering eyes upon Von Tromp as he rolled a fresh cigarette and lighted it.

"Effect?" he echoed. "Effect 's been to raise merry hell. Everybody says the Killer collects for every stone found on a murdered man's forehead an' collects from"

"It's a gross libel!" the visitor almost shouted. "No association of reputable business men would subsidize murder."

"That 's what I like to believe, too," Original added simply. Von Tromp quickly regained his aplomb.

"I merely cite that instance to show how a desperate man may sometimes be driven to take the law into his own hands when, as doubtless this Killer, so called, found it to be his experience, the courts fail him. Exactly! I gather in this case this misguided man's acts have intensified the feeling against the cattlemen through popular misconception of the