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miles with seven holes in him after his Galeyville fight! Just goes to show
yuh what a woman ll do to a man!
When a Texan Takes Over
When Matt Ryan saw the cattle tracks on Mocking Bird, he swung his horse over
under the trees and studied the terrain with a careful eye. For those cattle
tracks meant rustlers were raiding the KY range.
For a generation the big KY spread had been the law in the Slumbering Hill
country, but now the old man was dying and the wolves were coming out of the
breaks to tear at the body of the ranch.
And there was nobody to stop them, nobody to step into the big tracks old Tom
Hitch had made, nobody to keep law in the hills now that old Tom was dying. He
had built an empire of land cattle, but he had also brought law into the
outlaw country, brought schools and a post office, and the beginnings of
thriving settlement.
But they had never given up, not Indian Kelly nor Lee Dunn. They d waited
back in the hills, bitter with their own poison, waiting for the old man to
die.
All the people in the Slumbering Hill country knew it, and they had looked to
Fred Hitch, the old man s adopted son, to take up the job when the old man put
it down. But Fred 77 was an easygoing young man who liked to drink and gamble.
And he spent too much time with Dutch Gerlach, the KY foreman ... and who had
a good ^w for Dutch?
This is the turn, Red, Ryan told his horse. They know the old man will
never ride again, so they have started rustling.
It was not just a few head ... there must have been forty or more in this
bunch, and no attempt to cover the trail.
In itself that was strange. It seemed they were not even worried about what
Gerlach might do ... and what would he do? Dutch Gerlach was a tough man. He
had shown it more than once. Of course, nobody wanted any part of Lee Dunn,
not even Gerlach.
Matt Ryan rode on, but kept a good background behind him. He had no desire to
skyline himself with rustlers around.
For three months now he had been working his placer claim in Pima Canyon,
just over the ridge from Mocking Bird. He had a good show of color andwith
persistent work he made better than cowhand s wages. But lately he was doing
better. Twice in the past month he had struck pockets that netted him nearly a
hundred dollars each. The result was that his last month had brought him in
the neighborhood of three hundred in gold.
Matt Ryan knew the hills and the men who rode them. None of them knew him.
Matt had a streak of Indian in his nature if not in his blood, and he knew how
to leave no trail and travel without being seen. He was around, but not
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obvious.
They knew somebody was there, but who and why or where they did not know, and
he liked it that way. Once a month he came out of the hills for supplies, but
he never rode to the same places. Only this time he was coming back to Hanna s
Stage Station. He told himself it was because it was close, but down inside he
knew it was because of Kitty Hanna.
She was something who stepped out of your dreams, a lovely girl of twenty in
a cotton dress andwith carefully done hair, large, dark eyes, and a mouth that
would set a man to being restless. ...
Matt Ryan had stopped by two months before to eat a woman-cooked meal and to
buy 79 supplies, and he had lingered over his coffee.
He was a tall, wide-shouldered young man with a slim, long-legged body and
hands that swung wide of his narrow hips. He had a wedge-shaped face and green
eyes, and a way of looking at you with faint humor in his eyes.
He carried a gun, but he carried it tucked into his waistband, and he carried
a Winchester that he never left on his saddle.
Nobody knew him around the Slumbering Hills, nobody knew him anywhere this
side of Texas ... they remembered him there. His name was a legend on the
Nueces.
Big Red ambled on down the trail and Matt watched the country and studied the
cattle tracks. He would remember those horse tracks, too. Finally the cow
tracks turned off into a long valley, and when he sat his horse he could see
dust off over there where Thumb Butte lifted against the sky.
Indian Kelly ... not Dunn this time, although Dunn might have given the ^w.
Kitty was pouring coffee when he came in and she felt her heart give a tiny
leap. It had only been once, but she remembered, for when his eyes touched her
that time, it made her feel the woman in her ... a quick excitement such as
she felt now.
Why was that? This man whom she knew nothing about?
Why should he make her feel this way?
He put his hat on a hook and sat down, and she saw that his hair was freshly
combed and still damp from the water he had used. That meant he had stopped
back there by the creek ... it was unlike a drifting cowhand, or had it been
for her?
When he looked up she knew it had, and she liked the smile he had and the way
his eyes could not seem to leave her face. Eggs, he said, about four of
them, and whatever vegetable you have, and a slab of beef. I m a hungry man.
She filled his cup, standing very close to him, and she saw the red mount
under his dark skin, and when she moved away it was slowly, and there was a
little something in her walk. Had her father seen it, he would have been
angry, but this man would not be angry, and he would know it was for him.
Dutch Gerlach came in, a big, brawny
man with bold eyes and careless hands. He had a
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wide, flat face and a confident, knowing manner that
she hated. Fred Hitch was with him. 81
They looked at Ryan, then looked again. He was that sort of man, and
something about him irritated Gerlach. But the big foreman of the KY said
nothing. He was watching Kitty.
Gerlach seated himself and shoved his hat back on his head. When his meal was
put before him, he began to eat, his eyes following the girl. Fred seemed
preoccupied; he kept scowling a little, and he said something under his breath
to Dutch.
Gerlach looked over at Matt Ryan.
Ain t seen you around before, he said.
Ryan merely glanced at him, and continued eating. The eggs tasted good, and
the coffee was better than his own.
Hear what I said? Gerlach demanded.
Ryan looked up, studying the bigger man
calmly. Yes, he said, and the remark didn t require an answer.
Gerlach started to speak, then devoted himself to his food.
That bay horse yours? Fred Hitch asked suddenly.
Ryan nodded ... they had seen the horse, then? That was one trouble with Big
Red, he was a blood bay, and he stood out. It would have been better to have a
dun or a buckskin ... even a black.
It s mine, he said.
Yet their curiosity and Fred s uneasiness
puzzled him. Why should Fred be bothered by him?
Don t take to strangers around here, Gerlach said suddenly. You move on.
Ryan said nothing, although he felt something inside of him grow poised and
waiting. No trouble, Matt, he warned himself, not here ...
Hear me? Gerlach s voice rose.
We ve missed some cows.
Kitty had come to the door, and her father was behind her. Hanna was a
peace-loving man, but a stern one.
I heard you, Ryan replied quietly, an if you ve missed cows, ride toward
Thumb Butte.
Fred Hitch jerked as if he had been slapped, and Gerlach s face went slowly
dark. His eyes had been truculent, now they were cautious, studying. What s
that mean? he asked, his voice low.
Ain t that where Indian Kelly 83 hangs out? Ryan asked mildly.
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You seem to know. Gerlach was suddenly cold.
I figure you re a rustler your own self!
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