Buckskin Run (Ss) (1981) Read Free Page B

plexus.
    Bob Carr had not expected to be hit. The blow wa s sudden, explosive and knocked out every bit of wind h e had.
    "Get him, Bob!" somebody shouted, but as Bob opene d his mouth to gas ? for air, Rod Morgan broke his jaw with a right.
    Rod Morgan turned, and mounted his horse. From th e saddle he looked back. "I didn't come looking for trouble , and I am not asking for it. I'm a quiet man, minding m y own affairs."
    Yet when he rode out of town he knew he had opened a feud with the Block C. It was trouble he did not want, an d for which he had no time, but whether he liked it or no t he had a fight on his hands.
    When he returned to his cabin a few days later, afte r checking some cattle in the upper canyon, there was a notice nailed to his door to get out and stay out. Then hi s cabin was set afire and much of his gear burned. p d Tolbert picked a fight with him and got soundl y whipped, but a few days later Tolbert was murdered i n buckskin Run. Rod Morgan took to packing a gun wherever he went.
    As is the case with any person who lives alone, or i s different, stories were circulated about him, and he becam e suspect to many people who did not know, him and ha d never so much as seen him. Behind it there seemed malignant influence, but he had no idea who o r, what was directing it.
    Two things happened at once. A letter came from Aloma and Ned Weisl came into the canyon. He had hesitated to suggest that Lorna come west with the situation , unsettled as it was, yet from her letter he understood wha t her situation must be. He had written, explaining what h e could and inviting her to come.
    Weisl was a strange litt le man. Strange, yet also charm ing and interesting. From the first he and Rod hit it off well, and so he told Rod about the g o ld.
    "Three men came west together," Weisl explained.
    "Somewhere out in Nevada they struck it rich. The stor y was they had a hundred and twenty thousand in gol d when they started back. They built a special wagon with a false bottom in it, where they hid the gold. Then, wit h three wagons in all, they headed east.
    "They got as far as Buckskin Run, and there, accordin g to the story, Tarran Kop ? and his gang hit them. Th e three men were killed, and that was the end of it, onl y there was another story. With gold there nearly always is.
    "One of Kopp's gang was a friend of mine years later , and when asked about it he claimed t hey had killed nobod y in Buckskin Run, nor had they stolen any gold. At th e time it all took place they were in Mexico, and he showe d me an old newspaper story to prove it."
    "So what became o f the gold? And who did kill th e people in B uckskin Run?
    "Nobody knows who killed them or how. Nobody know s what became of the gold, either. A hundred and twent y thousand in gold isn't the easiest thing to carry around in a country where people are inclined to be curious. According to the prices at the time, that would be right aroun d three hundred pounds of gold. There are people who wer e right interested in that gold who claim it never left Buckskin Run!
    "There's others who declare nobody went into the canyon from the lower end, and nobody knows who burie d the three who died there. Markers were set over th e graves, and on each one those words 'No visible mark o f death on these bodies.' "
    "What do you thinks"
    'That," Weisl said, smiling with puckish humor, "i s another question. I've an idea, but it's a fantastic one. Yo u hold the land now. Will you let me look around'? I wil l give you one-third of whatever I find."
    "Make it half ."
    Weisl shrugged. "Why not? There will be enough fo r both."
    Ned Weisl did not return to the cabin, so Rod had gon e looking for him. He did not distrust the little man, but h e was worried.
    He found Ned Weisl -- dead. He had been shot in th e back.
    Rod Morgan knew they believed him guilty of the murder, as well as of the killing of Ad Tolbert. No one accuse d him, although veiled references were made. Only today ,