The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sawtooth Ranch, by B. M. Bower

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Title: Sawtooth Ranch

Author: B. M. Bower

Release Date: April 2, 2009 [EBook #28482]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAWTOOTH RANCH ***

Produced by Al Haines

SAWTOOTH RANCH

BY

B. M. BOWER

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
LONDON

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

JEAN OF THE LAZY A
GOOD INDIAN
THE UPHILL CLIMB
THE GRINGOS
THE FLYING U'S LAST STAND
THE PHANTOM HERD
THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX
SKYRIDER

This Book was First Published in Great Britain . . . March 10th, 1921

First Issued in this Cheap Form . . . 1922

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. LITTLE FISH
II. THE ENCHANTMENT OF LONG DISTANCE
III. REALITY IS WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING
IV. "SHE'S A GOOD GIRL WHEN SHE AIN'T CRAZY"
V. A DEATH "BY ACCIDENT"
VI. LONE ADVISES SILENCE
VII. THE MAN AT WHISPER
VIII. "IT TAKES NERVE JUST TO HANG ON"
IX. THE EVIL EYE OF THE SAWTOOTH
X. ANOTHER SAWTOOTH "ACCIDENT"
XI. SWAN TALKS WITH HIS THOUGHTS
XII. THE QUIRT PARRIES THE FIRST BLOW
XIII. LONE TAKES HIS STAND
XIV. "FRANK'S DEAD"
XV. SWAN TRAILS A COYOTE
XVI. THE SAWTOOTH SHOWS ITS HAND
XVII. YACK DON'T LIE
XVIII. "I THINK AL WOODRUFF'S GOT HER"
XIX. SWAN CALLS FOR HELP
XX. KIDNAPPED
XXI. "OH, I COULD KILL YOU!"
XXII. "YACK, I LICK YOU GOOD IF YOU BARK"
XXIII. "I COULDA LOVED THIS LITTLE GIRL"
XXIV. ANOTHER STORY BEGINS

SAWTOOTH RANCH

CHAPTER I

LITTLE FISH

Quirt Creek flowed sluggishly between willows which sagged none too
gracefully across its deeper pools, or languished beside the rocky
stretches that were bone dry from July to October, with a narrow
channel in the centre where what water there was hurried along to the
pools below. For a mile or more, where the land lay fairly level in a
platter-like valley set in the lower hills, the mud that rimmed the
pools was scored deep with the tracks of the "TJ up-and-down" cattle,
as the double monogram of Hunter and Johnson was called.

A hard br