the Rustlers Of West Fork (1951) by Louis - Hopalong 03 L'amour Read Free Book Online Page A

As much as Dick Jordan hated the man who had moved in on him when he was sick and helpless, he did not sell that man short.
    Avery Sparr had learned his lessons in a hard, fierce school. He coupled the shrewdness of a cunning lawyer with the utter ruthlessness of an Apache. On every hand Jordan saw evidences of his careful planning. And with him was the immaculate, intelligent, and attractive Soper, the man who fronted for Sparr in most of his contacts with outside people. Soper inspired confidence and friendship wherever he went, and the steel-trap brain beneath the smooth, friendly surface was not at all evident to those who did business with him or knew him but slightly. The two made a combination that was difficult to touch, and where the loophole would be found Jordan could not guess.
    Had he been on his feet and able when Sparr first began his plan to take over the vast holdings of the Circle J, much might have been avoided.
    Crippled, and in the shadows between life and death, he had been helpless. Avery Sparr had come to the Circle J as a drifting rider, and, as all such, he was granted the hospitality of the ranch.
    He came to spend the night, asked to stay on for some hunting, then helped with the roundup. Hands were few and hard to get in this Apacheridden country, so his help had been gratefully accepted.
    Sparr's reputation was known to him, but the man was quiet and friendly without pushing himself forward. Then Charley Kitchen, Jordan's experienced and able foreman, was killed in a gun battle at Horse Springs. Nobody at the time thought to connect it with Sparr's presence, for the two had apparently no connection. Johnny Rebb and Bizco had been the killers, and how the fight started nobody knew, but Kitchen had been caught in a cross fire and killed instantly.
    Three days afterward four of the oldest hands on the ranch had been ambushed, supposedly by Apaches.
    Avery Sparr's presence then had seemed a favorable thing, and he had stayed on, refusing wages, but doing a cowhand's work. Then had come Jordan's accident, and almost without realizing it, Jordan had transmitted orders to the men through Sparr. While Jordan hovered between life and death, and while Pamela was worried sick and busy with nursing him, Avery Sparr had quietly taken over. On the flimsy basis that Jordan had given him orders for the crew, he declared himself foreman, stated that Jordan had made him foreman, and defied anyone to call him a fiar. Among the crew of the Circle J were some hard hands, but the toughest of them had been killed in the ambush and none of those left dared challenge the truth of Sparr's statement.
    At first he had been merely efficient. He had come to Pamela time and again to ask about her father and offer to help in any way. The distraught girl thought him only friendly until too late. Her first realization of what was happening came when she found that both Bizco and Johnny Rebb had been employed by Sparr.
    She ordered them fired, and Sparr protested. When she insisted, he agreed, and she had seen no more of them for several days. In those days three of the older men quit. They were paid off by Sparr and sent on their way. One of them talked loudly at Horse Springs and was found dead in an alley a few hours later.
    Quiet hung over the ranch. Jordan was better, but he was now aware, for the first time, that he was to be crippled for the remainder of his life. Only then, weeks after Sparr's plan for controlling the ranch had been conceived, did Jordan become aware of what had happened. And he was helpless to do anything. He tried sending a message to the sheriff, and it never left the ranch. Pamela tried to go herself, and found the house guarded, and was not allowed to leave.
    Prisoners in their own home, with a half-dozen more of Sparr's tough hands on the ranch, Avery Sparr came to them himself and in a quiet tone told them the situation.
    He was in the saddle. If they did what he asked them and obeyed orders without