Kindred Spirits

: The Trail To Yesterday

Looking rather more rugged than when he had arrived at the station at

Lazette two weeks before, his face tanned, but still retaining the smooth,

sleek manner which he had brought with him from the East, David Dowd

Langford sat in a big rocking chair on the lower gallery of the Double R

ranchhouse, mentally appraising Duncan, who was seated near by, his

profile toward Langford.



"So this Ben Doubler has bee
a thorn in your side?" questioned Langford

softly.



"That's just it," returned Duncan, with an evil smile. "He has been and

still is. And now I'm willing him to you. I don't know when I've been more

tickled over getting rid of a man."



"Well," said Langford, leaning farther back in his chair and clasping his

hands, resting his chin on his thumbs, his lips curving with an ironic

smile, "I suppose I ought to feel extremely grateful to you--especially

since when I was negotiating the purchase of the ranch you didn't hint of

a nester being on the property."



"I didn't sell Doubler to you," said Duncan.



Langford's smile was shallow. "But I get him just the same," he said. "As

a usual thing it is pretty hard to get rid of a nester, isn't it?"



"I haven't been able to get rid of this one," returned Duncan. "He don't

seem to be influenced by anything I say, or do. Some obstinate."



"Tried everything?"



"Yes."



"The law?"



Duncan made a gesture of disgust. "The law!" he said. "What for? I haven't

been such a fool. He's got as much right to the open range as I have--as

you will have. I bought a section, and he took up a quarter section. The

only difference between us is that I own mine--or did own it until you

bought it--and he ain't proved on his. He is on the other side of the

river and I'm on this. Or rather," he added with a grin, "he's on the

other side and you are on this. He's got the best grass land in the

country--and plenty of water."



"His rights, then," remarked Langford slowly, "equal yours--or mine. That

is," he added, "he makes free use of the grass and water."



"That's so," agreed Duncan.



"Which reduces the profits of the Double R," pursued Langford.



"I reckon that's right."



"And you knew that when you sold me the Double R," continued Langford, his

voice smooth and silky.



Duncan flashed a grin at the imperturbable face of the new owner. "I

reckon I wasn't entirely ignorant of it," he said.



"That's bad business," remarked Langford in a detached manner.



"What is?" Duncan's face reddened slightly. "You mean that it was bad

business for me to sell when I knowed Doubler owned land near the Double

R?" There was a slight sneer in his voice as he looked at Langford.

"You've never been stung before, eh? Well, there's always a first time for

everything, and I reckon--according to what I've heard--that you ain't

been exactly no Sunday school scholar yourself."



Langford's eyes were narrowed to slits. "I meant that it was bad business

to allow Doubler's presence on the Two Forks to affect the profits of the

Double R. Perhaps I have been stung--as you call it--but if I have been I

am not complaining."



Duncan's eyes glinted with satisfaction. He had expected a burst of anger

from the new owner when he should discover that the value of his property

was impaired by the presence of a nester near it, but the new owner

apparently harbored no resentment over this unforeseen obstacle.



"I'm admitting," said Duncan, "that Doubler being there is bad business.

But how are you going to prevent him staying there?"



"Have you tried"--Langford looked obliquely at Duncan, drawling

significantly--"force?"



"I have tried everything, I told you."



Duncan gazed at Langford with a new interest. It was the first time since

the new owner had come to the Double R that he had dropped the mask of

sleek smoothness behind which he concealed his passions. Even now the

significance was more in his voice than in his words, and Duncan began to

comprehend that Langford was deeper than he had thought.



"I'm glad to see that you appreciate the situation," he said, smiling

craftily. "Some men are mighty careful not to do anything to hurt anybody

else."



Langford favored Duncan with a steady gaze, which the latter returned, and

both smiled.



"Business," presently said Langford with a quiet significance which was

not lost on Duncan, "good business, demands the application of certain

methods which are not always agreeable to the opposition." He took another

sly glance at Duncan. "There ought to be a good many ways of making it

plain to Doubler that he isn't wanted in this section of the country," he

insinuated.



"I've tried to make some of the ways plain," said Duncan with a cold grin.

"I got to the end of my string and hadn't any more things to try. That's

why I decided to sell. I wanted to get away where I wouldn't be bothered.

But I reckon that you'll be able to fix up something for him."



During the two weeks that Langford had been at the Double R Duncan had

studied him from many angles and this exchange of talk had convinced him

that he had not erred in his estimate of the new owner's character. As he

had hinted to Langford, he had tried many plans to rid the country of the

nester, and he remembered a time when Doubler had seen through one of his

schemes to fasten the crime of rustling on him and had called him to

account, and the recollection of what had happened at the interview

between them was not pleasant. He had not bothered Doubler since that

time, though there had lingered in his heart a desire for revenge. Many

times, on some pretext or other, he had tried to induce his men to clash

with Doubler, but without success. It had appeared to him that his men

suspected his motives and deliberately avoided the nester.



With a secret satisfaction he had watched Langford's face this morning

when he had told him that Doubler had long been suspected of rustling;

that the men of the Double R had never been able to catch him in the act,

but that the number of cattle missing had seemed to indicate the nester's

guilt.



Doubler's land was especially desirable, he had told Langford, and this

was the truth. It was a quarter section lying adjacent to good water, and

provided the best grass in the vicinity. Duncan had had trouble with

Doubler over the water rights, too, but had been unsuccessful in ousting

him because of the fact that since Doubler controlled the land he also

controlled the water rights of the river adjoining it. The Two Forks was

the only spot which could be used by thirsty cattle in the vicinity, for

the river at other points was bordered with cliffs and hills and was

inaccessible. And Doubler would not allow the Double R cattle to water at

the Two Forks, though he had issued this edict after his trouble with the

Double R owner. Duncan, however, did not explain this to Langford.



The latter looked at him with a smooth smile. "It is plain from what you

have been telling me," he said, "that there is no possibility of you

succeeding in reaching a satisfactory agreement with Doubler, and

therefore I expect that I will have to deal with him personally. I shall

ride over some day and have a talk with him."



The prospect of becoming involved with the nester gave Langford a throb of

joy. All his life he had been engaged in the task of overcoming business

obstacles and he had reached the conclusion that the situation which now

confronted him was nothing more or less than business. Of course it was

not the business to which he had been accustomed, but it offered the

opportunity for cold-blooded, merciless planning for personal gain; there

were the elements of profit and loss; it would give him an opportunity to

apply his peculiar genius, to grapple, to battle, and finally overthrow

the opposing force.



Though he had allowed Duncan to see nothing of the emotions that rioted

within him over the discovery that he had been victimized by the

latter--at least to the extent of misrepresentation in the matter of the

nester--there was in his mind a feeling of deep resentment against the

former owner; he felt that he could no longer trust him, but for the sake

of learning all the details of the new business he felt that he would have

to make the best of a bad bargain. He had already arranged with Duncan to

remain at the Double R throughout the season, but he purposed to leave him

out of any dealings that he might have with Doubler. He smiled as he

looked at Duncan.



"I like this country," he said, leaning back in his chair and drawing a

deep breath. "I was rather afraid at first that I would find it dull after

the East. But this situation gives promise of action."



Duncan was watching him with a crafty smile. "You reckon on running him

off, or----" He leered at Langford significantly.



The latter's face was impassive, his smile dry. "Eh?" he said,

abstractedly, as though his thoughts had been wandering from the subject.

"Why, I really haven't given a thought to the method by which I ought to

deal with Doubler. Perhaps," he added with a genial smile, "I may make a

friend of him."



He observed Duncan's scowl and his smile grew.



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