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"The war ruined the Suttons, same as so otten the Sutton range an' after a few years he began to accumulate stock In those days every cattleman was a little bit of a thief Every cattleman drove in an' branded calves he couldn't sas his Wal, the Isbels were the strongest cattle raisers in that country An' I laid a trap for Lee Jorth, caught him in the act of brandin' calves of mine I'd marked, an' I proved him a thief I made him a rustler I ruined hi on the draw, at least against an Isbel He left the country He had friends an' relatives an' they started hiot in with a shady crowd He went from bad to worse an' then he cae in proud, beautiful Ellen Sutton, an' how she still worshiped Jorth, it shore drove me near mad between pity an' hate Wal, I reckon in a Texan hate outlives any other feelin' There caed Like ht I run across Jorth an' a card-sharp friend He fleeced me We quarreled Guns were thrown I killed ers had come into existence An', son, when I said I never was run out of Texas I wasn't holdin' to strict truth I rode out on a hoss
"I went to Oregon There I married soon, an' there Bill an' Guy were born TheirAn' next I married your mother, Jean She had some Indian blood, which, for all I could see, ave me the only happiness I ever knew You reon I reckon I reat blunder when I moved to Arizona But the cattle country had always called me I had heard of this wild Tonto Basin an' how Texans were settlin' there An' Jiarden spot of the West Wal, it is An' your o Lee Jorth drifted into the Tonto An', strange toaboot a year or so after his co rode up fro with some other sheepmen he lives up in the Rim canyons Somewhere back in the wild brakes is the hidin' place of the Hash Knife Gang Nobody but me, I reckon, associates Colonel Jorth, as he's called, with Daggs an' his gang Maybe Blaisdell an' a few others have a hunch But that's no rievance with the cattlemen But what could be settled by a square consideration for the good of all an' the future Jorth will never settle He'll never settle because he is now no longer an honest s I cain't prove this, son, but I know it I saw it in Jorth's face when I met him that day with Greaves I saw more I shore sahat he is up to He'd never meet me at an even break He's dead set on usin' this sheep an' cattle feud to ruin my family an' me, even as I ruined him But he means more, Jean This will be a war between Texans, an' a bloody war There are bad et shot in Texas Jorth will have sooin' to wait to be sheeped off our range an' to be murdered from ambush?"