Oh, You Tex!

Oh, You Tex!, by William
Macleod Raine

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oh, You Tex!, by William Macleod
Raine This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Oh, You Tex!
Author: William Macleod Raine
Release Date: August 15, 2007 [EBook #22328]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OH, YOU
TEX! ***

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at http://www.pgdp.net

BOOKS BY WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE Published By
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
THE SHERIFF'S SON. Illustrated. THE YUKON TRAIL. Illustrated.

STEVE YEAGER. Illustrated. A MAN FOUR-SQUARE. With colored
frontispiece. OH, YOU TEX!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OH, YOU TEX!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: TEXAS]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OH, YOU TEX!
By WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE
Author of "A Man Four-Square," "The Sheriff's Son," "The Yukon
Trail," Etc.
Boston and New York HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The
Riverside Press Cambridge 1920
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT, 1919, by THE STORY-PRESS CORPORATION
COPYRIGHT, 1920, by WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TO SAM F. DUNN OF AMARILLO, TEXAS INSPECTOR OF
CATTLE IN THE DAYS OF THE LONGHORN DRIVES TO
WHOSE EXPERIENCE AND GENEROUS CRITICISM I AM
INDEBTED FOR AID IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS BOOK
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS

I. THE LINE-RIDER 3 II. "I'LL BE SEVENTEEN, COMING
GRASS" 12 III. TEX TAKES AN INTEREST 18 IV. TEX
GRANDSTANDS 26 V. CAPTAIN ELLISON HIRES A HAND 38 VI.
CLINT WADLEY'S MESSENGER 44 VII. THE DANCE 54 VIII.
RUTHERFORD MAKES A MISTAKE 62 IX. MURDER IN THE
CHAPARRAL 69 X. "A DAMNED POOR APOLOGY FOR A MAN"
75 XI. ONE TO FOUR 79 XII. TEX REARRANGES THE SEATING
89 XIII. "ONLY ONE MOB, AIN'T THERE?" 99 XIV. JACK
SERVES NOTICE 108 XV. A CLOSE SHAVE 113 XVI. WADLEY
GOES HOME IN A BUCKBOARD 122 XVII. OLD-TIMERS 132
XVIII. A SHOT OUT OF THE NIGHT 138 XIX. TRAPPED 146 XX.
KIOWAS ON THE WARPATH 155 XXI. TEX TAKES A LONG
WALK 166 XXII. THE TEST 174 XXIII. A SHY YOUNG MAN
DINES 179 XXIV. TEX BORROWS A BLACKSNAKE 184 XXV.
"THEY'RE RUNNIN' ME OUTA TOWN" 191 XXVI. FOR
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES 199 XXVII. CLINT FREES HIS MIND
203 XXVIII. ON A COLD TRAIL 211 XXIX. BURNT BRANDS 219
XXX. ROGUES DISAGREE 226 XXXI. A PAIR OF DEUCES 237
XXXII. THE HOLD-UP 245 XXXIII. THE MAN WITH THE
YELLOW STREAK 251 XXXIV. RAMONA GOES
DUCK-HUNTING 258 XXXV. THE DESERT 266 XXXVI. HOMER
DINSMORE ESCORTS RAMONA 272 XXXVII. ON A HOT TRAIL
279 XXXVIII. DINSMORE TO THE RESCUE 287 XXXIX. A CRY
OUT OF THE NIGHT 292 XL. GURLEY'S GET-AWAY 296 XLI.
HOMING HEARTS 302 XLII. A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 310
XLIII. TEX RESIGNS 319 XLIV. DINSMORE GIVES
INFORMATION 328 XLV. RAMONA DESERTS HER FATHER 332
XLVI. LOOSE THREADS 338
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OH, YOU TEX!
CHAPTER I
THE LINE-RIDER

Day was breaking in the Panhandle. The line-rider finished his
breakfast of buffalo-hump, coffee, and biscuits. He had eaten heartily,
for it would be long after sunset before he touched food again.
Cheerfully and tunelessly he warbled a cowboy ditty as he packed his
supplies and prepared to go.
"Oh, it's bacon and beans most every day, I'd as lief be eatin' prairie
hay."
While he washed his dishes in the fine sand and rinsed them in the
current of the creek he announced jocundly to a young world glad with
spring:
"I'll sell my outfit soon as I can, Won't punch cattle for no damn' man."
The tin cup beat time against the tin plate to accompany a kind of
shuffling dance. Jack Roberts was fifty miles from nowhere, alone on
the desert, but the warm blood of youth set his feet to moving. Why
should he not dance? He was one and twenty, stood five feet eleven in
his socks, and weighed one hundred and seventy pounds of bone, sinew,
and well-packed muscle. A son of blue skies and wide, wind-swept
spaces, he had never been ill in his life. Wherefore the sun-kissed world
looked good to him.
He mounted a horse picketed near the camp and rode out to a remuda
of seven cow-ponies grazing in a draw. Of these he roped one and
brought it back to camp, where he saddled it with deft swiftness.
The line-rider swung to the saddle and put his pony at a jog-trot. He
topped a hill and looked across the sunlit mesas which rolled in long
swells far as the eye could see. The desert flowered gayly with the
purple, pink, and scarlet blossoms of the cacti and with the white,
lilylike buds of the Spanish bayonet. The yucca and the prickly pear
were abloom. He