THE TRAIL TO TOMBSTONE 11

the next morning billy saddled his horse and rode up the wagon trail to gleeson. he would meet the two wagon loads of stuff that dale had bought and show them the way down to the ranch. dale caught his saddle horse and was brushing him in preperation of saddling when judd wilkinson rode into the yard leading his race horse.dale didnt say anything as he watched wilkinson stare about. he took in all the improvements and especially the little stream of water. when dale stepped around the back of his horse judd looked up." you got my ranch looking pretty good when i get back from the horse races ill move in." dale amiled" dont count on it. you dont have a ranch, i do." " if you think that quit claim i gave you will hold up your nuts. this is my ranch and it will stay mine."judd leaned a bit forward in the saddle to make his point. "your right, the quit claim was worthless.you gambled a ranch you didnt own.. but after a trip to the county seat i got everything cleared up.. this ranch, the brand and all the cattle are mine. so i advise you move on. go on to the horse races and dont come back this way."dale unloaded on jud. " i built all this its mine!"wilkinson almost screamed. " no its mine now move along, i got work to do." dale turned to his horse to saddle him. "wilkinson sat there boiling mad. he started to reach for his side arm, but before he could touch it dale laid his rifle across the back of his horse."you like it so much here ill see you get buried heree if you touch that gun. now git! and dont come back." wilkinson slowley turned his horse and started to ride away glareing at dale all the time" ime comming back and ill bring some help this ranch is mine!" dale said no more but kept the rifle trained on wilkinson until he rode out of range. he saddled his horse and stuck the rifle down into the saddle scabbord. he would have to keep a eye out for the crooked gambler. he steped on his horse and rode out to the south he was going to try and find some cows.he had no idea where the cattle ran or if they were still around.. he hopedm there was some natural water down below but he wasnt sure.the san pedro river was 20 miles or so to the west. it had a good stream of water most of the time.. he hoped his cattle had water closer than that.- a couple of miles from the house he started seeing cattle tracks.. he kept going south following the tracks.. all the tracks drifted south . occasionally he would see cattle grazeing on the ridges on either side of him. they didnt seem wild they simply stood and watched him ride by. the faarther he rode south the thicker the tracks became. soon he rounded a bend in the arroyo he was following and he could see strings of cattle climbing up the slope up ahead. he came to a place there was a drop off over solid rockk of 20 feet ot so. he had to climb the bank and ride around. while up on the slope he looked down and saw a large pool of water. from the rock face of the drop off water was trickling and running down into the pool. dale rode on down to the pools edge and let his horse drink. he was amazed. he didnt know how many cattle this pool would support but it looked like a large amount were drinking here. he needed to lay claim to this before some one else found it. it could be the key to his cattle business. he turned back to ward home.