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and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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                          The SHERIFF OF BADGER

                   _A TALE OF THE SOUTHWEST BORDERLAND_

                           BY GEORGE PATTULLO

                               ILLUSTRATED


    D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
    NEW YORK AND LONDON: MCMXII

    COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
    D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

    Copyright, 1909, 1911, by The Curtis Publishing Company
    Copyright, 1911, 1912, by Street and Smith
    Copyright, 1910, by the Pearson Publishing Company
    _Published June, 1912_
    Printed in the United States of America

    Acknowledgments are due to _The Saturday Evening
    Post_, _Pearson's Magazine_ and _The Popular Magazine_
    for permission to use some of the material in this book.


    TO
    A. W. BALLANTYNE


[Illustration: The Sheriff of Badger]




CONTENTS


I LAFE JOHNSON ARRIVES AT LAZY L RANCH

II CERTAIN COMPLICATIONS RESULT

III CONCERNING A BABY'S WAIL

IV OUT OF A JOB

V AN INCIPIENT LOVE AFFAIR

VI DISCOMFITURE OF A GUNFIGHTER

VII JOHNSON IS ELECTED SHERIFF OF BADGER

VIII A FEUD AND WHAT CAME OF IT

IX AN INQUEST AND A SURPRISE

X A JOURNEY TO SATAN'S KINGDOM

XI A WAITRESS TO THE RESCUE

XII THE SHERIFF SETTLES A CONJUGAL DISPUTE

XIII AND HETTY COMES TO BADGER TO LIVE

XIV THE SHERIFF ENSNARED

XV HOW HE WON A WIFE

XVI THE GUNFIGHTER RETURNS AND DELAYS WEDDING

XVII JOHNSON MEETS A FRIEND OF HETTY'S

XVIII A SACRIFICE AND ITS PUNISHMENT

XIX BUFFALO JIM GIVES WISE COUNSEL

XX THE SHERIFF PURGES TOWN OF BADGER

XXI A FIGHT IN THE DARK

XXII CAPTURE OF MOFFATT, THE GUNMAN

XXIII THE WEDDING

XXIV THE BRIDE IS LOST

XXV JOHNSON BECOMES BOSS OF THE ANVIL

XXVI ENTERS TROUBLE

XXVII A CLEVER WOMAN AND A MISUNDERSTANDING

XXVIII RECONCILIATION--MRS. VINING EXPERIENCES A CHANGE OF HEART

XXIX LAFE HELPS A DESERTER

XXX AND DISCOVERS HETTY'S BROTHER

XXXI GREAT EXPECTATIONS IN JOHNSON FAMILY

XXXII BIRTH OF LAFE JOHNSON, JR.

XXXIII JOHNSON ONCE MORE IN ROLE OF SHERIFF

XXXIV HE ARRESTS A SUSPECT

XXXV THE DEATH DICE

XXXVI RESPONSIBILITY SITS HEAVILY ON LAFE

XXXVII BUT THE BOSS AGAIN PROVES HIS METTLE

XXXVIII HOW A MOFFATT HENCHMAN WAS OUSTED

XXXIX NEWS FROM BUFFALO JIM

XL HE ARRIVES TO VISIT THE JOHNSONS

XLI A NIGHT RIDE AND DEATH OF BUFFALO JIM

XLII MIDDLE LIFE

XLIII MOFFATT ONCE MORE

XLIV THE DUEL IN THE MALPAIS

XLV THE END




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


The Sheriff of Badger

"She and Johnson rode together every day"

"As Lafe was coming from dinner... a Mexican handed him a letter"

"So now Lafe, Jr., flattened out in his fissure in equal danger with his
father"




THE SHERIFF OF BADGER




CHAPTER I

LAFE JOHNSON ARRIVES AT THE LAZY L RANCH


It may come as a shock to many to learn that we have in cowland a
considerable number of full-blooded men who have never made it a
practice to step outside the door of a morning and shoot a
fellow-citizen before breakfast. This is true; vital statistics and
fiction to the contrary, notwithstanding. They are well-grown,
two-fisted men, also, and work very hard seven days in the week, and
whenever they go to town they get drunk. But in the main they are
law-abiding, and steal calves only for their employers.

There was Lafe Johnson. This story has him for its central figure.

"It's right queer about men," Lafe used to say, when in a reflective
mood. "A feller will knock in a friend what he'd be like to do himself.
And he'll act mean one day so he's sure ashamed of it the next. Yes,
sir; the best of 'em will. It all depends on how a man feels, I reckon,
and what shape his stomach's in. No man ain't always going to do the
right thing, and I've never met a feller yet who was all bad. What's
more, nobody thinks he's bad, or I expect he wouldn't be. Don't you
reckon