Red Muldoon’s death left a power vacuum in Roily and turned his unsettled inheritance into a struggle over the Diamond M. A week after he died, his daughter Kate was still reckoning with what he had intended for her, the ranch, and Max Landon; meanwhile, the county he had long dominated had lost a wealthy cattleman who had helped sustain its public life.

Background and Declining Health

Red’s influence had been built on the Diamond M and the mining economy. He brought a herd into the country when it first opened and established the ranch on the river about twenty miles below Roily. Selling cattle to miners made him a fortune. When the mines played out, the Diamond M was the county’s biggest ranch, and Red was its only remaining rich man. He served two terms in the state legislature and was county commissioner almost until his death.

His final year marked a sharp change in that public role. Red had become so physically crippled that he could no longer leave the house. The account does not say what illness or injury caused his condition, or explain how he died. It does establish that he was already unable to participate in county affairs before his death ended his long tenure.

Death and Kate’s Return

Red died while Kate was away at school. She had gone first to Denver and then back East; Judge Bailey sent her a telegram informing her of her father’s death, but she arrived only after the funeral had taken place. In a later conversation, Kate described his death as having occurred a week earlier, while Mrs. Horton referred to him as having died a few days before. Both accounts place the death shortly before the present action, without specifying an exact date.

The news made Kate’s status as Red’s only child newly consequential. Mrs. Horton identified her as his sole heir, but Kate stressed that she was not yet rich: she did not know what the will said, and Judge Bailey would not disclose its terms. He had called it a bad will and said that he had tried to persuade Red to change it. The estate’s value was uncertain, though Kate guessed it might exceed one hundred thousand dollars.

Inheritance and the Ranch’s Future

Kate understood Red’s intentions as divided between affection for her and confidence in Max. She recalled that Red loved her and had taken her hunting and fishing, but believed he had given Max the affection he might otherwise have given a son. She also thought Red wanted her to marry Max so that Max could continue running the ranch, and that Red doubted a woman’s ability to manage it. Kate suspected Max had been robbing her father but said she had never been able to prove it; she also made clear that she could not stand him and had resisted the proposed marriage.

Those recollections clarify the stakes without resolving the will. Kate did not know whether Red had made Max equal to her in the inheritance, and Red’s wishes as she understood them were not the same as a confirmed legal provision. His death thus converted a family conflict that had persisted during his lifetime into an immediate contest over ownership and control of the Diamond M.

County Power and Aftermath

Red’s authority had reached beyond his own ranch. Judge Bailey recalled that Red, though never sheriff, had backed the sheriff and pressed him to do his job; when the mines were prosperous, county tax revenue had also paid public officials more reliably. By the time of the story, the mines no longer paid taxes, the county struggled to meet expenses, and the judge said he could not enforce rulings without the sheriff’s cooperation. This was the weakened local order into which Red’s death fell: the man who had once exercised influence and supported enforcement was gone, while the institutions around him were short of money and dependent on officials doing their work.

The narrative gives no deathbed scene, cause of death, or final words. Instead, Red’s absence is measured through the funeral Kate missed, the will whose contents remain unknown, and the competing claims on the ranch he had made the center of his fortune and influence.