Pulp Fiction, 1955 · page 24 of 101
15 Western Short Stories — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is an interior story page from a pulp magazine featuring the opening of "The Girl in the Jail" by Johnston McCulley. The page contains prose text describing a woman named Bess Treddy observing an approaching posse led by Sheriff Sam Lucas from a ranch house window. An inset text box explains a secret signal system using clothesline items—a red apron signals the sheriff's arrival, while a blue tablecloth means Bess will keep a promise. The page includes a dramatic illustration showing a woman at a barred jail cell window. The narrative appears to be a Western crime story involving the Roskin brothers and some unresolved truth Bess seeks.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE GIRL IN THE JAIL by JOHNSTON McCULLEY HE HAD been expecting the . posse. Now, looking through the dirt-streaked window of the sprawling, dilapidated ranch house, Bess Treddy saw the riders. They had come along the brow of the hill, screened half the time by thick brush and heaps of rocks. She saw them stop and bunch for a conference. Even at that distance, she recognized Sheriff Sam Lucas, a giant of a man whose badge of office, touched by the morning sun, blazed on the left side of his shirt. Bess spotted half a dozen cthers in — x | Tn A red kitchen apron on the clothesline meant the sheriff had come. A blue tablecloth meant that Bess would do what she'd promised... the group. Clyde Roskin was one. She had expected to see him, or his broth- er Steve, or both of them. She was eager to face both or either of the Roskin brothers, search for the truth Gunfire blasted the small confines of the s? * n A Ors Veent Mee YS « ae lOOOK C© inn