15 Western Short Stories — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ONE AGAINST THE BLOOD-BOUNTY HUNTERS Mace had discovered. A few had tried, and they’d died; others had simply packed their few belongings and leit the basin when Brule started deviling them. But freckled, tawny-haired Powder Mace was a Texan; his wasn’t the breed to accept defeat tamely. A LITTLE over two years ago the Texas youngster had ridden into the basin with three thousand dollars burning his jeans. He’d found a good little outfit and bought it, from Turk Brule, paying two of the three thou- sand dollars down and using the other thousand to buy a few head of cattle. Quickly he’d found out his mistake. Immediately Turk Brule’s tough rid- ers had started in to run him out. They’d stolen his cattle, cut his fences, poisoned his water. And Pow- der Mace had fought back, fiercely. But, single-handed, he was no match for Turk Brule. Brule, he discovered, had sold this same outfit half a dozen times, always with the same result. Powder Mace was just another sucker. For Turk Brule had ruined him, beat- en him, had finally driven him from his little cow outfit and into outlawry with a cattle stealing charge framed against him. But still Powder Mace hadn't ad- mitted defeat. For the last year he’d prowled the rough hills rimming the basin, living like a hunted wolf, strik- ing at Turk Brule when and in any way he could, awaiting his chance to kill the arrogant gun-lord of the Twin Peaks range. Turk Brule was afraid of the red-haired young Texan. It had got so he was afraid to ride the range alone, or step outside his doorway at night, Finally, as time and again the traps he baited failed or backfired, Turk Brule had placed a $5,000 reward on Powder Mace’s head.... Powder Mace jerked suddenly to his feet, as sounds of a running horse came to his ears. The horse had left the dim wagon trail, two hundred yards away, was coming toward the campfire. With the silence of a big cat Pow- der faded back into the shadowy thicket. Gun in hand, he waited. The horse came swiftly on, and plunged abruptly through the thicket 69 and into the crimson fireglow. The rider jerked the sweat-drenched beast back on its haunches. Amazement slapped at Powder Mace. For the rider was a girl—a slim, dark-haired girl who was dressed in denims and man’s shirt and boots. The girl's dark young eyes probed desperately about the clearing, and in their shadowy depths Powder Mace saw fear. He crouched there, a swift, fierce exultation lifting in his heart, his eyes drinking in the wild, un- spoiled beauty of the girl. Memories flooded through him, and a deep long- ing. Powder Mace stepped suddenly from the shadows. He said softly, “Nancy—Nancy Rolfe!” “Powder!” The girl swung quickly, lithely to the ground. She started im- pulsively toward Powder Mace, then stopped. “I—I had no idea you were here, Powder. I saw your fire from the trail, and I thought it might be somebody who would help me.” Powder Mace asked tautly, “What's wrong?” “It's Judd Rayder, my step-father. He's been hurt. A horse threw him, tromped on him. Both legs are broken. I—I was there alone with him, and I didn’t know what to do. It’s fifteen miles to the nearest doctor. If I had somebody to help me, I might—” “T’ll help you,’ Powder said. “Is he at the Triple X?” Nancy Rolfe nodded, and that ap- prehension deepened in her dark eyes. “But you—it’d be dangerous for you. You shouldnt even be here, “Turk Brule has got half the country look- ing for you, and he’s raised the boun- (7 .se,tk ad be dangerous!” “Tll help you,” Powder said again. He had no love for surly, whiskey- | swilling Judd Rayder, but this, and a thousand times more, he’d do for Nan- cy Rolfe. “Wait till I get my bronc.” ie TOOK him but a moment to bring his roan into the clearing, to slap on saddle and bridle. As he tightened the cinch he studied Nancy from the tail of his eye. In the red fireglow she was like a dark flame of liveliness. The man’s clothing couldn’t hide her slim, wild beauty, the quick uplift of her rounded young breasts against the cComicbooks (CO