Pulp Fiction, 1934 · page 119 of 148
Western Story Magazine, May 12, 1934 — page 119: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 117 of "The Barking Dog" This is story prose from a pulp Western fiction magazine. The page continues a confrontation scene where Jerry and a man named Parks interrogate a trailer (a hired tracker) about the murder of someone named Treece. The trailer confesses that a man named Virlee killed Treece during a stagecoach holdup, motivated by profit and personal hatred. Jerry and Parks then take the trailer to a mountain clearing where bodies of fourteen men killed in an earlier battle were disposed of, apparently to intimidate or threaten him into revealing more information.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Barking Dog : “That {lla dhat called hissll a trailer tol’ you that,” he said. “He even lied when he was dyin’. “Who killed Treece?” Jerry shot out. The man veiled his eyes. “Aw, don’t monkey with him,” one of the punchers said. “Slap him out o’ his saddle. Then jump on him an’ tromp him. He ain’t got no nerve.” “Just a minute,” Jerry said. “Tl tell you all L know,” the trailer suddenly said. “The banker sent to Idaho where I was for a trailer. Course Virlee had tol’ him they was good trailers over there. Then Virlee sent word to a friend 0’ his to have me ready. I circulated around an’ was picked up for the job. I got a repertation over there. [I can trail. Fella, I can! “Now Virlee has gone. I don’t think he’s comin’ back. He——” “Don’t be silly,” Jerry said. “Virlee got a letter. He’s hidin’ out.” “You think so? Well, I'll be glad to meet him once more. fle may come back, but he won’t come back to my sister. I seen he was through with her the minute I met her an’ him in their house. He’s been married to her on’y six months. I[ guess that’s a long time for -him. Virlee hisself killed Treece. He couldn’t get nobody else to do it. He held up the stage, so’t it would look like Treece was killed in a holdup.” — 7 “JT saw the man who- killed Treece,” Jerry said. “You're tryin’ to get even with Virlee.” “Virlee tol’ me all about it,” the trailer declared. “He was hidin’ be- > hind a hill. When the stage went up the slope, he stepped out an’ shot Treece. He tol’ me he wanted the sadisfaction of killin’ Treece hisself. He hated him, for one thing an’ another. 117 An’ then there was the matter o’ profits. That’s all I know. About the murder o’ King I don’t know nothin’.” “Did you ever hear of Virlee’s ridin’ in to kill a man _ before?” Jerry asked. | “No! Virlee don’t tell much, an’ I ain’t asked no questions about him. I never met him till I come here. My sister tol’ him about me.” “You're lyin’,’ Jerry said. “I think we can cure you of that habit. Come on.” They rode to the ranch, and Jerry got hold of Parks. When these men had been fed, Parks ordered a score of men up. Taking the trailer along, they rode toward the mountains. They went up the slope at the foot of which the battle had been fought. The punchers who had taken the fourteen Virlee men into the moun- tains and had not brought them back had disposed of the bodies of the men who had been killed here. Parks and Jerry stopped. The other riders circled those two and the trailer. In a low, even voice Parks told the trailer what had hap- pened here. The trailer wet his lips, stared around. “But all that ain’t nothin’ to you,” Parks said. “Up the slope with you.” All that proved to be something to the trailer. As he went up the slope ahead of Jerry and Parks, the other men following, he cast uneasy glances from side to side. However, he seemed to think he was in no immediate danger, and he did not speak. HEN the party reached the top of the slope, they passed among conifers and entered a mountain clearing. Parks led the men across the clearing and stopped. Before therm was a conyan,