Western Story Magazine, May 12, 1934 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

Outlaws Of Calico Hole a tle rasped the girls tense nerves. Sally jumped and cried out. “Easy!” Alice warned. Silence fell again. They heard the train stop, then the clank and rattle of empty cattle ears as it started up again. came from the grim walls. “When will we know?” Sally asked. “When two stealthy figures come out of the darkness, I hope,” Alice replied. “An uproar will mean eo Orange flame stabbed the dark- ness, and the heavy report of a shot- gun sounded above the noise of the train. Flame stabbed twice on the right, then on the left in the ap- proximate vicinity of the jail. A man’s scream, sudden and sharp, made the night hideous, — Sally leaped to her feet. “T’m going out there,” she cried. “So am I!” Alice answered, then checked the impulse. “No, Dan Stuart’s orders were to leave this place under no circumstances.” “Darn Dan | Stuart,’ Sally snapped as Alice pulled her down. “Maybe Al’s hit and needs us.” Alice was almost crying, and her calmness was willed. The jail siren began to moan, ‘Woo-oo!.... Woo-oo! Woo-oo!” The signal of an escape! Rifle fire swept the darkness; bul- lets droned through the thicket, clipping off twigs and leaves. “Down, Alice warned. “Those bullets are——” “T see something!’ Sally cried. “Look! A big man carrying—Al!” The big man staggered to the thicket. He had raced all the way from the jail wall, carrying a heavy burden. “Miss Ford!” he panted. —buckboard—onto road. Al’s not hurt! I screamed to make *em think one of us—hit.” “Come, Sally!” Alice directed as But no sound | “Drive | she ran to the buckboard. Dan Stuart's voice was deep, even thrill- | ing, but something in it made her jump. The quickening of her pulse was due more to some strange re- sponse to his presence than to ex- citement. She drove the buckboard to the road and stopped the horses. The big man placed Al on the seat, then pulled off his shoes. “Put them on over your shoes,” he ordered Sally. He jumped to the buckboard, then pulled off his own shoes. These he gave to Alice. “Put them on, please, then cross the road after we drive by. Be sure to step in our wheel tracks. I want Beasley’s posse to conclude the buckboard has nothing to do with our escape.” “TI understand,” Alice replied. “Then the two of you climb the fence and scramble up the roadbed, leaving plenty of shoe tracks. Once \you're up there, one of you take off a shoe and thrust it under a rail, as ~ if it had been caught. Throw the others into an empty car as that freight passes. Walk along the right of way, keeping to the ties for some distance, then cross back to the road and to your horses.” As Dan Stu- art finished his concise instructions, he cracked the whip, and the buck- board vanished. “He had everything planned,” AT- ice said, “even to timing the break | to the passing of this freight train. Beasley’s posse will follow the tracks, find the shoe caught under the rail, and conclude Dan and Al are on the train. In the meantime they'll be driving like all possessed for Calico Springs. Come!” The two girls obeyed instructions to the letter, crouched several hun- dred yards down the track from the point they had left the shoe; then, as the freight thundered. past, threw,