Pulp Fiction, 1934 · page 21 of 148
Western Story Magazine, May 12, 1934 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This page contains **story prose** from a Western pulp fiction tale titled "Outlaws Of Calico Hole." The narrative follows characters Dan Stuart and Alice as they approach an outlaw hideout in Calico Hole. The text describes their arrival at the compound—featuring grazing horses, cultivated land, and adobe/log cabin buildings—and their meeting with the outlaw leader Sanchez, who greets them with apparent friendliness but underlying suspicion. The scene involves discussion of a man named Jud Tremper and an apparent challenge or threat involving the dangerous outlaw gang.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Outlaws Of Calico Hole — with Sanchez’s band, there'll be a reaction.” “I’m not worth it,” he muttered. “If I’d have thought you’d come into this place, I’d have stayed in Beasley’s jail.” Dan saw that the younger man was desperately worried. He seemed about to go to pieces. The girl looked up at the graves. “So that’s the slope with San- chez’s initials,” she said, and a shud- der ran through her slender body. “Oh! The beast!” | “Just a minute, Alice,’ her brother admonished. “Outside of Calcio Hole it was all well enough to say what-you thought, but in- side it’s well to keep your opinions to yourself, ‘specially about San- chez.” “fT suppose so,” the girl mur- mured, her eyes on the initials. “But I’m thinking I’d rather be Jud Tremper, dead and buried standing in that grave, than Jud Tremper on a vacation, with every outlaw know- ing Sanchez had sent him a chal- lenge.” “Tremper’s no fool. He knows it’s ‘suicide to stick his nose into the Hole unless he has a hundred Texas Rangers with him,” Al answered. “Come on, Dan; you’ve got to face the music!” 7 HEY rode around a shoulder of rock, and the outlaw hang- out lay a quarter of a mile ahead of them. Thirty or forty of the finest horses Dan had ever seen grazed in a pasture, through which ran a small stream bordered by trees. The stream began high in the Calico ridges, dropped two thou- sand feet down a red wall, and spread over the canyon. Several acres of rich, black bot- tom land were under cultivation, and Dan observed both beef and 19 - dairy stock in fenced-off grass areas. Sanchez’s outlaws lived well. “Those horses are the pick of ev- ery raid he’s ever made on the fin- est stock in the Southwest,” Al said. “Nothing any posse has can match them for speed. Even the Twin F, which is what we call our ranch, can’t match them.” They turned toward a group of cabins set on a low ridge, which com- manded the Hole. ing housed several men, while ad- joing cabins were undoubtedly used for stering supplies. The larg- est building was a two-story log cabin of recent construction. It contained large windows and a broad piazza. It had been built among several shade trees, and was, therefore, cool the year around. “Sanchez’s place,” Al said briefly, “and that’s where we report.” As they dismounted, several men came from the adobe and welcomed Al as an old friend. At the same time they looked on Alice with ap- proval and Dan Stuart with suspi- cion.’ “Where’s Sanchez?” Al asked. “Ah, my friend,” cried a voice, “and my friend’s sister!” “Hello, Sanchez,’ Al Ford cried. “We got here by the skin of our teeth! Beasley’s men were right on our heels. This is Dan Stuart.” He got me out of jail.” “Dan Stuart? I’m disappointed,” Sanchez said, with an eloquent ges- ture. “I had hoped it might be Jud Tremper, come to accept my poor hospitality. But Tremper is an older man. You, Stuart, are how old?” : “Twenty-five,” Dan answered, aware that the outlaw’s genial man- ner was a pose, and that he was suspicious of the whole business. A dozen men had congregated about them, and at some, timeox ether An adobe build-—