Western Story Magazine, May 12, 1934 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

Outlaws Of Calico Hole . 39 and scooped up all the currency in sight, then walked into the vault. Gold was too heavy to carry, so he searched for currency, stuffing the neat bundles into a small bag. Five minutes after he entered, the job was done. He slipped out unobserved, cut around the corner to the burro, and shed the clothing he had used in the raid. At the barn, Dan hid the currency in his packs, then, taking the second burro, plodded up to the store. The banker and his teller had not es- caped yet. Dan was loading the second burro, with Mitchell’s help, when the banker emerged. “Holdup! Holdup!” he bellowed. “That can’t be,’ Dan muttered, “T ain’t seen nor heard a thing.” “Nor I,” Mitchell agreed. He ran toward the banker. ‘When did it happen, Ned?” “Right now, you crazy fool,” Ned roared. ‘“‘Where’s everybody? Get a posse, throw it around the town. He can’t be far.” “What sort of a feller was it?” Dan yelled. “Big man, black shirt, overalls, and black hat. Had his face cov- ered, but I saw his eyes. Blacker’n night. He was a young man, straight as an arrow. Where’s the deputy sheriff?” “Gone on the stampede!” _Mitch- ell answered, “T sold him grub last night.” Several old men hurried up and asked questions. They ran stiffly for guns, and mounted the horses the stampeders had left behind. Mitchell closed his store and joined them, while Dan Stuart and his bur- ros moved slowly toward Sundown Creek. Two miles from town he changed his direction toward Calico Springs. Five miles beyond that he peered in- tently into a thicket. A beautiful bay horse snorted defiantly, then calmed down under the -understand- ing touch of his hand. “Easy, Jerry! Easy, now! Youre sure full of ginger, aren’t your” Dan picked up a saddle cached in the brush and threw it onto Jer- ry s back. He transferred the cur- rency to the saddlebags, cached the grub in the brush, and released the burros. Leaping into the saddle, he grinned defiantly back at Wagon Gap. “Well, it was done—and done right.” He chuckled. His spurs touched Jerry’s flanks, and the horse thundered away, nose toward Calico Hole. AN approached Calico Hole cautiously, half expecting some one might be lying in the brush with the hope of inter- cepting him. Evidently those back at Wagon Gap were still trying to pick up the bank robber’s trail. As nobody was visible, Sanchez’s band accordingly was cleared, and the crime credited to a lone wolf. Dan rode into the Hole unchallenged, but the guard called down: “What luck?” “Plenty!” Dan shouted up to him. “Good. I took some of the twenty-to-one money you wouldn’t | put it over—not bad, though I could have got longer odds if I'd waited. Where’s Al Ford?” Briefly Dan explained, and rode on, remembering he must face Alice before the night was over. This came sooner than he expected. The girl stepped into the trail and waved him down near the grave- yard. It was growing dark, and they were not visible from the cabins. “T’ve been here ever since Al left,” she cried. “Where is he? What “He: s not hurt, Alice, but he’s in a jam,” Dan assured her, dismount. ‘ happened?”