Western Story Magazine, May 12, 1934 — page 99: what you’re looking at

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

WAY 17 toe e Barking Dog 97 the ranch, a gun battle takes place between rustlers and riders sent into . the country by Jerry’s father. In this encounter, Shorty Flynn, a friend of Jerry’s, is killed. That night Jerry and Parks, lead- ing their combined forces, capture a number of rustlers who are about to run off a herd. These men say that the cow thefts have been directed by a man named Red Blackman. Dick Bloom, one of the rustlers, admits killing Shorty Flynn. Bloom asks Jerry to face him in a gun duel, and Jerry agrees. CHAPTER VIII. TRICKERY. SHIVER went through Bloom. He did have a yellow streak, Jerry saw. Bloom had made his de- mand wildly. was suddenly still, though not calm. Even the heat was dying out of his eyes as he looked into Jerry’s. “Well,” Parks drawled, “you’re gettin’ what you asked for. Why’n’t you start?” | “Gimme my horse,” Bloom said. “Hop up,” said Parks. Bloom mounted. Jerry mounted. Parks pushed up to them. “You can’t go along,” Bloom de- clared in a tense voice. “It’s jus’ me an’ this fella.” “I’m goin’ along,” Parks declared. “T’ll be a witness to what takes place. I don’t want you accused of murderin’ Jerry Hawley.” “You think I can’t get him?” Bloom asked uneasily. “Course you can! He’s clumsy with a gun. He’s a fool to go up against you. Anybody with half an _ eye can see that you’re fast an’ sure.” ““You’re WS—7B lyin’,” Bloom _ said. Now he © “About him, I mean. You know he’s fast an’ sure.” The man’s uneasiness grew. What he had demanded, while rage was running through him, he now seemed doubtful about. But he seemed to realize that he could not back down. “Well,” he snarled, “arrange it. Tell me how it’s to be done. I ride when I get him, don’t I?” “A while ago my mind was made up that not a man o’ you would ride,” said Parks cheerfully, “but - jus’ the minute you sink a bullet inta Jerry Hawley, you ride. You ride free. Ill go further’n that. Pll go along with you two with no gun on me. When you get through with Jerry, you can sink a second bullet inta me. I can see you don’t like me.” The old man turned to the others. “If this yella pup gets Jerry an’ me, he’s to ride. Hear me?” One man said, “Huh, huh,” in derision of the possibility of Bloom’s killing Jerry. The others joined with murmurs equally derisive. “I’m s’prised at you,” Parks said. “Jerry’s as good as dead now.” He returned to Bloom. “We three’ll ride out on the flat. You an’ Jerry 1] face each other. When I say ‘Fire,’ you fire. Then, fella, you ride.” ‘An’ say ‘Fire’ loud enough for us to hear,” said a puncher. “You fella, if you pull your trigger afore .- he says ‘Fire,’ we'll string you up.” Most of this, Jerry knew, was in- tended to break Bloom down. In a way it was unfair, but it grew out of the contempt in which these hard men held such as Bloom. ““Let’s start,” Jerry said. “You'll have an equal chance, Bloom. I think you’re good with a gun. I see you got the hand an’ the eye. But you killed my friend, an’ you gotta Gomicbooksacom