Cowboy Short Stories, November 1939 — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

CITIZENS OF BOOTHILL PA ed eA : NN Na by KENNETH P. WOOD Robbing the Union Pacific was a job for any two-bit bushwhacker . . . until Seth Kennedy and his Cheyenne killers accepted pay to kill for the law, instead of against it! ad | ee for the roof!” was the command that greeted Con- ductor Edward Wilson. Wilson threw up his hands first and thought about it afterward. In the dim light of the single night lamp burning in the Pullman car he saw indistinctly outlined the figure of a masked man, heavily booted and spurred. But there was one thing he did see vety plainly, and that was the frowning black muzzle of a heavy six- shooter pointed directly in his face, and while the hand that held it swayed slightly with the movement of the speeding train, there was a real menace in the demeanor of the man behind the weapon. And as the shadowy figure forced Conductor Wil- son back into the coach, a second man, also masked, took the place just vacated by his partner, Wilson noted that this man held a cocked .44 in either hand, so all thought of resistance fled from his mind. Edward Wilson was conductor of the Pullman section on Union Pacific train Number Four, east-bound from Denver, on the Kansas branch of the road. Just after midnight on August 4, 1900, when every- one in the car, including the porter, was sleeping, and Wilson alone was on watch, the conductor heard a noise at one of the doors. Thinking that an itinerant bum, intent upon stealing a ride, had made his way into the vestibule, he unlocked the door, preparatory to ejecting the intruder. But, instead of finding a tramp, Wilson found himself peering into the round black eye of a big six-shooter, and before he realized it his hands were in mid-air. Under the cover of the bandit guns the conductor was quickly hustled into the smoking compartment and given his in- structions. “Take this here sack,’’ ordered one of the masked men, handing Wilson a canvas feed bag, ‘an’ pass down the aisle an’ wake up the passengers one at a time, quiet-like. Tell ’em to shell out their cash and jewelry an’ they won’t get hurt. But AN ACTION THRILLER OF THE MEN WHO MADE THE WEST SAFE FOR RAILROAD TRAVEL! 8d Conniclooo EO