Fifteen Western Tales, January 1953 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

RIDE WITH THE GUNSMOKE JUDAS was out of the-stirrup and the leg drargledl as if it had been shattered with an ax. A choking fear rose inside Chet and he went running headlong, stumbling across the close cropped ground. The rider’s hat was gone, exposing the iron grey hair. It was old Nate Williams. Because he had been further up the valley Chet was able to reach Nate well ahead of the men from the camp. He pulled the horse to a stop and turned to help the old man out of the saddle, but he was too late. Nate had already fallen. He hit the ground heavily and he lay there panting, blood bubbling across his lips. He kept staring up at Chet, his pupils round and bright. “TI tried to quit, Chet,” he panted. “Glad to see you made ip. F “Where’s Les?” Chet demanded. and Metzger? They still with him?” The old man fought to answer, his eyes rolling wildly now. His tongue licked the blood from his lips. “Kraft, Metzger, Les,” he said. “They' re coming here.. Les figures he can organize a new band with these men—” The old man coughed, fighting for breath. “It’s wrong, Chet. I tried to quit. ' After you left I knew I had to quit, because you were right, Chet. Don’t ever forget you were right—” It was the last words Nate Williams said _or ever would say. The men from the camp “Kraft came running up, their breathing noisy and. heavy in the sudden silence. “Nate Wil- liams, ain’t it?” Luke Pettigrew - said. “What'd he saye What’d he say about Gunther?” Chet Wainworth turned and looked at.the men and he looked beyond them to the wag- ons and saw the women around the fire and he saw Lorraine Pettigrew standing alone. And suddenly he knew that this thing that had happened was not a fight that belonged to these people or to any other group. No fight was a group fight, but a struggle that started in the individual and then spread. These folks were chips swept up in a tide, the same way he had been swept up, and they were wrong to be carried along this way because they Were not making up their own minds to anything. They were letting some- one else do their thinking, and that, he real- ized suddenly, was the same thing that had happened to Pete Bryan. He had let others do his thinking and he had ridden along on . a.raid and because Pete Bryan was a rich pe at ali TU BA and powerful man, his name had been re- membered when other names had been for- gotten. | “What did Les Gunther say?” Luke Petti- grew demanded again. 25, “He sent word for you folks to wait right’ here,”. Chet Wainworth said. “Wait?” Luke Pettigrew said. what?” “Youll know by tomorrow,” Chet Wain- worth said. “J’ll get word to you.” He started toward where his horse was picketed. “And you?” Luke: Pettigrew said. “What do you aim to do?” “T aim to go see Les Gunther,” Chet said. “Him and me have got a couple of things to talk over.” “Good!” Luke Pettigrew said explosively. “Then we can get things straightened out around here.” “That's what I figger,” Chet Wainworth said softly. “You take good care of Lor- raine, Luke.” “Then E WAS able to back track old Nate’s horse far enough to make sure that Nate had ridden down the canyon. From there he rode by guess and hope until he came to Les Gunther’s original campsite and | _ there again he picked up the trail and saw that it led across the hogback down toward the line cabin where Jane Bryan and Doc. | Acton and Big Sam had been staying. He felt a quickening of his pulse as he thought of Jane, but his real mission drove the emo- tion from him. He would circle around the cabin, he de- cided. He didn’t want Jane nor the others | to see him, for he knew now that this was a thing he would have to settle alone. He dropped into the swale and climbed the low, rolling hill, and had reached the top before he heard the first crack of rifle fire coming from a great distance. He reined up sharply, a sickening panic inside him, and then he sunk his spurs and rode furiously down the slope, his urgency put- ting all SELES of bodily pain from his mind. Presently he came to the clearing. He could see across to the line shack and the corral, a good distance away, and now there was a rapid firing from the side window of. _ the cabin which he recognized as pistol shots. The answering fire from the corral was slow. and confident. Nearer, on this side of the cComiclbooks C©