Pulp Fiction, 1953 · page 74 of 116
Fifteen Western Tales, January 1953 — page 74: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is an interior story page from a pulp fiction magazine, likely Western genre. It presents the opening of a short story titled "While the Gallows Wait" by Dave Sands, illustrated with a dramatic pen-and-ink drawing showing two figures in a jail cell—an older man on a bunk and a younger wounded man (Toby Miles) lying down. The visible prose describes Toby, jailed an hour prior with a thigh wound, conversing with a cellmate in an adobe jail cell lit by candlelight. The narrative suggests themes of crime, outlawry, and youthful admiration for a criminal mentor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Looks like Vil be siding him again, son—in boothill.”’ By DAVE SANDS Tough and defiant in his jail cell, the kid wanted only to be as brave as his outlaw hero .... who, even then, was serving that young bad- man better than either of them knew. ... 74 WHILE THE GALLOWS Sy _ WAIT- OBY MILES lay still in the stifling heat of the cell, choking back the nausea from the wound in his thigh and staring through the half-darkness at the ‘old man sitting on the bunk across from him. A single candle flickered from a niche in the adobe wall, casting yellow light onto the man’s pale eyes and across the flat planes of his face. ‘You ain’t exactly a talkative critter,” the old man said. “That can go both ways,” Toby said. “They jailed me an hour ago, and you haven’t even asked how come I stopped the Coniicboooks.c© inn