Fifteen Western Tales, March 1954 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES the street, following the rancher. When the man had almost reached Crandell’ s place, Evers called, “Raymond!” : The rancher swung around and Rivers “came up to him quickly. “There’s a place down the street where you can get a better deal,” he said. Joe. Raymond stared and his face turned red. 4 “What's your stake in this, mister ?’” he asked. Evers said, “‘It sounds crazy. I’ve got no _ stake. I just thought you’d like the infor- mation.”’ Perspiration was suddenly on the ranch- ps er" : face. s s— - * = ol “Td give my right arm to help Mary ” he said. “But I don’t think I’d give my iite=it s important to some people besides me.’ : Clay Evers’s face was hard-set. He said, “You won’t have to give anything. Not anything at all.”’ The flat positiveness-in Evers’ voice seemed to shake Joe Raymond. He was silent for almost a minute before he spoke. -“T’m a fool, I guess,” he said, “but I think I believe you. I’ll go see Mary now.”’ As the rancher turned around, Evers laoked up and saw Ard Crandell standing in the doorway of his store. The look of utter disbelief on the big man’s face told Evers that Crandell knew what was hap- pening, knew that an important customer . had been snatched away from him. Crandell disappeared from the doorway and Evers fell in beside Joe Raymond, figuring that he should stick with. him in case Crandell tried to send an interceptor out the back way. They walked quickly down the street and up the stairs to Mary Raines’s office. She was still at her desk, and she looked - up) in surprise as Joe Raymond came into the room. “You've got a customer, Mary,” he said, and he added, smiling, “and you've got a mighty good salesman, too.” He jerked a thumb in the direction of the door, but Clay Evers had not entered the © office, and he was already going down the © stairs. her desk and ran after him. “Wait!” she called. She caught up with Mary Raines moved quickly from — him on the landing, and she said. “Who are you? And why are you doing these things? First you beat Ard Crandell and then you bring me the first customer I’ve had in a month. Why? I want to know.” VERS LOOKED down at her, and’his © only ‘thought for a moment was that — she wasn’t as tall as he had first imagined. And then he thought about what she was ~ saying. He could tell her why he had done these things—that was easy. But _ what sense would it make to her? Would she — understand if he told her that it was be- cause he had seen her walking in the dawn — _ this morning when he was half crazy from riding the out-trails? Would she know what he meant if he said it was because - she reminded him of all the things he Bee would have? He didn’t think so, and so he said. “I know a couple of things. One is that if you have a piece of luck, you shouldn’t worry too much about how it happened. If you ~ do, it’s likely to get away: from you. Just ; take it and play it to win.’ “But—” she began. “You've got a customer upstairs,’ Evers said. “You'd better go see what he wants.” He went on out of the building then, and when he reached the sidewalk, he was not surprised at what he saw. Half a block away was Ard Craridell, and flanking him were two lean, cold-eyed mem: One of them’ he recognized as Macho Starnes, a cheap . killer he had seen once in Caldwell. The other man, dressed in a black, flat-crowned sombrero and black shirt and pants, he did not know. They were walking slowly to- ward him and fanning out a little now. This was it, Evers knew. These men had not come to warn him out of town. CO AMIE goo eS in wa 4 be a oP tam - =. el a “I-< ¥ ” — a i me Ce a 5 Sess