Fifteen Western Tales, March 1954 — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

_— 80 “Damn you! You'll get five hundred. No more.” “Supposing I tell Colonel Lake about lying at the court-martial? Supposing I shoot off my mouth about who did Charley Moulton in? You did, you scum! He was in to you for two thousand and you didn’t have it. He threatened to go to Colonel Lake. I worked with you to-pin the theft on York. Now pay off or you won't pull out of here tonight.” “Get out of my,way, Shorrs!”’ Shorrs cocked his carbine but Clifton moved fast. He jolted home a right to the lean trooper’s jaw. As Shorrs went down Clifton snatched his carbine from his hands and reversed it. The butt crashed down once, twice, three times and Shorrs lay still. Clifton placed a boot in the stirrup, Dane came out of the darkness. Clifton turned and kicked out at Dane, knocking him down. He jerked at his Colt but Dane locked a foot about the tall officer’s right ankle and kicked out at the inside of his knee, driving him back. Clifton rolled to his feet and slammed home three punches, slamming Dane against the rock wall. He swung up on his gray. The horse . reared as the steel sank home but, instead of running out toward the desert, shot down the passageway back toward the wells. Clifton cursed and sawed at the reins but the horse leaped the tinaja and clattered into the darkness of the inner-well area. Dane swayed a little as he ran after the officer. Hank Mooney was tied to a rock. “Watch him, Dane!”’ he called. Dane jerked his saber from the packsad- dle lying beside the tank. He splashed through the shallow water of the tinaja and reached the narrow entrance to the inner well. A gun cracked in the darkness. The slug ee 2 over Dane’s head. Hoofs clat- tered and the gray raced past Dane out to the desert. | “What the hell is going on?’ shouted a _ trooper from up on the rocks. The moon was lighting the top-of Span- + FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES / ish Wells. The gun split the quiet again. Dane stood behind a rock, stripping the chamois cover from his saber. moved in the darkness. Dane threw a rock across the passageway. Three shots roared out and the passageway filled with whining lead. Silence again, broken only by the scuffing of boots high on the rocks. Dane crouched and ran up the passageway, diving Clifton | behind a rock as the Colt spat flame again. Then he waited. Ss es MOON began to light the big rock enclosure. Dane looked up from the shadows. Troopers were lining the top of the rock walls, peering down into the en- closure. . 7 “What the hell is it?” shouted Blan- chard. The voice of Trooper Rustames came from the other side. “Mister Clifton tried to make a break for the desert. He has the money stolen from the squadron. Captain York is down there. Don’t shoot.” Dane stepped out of the shadows. There was no shot. Something clattered on the rocks. It was Clifton’s Colt. “Get back, York!” he called. ‘I’ve got my saber! I'll gut you!” Dane edged forward as the moon began to flood the area. Stuart Clifton came out of the shadows with his bared saber in his hands. * “Get out of my way, Dane!” he said. Dane stopped twenty feet away. “Give up, Stuart,’ he said quietly. “It’s all over.” Clifton smiled thinly. “It might interest you to know I was the saber champion at the Point, York.” : Dane move in. saber, point down. closer,”’ he said. “Surrender, Clifton,” Dane repeated. Clifton looked up at the silent troopers. “Shoot him down!” he called. A trooper answered. Clifton thrust out his “Don’t come. any “You left us up : ESSE = comicbooks. - : “4 ~— - « - : we » 2 _ % - ees? i allen) ee , ae me * ? yf” ax Se he, ae ee a ee Bt nt ie, ee et ee Oe ee nd