2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

PEACEMAKER MEANS POWDER SMOKE . T FIRST, Deputy Lee Kirk couldn’t find the words he wanted. Could only stand there and look at the warrant Sheriff Cowley had put down in front of him, On the desk. Then he swallowed a tight knot that had come into his throat, and met the gaze of the other’s gray eyes. “You— youre giving me this job?” he asked in a dull, flat voice. Cowley nodded, “I know it’s tough, Lee,” he admitted. “And I’m damn sorry.” “But—but why me? You know how it’s always been, Del and I ....” The sheriff's face was filled with sympathy. But he only repeated: “I’m sorry!” Kirk met his look during long, silent seconds. And then, slowly, he was unpinning the deputy’s star from his shirt front and dropping it, with a small metallic sound, upon the scarred desk top. Cowley watched it fall. He sat with head bent, so that Kirk could only see the crown of his silvery hair. He said heavily: “So that’s how you feel, Lee?’ eS spread his hands helplessly. Tried to answer, but the words that struggled to his lips were all the wrong ones. How could he explain, or let the older man know the pain that clutched him as he relinquished that badge of office? The badge he had een proud to wear and serve? All he managed to say was, “Del Brannon’s my best friend, Joe. And if I go out and bring him in—it’ll be me puttin’ him in the pen!” “He tried to murder Ward Ship- ton,” the other reminded him. “Shot him down in cold blood. Oh, I know; 63 Connicloooks.com by D. B. NEWTON he had plenty of cause, after the way Shipton rode and rode him on that mortgage and then finally took his spread away from him, and left him and Jimmy with nothing but the clothes on their backs, That’s an awful blow for a man who’s struggled as long and hard as Brannon did.” 1949 Western Fiction Pub. copyright Co, Ine. A surprise waited for the bank bandits as they *4 iene = entered, =; a tr TIME-HONORED WESTERN CLASSICS. Sure Del Brannon had bucked the law, taking justice in his own hands bullet - blasting a range- hog, but Del was still Deputy Lee Kirk’s sad- diepard... “It about drove him crazy! Del wasn’t hardly in his right mind, the other night.” “I know, I know, Lee!” The sheriff looked like a very tired, very weary man. “The whole deal was rotten; but it was legal, And Brannon went