2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

SATAN'S SEGUNDO den probably had but one redeeming quality—his unswerving respect for a good woman. : Hayden didn’t look back as he rode across the plain. He knew he had out- distanced the law-posse that had snarled quickly on his trail. He knew he could find safety in the rough Thundergust hills if he could reach them. The red sun was lowering toward those jutting blue hills. The big geld- ing ran easily, but the fast pace had tired him. The hills were yet forty miles away. But Flash Hayden knew a place on the edge of the foothills that jutted out many miles from the highlands, where he could rest for a while and get a fresh mount if he wanted it—for a price. A few miles ahead was Seth Tarn’s whiskey station. Tarn was supposed to be a rancher, but his place was really an outlaw hideout. His big log ranchhouse afforded a bar, a place to eat and sleep for those who came his way. Those customers were almost invariably those fastriding, quick- shooting hombres who rode the gun- trails, men who paid Seth Tarn’s mur- derous prices for his protection and vile whiskey, and rode away to curse his memory. To Tarn’s place came wanted men, murderers, thieves— desperate, black-souled men who lived like wolves by the savage law of gun and claw and fang. And to Seth Tarn’s place this night, a blood-hungry posse raging on his backtrai!, came Flash Hayden. Darkness had slid down like a vel- vet curtain, and a chill wind was snaking among the foothills, when the big outlaw reached Tarn’s place. Clutching a money-filled buckskin bag in one hand, Flash Hayden stalked into the wide front room of the big log structure. A kerosene lamp swinging from the ceiling illu- mined the room, which had been made into a combination bar, gam- bling den and dining room. At one end was a high wooden bar. Tables dotted the room. FlASH HAYDEN paused just in- side the doorway, his tawny eyes sweeping the room. Seth Tarn, a squat, hooknosed man with phlegma- tic black eyes and a bristly black se 87 beard, stood behind the bar. Four oth- er men men besides Tarn were in the room. The four, all gunbelted, evil- faced gents, sat playing stud poker at one of the tables. Ignoring the four, who appraised him with cold, suspicious eyes, Flash Hayden strode to the bar. Seth Tarn grinned and licked his thick lips, as he looked at Flash Hayden, and some- thing that might have been hate or fear crawled in his dull eyes. And Seth Tarn both hated and feared Flash Hayden. “Tf it ain’t Flash Hayden,” said loudly. “How, Flash?” “A bottle of whiskey,” Flash Hay- den clipped shortly. “Then somethiv’ to eat.” Tarn looked slyly at the bulging bag. “Sure, Flash, But no need to hur- ry. You’re safe here.” “Whiskey!” Hayden said harshly. Seth Tarn sloshed whiskey into a dirty glass from a jug. Flash Hayden downed the fiery liquid at a quick, fierce gulp, | Somethin’ to eat—and I’m in a hurry!” Aware of a peculiar silence and Tarn tension in the room, Flash Hayden turned slowly back to the bar. The four men at the table sat fingering their cards, staring with greedy, cal- culating eyes at Flash Hayden and the stuffed money sack. Flash Hayden shrugged contemptu- ously, turned deliberately and strode to another table and sat down. He knew these four, and they knew and respected him. The lithe, dark-faced, flashily dressed hombre was Nick Scarlett, leader of one of the tough- est outlaw gangs west of the Missou- ri. Nick Scarlett’s clothes were jaunty and flashy, but he was deadly as a mad puma, His three followers were less showy, but just as deadly. __ Nick Scarlett was proud of his dark handsomeness. And that was why he hated Flash Hayden so fiercely. Once Nick Scarlett and Flash Hayden had clashed. On that occasion, Flash Hay- den had taken the swaggering killer's guns away from him, given him a sav- age beating with his fists. Then, de- liberately, Flash Hayden had slashed a trench across Scarlett’s dark face with a : keenbladed _ knife,. leaying & _