2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

GRAB A HORSE, HELLION-OR A GUN. 95 — Rank woulda’: stop. Guy Rank was a blood-hound. HEY RODE all night again. They came in sight of the cabin as the sun came up over the hills. Jim leaped from his horse in the ranchyard, saw young Brad stand- ing in the doorway, watching them curiously. Jake Serle dismounted from his spent horse, ran to the cor- ral with a rope in his hand. Pinto Simms stayed back and watched Jim Deever while Serle roped and sad- died two horses. Jim Deever set the canvas sacks dowh on the ground, grew cold as Jake Serle turned and stared at him. Jake Serle smiled, looked for an instant at young Brad Deever there in the doorway, then at Jim Deever. “T guess we’re through with you,” Serle said to Jim. ' His hand whipped toward his gun. The pistol gilttered in the light. It spewed flame and smoke toward Jim Deever, and Jim felt an awful, sear- ing agony in his side as he felt him- self being smashed backward. He saw Jake Serle and Pointo Simms gallop- ing away carrying the canvas sacks. He yelled at the kid to keep back, but the kid was shooting at Jake and Pinto. Then he knew that young Brad was bending over him. And a deep misery came to him as he guessed he was done. Guy Rank would come soon, and find him here, take the kid and take him away, and put Jim Deever in jail. “I made a mess of things,” Jim Deever said weakly to young Brad. “I was too scared to think straight. I used to be an outlaw, twenty years ago. I swore I’d never steal again. But these two gents that just rode away threatened me. I had to go with them. We robbed the bank at Tor- nillo. I'm a damned thief again!” The weakening shock of his wound passed and Jim Deever rose, pressed his hand to his side. The kid was frowning, puzzled, concerned. He studied the misery in Jim Deever’s eyes. “This bullet’s not bad,” said Jim Deever. “I'm sorry as hell about this. I wouldn’t have had you know what I’d been for anything on earth. But if I hadn’t done it I’d of had to run, and you’d have known anyway. It was a chance I had to take. And now a posse’s coming, but whatever happens, I want you to know I tried for twenty years to make you proud of me. The kid’s smile softened. A soft light glowed in his eyes. “I’ve been proud of you,” he said softly. “I still am proud of you, and to hell with a posse! We'll get away from the posse. I’ll get the money ~from those two jaspers and give it back to the bank at Tornillo. We’ll ~ find a way to square this.” He hurried to the corral, got two fresh horses and saddled them. “You hide while I go after them,” the kid said. Jim Deever shook his head. “We'll both go,” he told the boy. “T’m all right.” ree kid helped Jim up into a sad- e. “Hang and rattle,’ he said, “we’ll whip this. A man can’t be honest for twenty years then let a couple of two-bit outlaws get the best of him. If we get that money back I’ve got a hunch the law will call it square. We can say they forced you into it with a gun because they didn’t know the country.” a ee STARTED away and Jim ~Deever couldn’t get the miracle of all this out of his mind. The kid had taken the fact that he’d been an outlaw without so much as batting an eyelash. He didn’t give a damn what Jim Deever had been. It was what he was that counted and the kid was re- membering the twenty years he’d been square. Old Jim clung grimly to the sad- die horn. He kept looking back, and it wasn’t long till he saw the posse, saw the glitter of Guy Rank’s badge in the light of the sun. Desperately, he raked his horse with his spurs, and they rode faster. The kid looked back too and saw the posse, and he turned the horses up into the hills, off of the trail, and up into the rocks. “If we take this cut-off we can catch those jaspers,’ the kid told Jim. “There’s only one way they CORMICDOOKS «GORA