2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

96 «GUN WESTERN can get out of the country, and if we get there ahead of them we can stop ’em, Can you make it?” Deever nodded, gripped his teeth as pain lanced through his wound. They climbed on and the world started to spin in old Jim Deever’s eyes. He had chance to square again and keep the kid. Ten to one old Guy Rank wouldn’t recognize him. Guy Rank hadn’t changed much but Jim Deever had changed a lot; and hard times and bitter struggles and slav- ing work to make both ends meet had left their marks on old Jim Deever that were not on Guy Rank. He raised a hand and rubbed his eyes and nearly fell from the saddle. The kid stopped his horse and stared calculatingly at him, concern sobering his face. “You're hurt worse than I thought,” he said. “You better hide here while I go on.” Jim Deever shook his head. “T can make it,’ he said grimly. He told himself he had to make it. They went on again but in a few minutes Jim Deever knew he couldn’t make it. He knew he was going to fall. The horses pounded up to the top of the rise and Jim could look down upon the trail below and see Jake Serle and Pinto Simms cir- cling the butte. Old Deever tried to catch himself as he fell forward. Young Brad’s arms shot out and caught him. The pound of Serle’s and Simms’ horses down below them was loud as the kid lay Jim down beside a great rock on the mountain side. “You wait here until I get back,” said the kid. “I’ll fix everything. Don’t you worry a bit.” “Y’m not worried,” lied old Jim. Then the kid was up in the saddle again, thundering away, the mad tatoo of his horse’s hoofs floating back to Jim Deever as he lay there. Jim Deever propped himself up so he could look down on the trail and he saw Pinto Simms and Jake Serle flash past the place where the kid should have met them. But the kid was too late to stop them, and he dashed across the trail and stopped his horse at a rock nest that nestled in the center of a curve in the trail. He leaped from his horse and floppde down behind the rocks. His guns began to chatter and Jim Dee- ver saw Simms and Serle flop off their horses and barricade them- selves behind the rocks. They couldn’t go on past where the kid was hidden. The kid had them sewed up! ‘pus RUMBLE of hoofs rose up above the chatter of guns, and Jim Deever realized that the posse was coming. The horrible thought struck him that the kid, stopping Serle and Simms where he had, had put himself between two fires. The kid was bottled up too! The posse wouldn’t know that the kid was try- ing to get the money back for them. All they’d know would be that there were three men down there. And three men had robbed a bank. Guy Rank would try to kill his own son! Jim Deever gave a half-articulate | cry as he saw the posse flash into view. He saw them stop and watch the battle that raged on below them. They deployed and started to fire down at the kid where he crouched down beside the rock. They’d shoot him to ribbons! Jim Deever rose up on his feet and stumbled forward. He yelled, tried to scream to Guy Rank but his voice couldn’t carry half the distance to where Guy Rank was. The rattle of guns was a horrible, sinister sound to Jim Dcever. Over and over again in his whirlng brain rang the thing that he thought he was yelling at Guy Rank, telling him to stop, telling him he was shooting his own boy¥ But the guns kept on rattling and Jim stumbled on, falling, crawling, then rising up to stumble and fall again. His gun belt snagged, he un- buckled it, let it lay. He could not see Guy Rank nor any of the posse because they were around on the side of the hill. Jim Deever was between the kid and Simms and Serle. The kid was bloody. One arm hung limp- ly down at his side. His shirt was © torn and spotted where the bullets had wounded him. Jim Deever could see that the Kid, trapped between two fires, wounded, hock i] idn’ shocked “by bullets, dared, dat