2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 97: 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! 97 know what he was doing. He shot first at Serle and Simms, then up at the posse. Jim Deever yelled huskily at the kid to stop and quit fighting. But his voice wouldn’t reach to the kid either. The crackling snarl of the guns drowned it. _ Jim Deever stumbled, fell, lay there at the edge of the basin and knew that he had to do something. quick. While he watched, the kid sent a shot at Serle and Serle sprawled out from behind his rock and didn’t get up again. But Simms kept on shooting. Tae posse kept on shooting. Jim Deever finally man- aged to push himself up on his feet again. He stepped out where every- ‘body could see him. He knew he was going to die because Simms was sending bullet after bullet at him and the posse was shooting at him thinking him to be an outlaw. AL: THE things that Jim Deever had tried to build for in the past twenty years were crumbled down about his ears now. No matter which | way this went he was going to lose the kid. The kid’s gun spoke again and Simms dived qut from behind his rock and lay beside Serle. The kid, half blinded, turned his guns on Jim Deever and Jim called huskily to him and his voice carried now. “Brad,” he yelled, “it’s me! Stop shooting! Stop fighting!’ The kid let his guns hand down in his hands and sank down beside the rock where the posse could’t see him. Some of the nosse kept shoot- ing at Jim Deever cill he crawled in behind the rock where the kid was hunkered. Jim reached out and took the guns from the kid’s hands and tossed them away. “The fight’s all over,” he soothingly. “Everything’s okay.” Said He heard the posse coming and he guessed that everything was okay for everybody but him. It was a heads-you-win-tails-I-lose game for Jim Deever. Then Guy Rank was standing there, his guns in _ his hands, staring down at Jim and the kid, looking a little puzzled as he saw that Deever didn’t have a gun. The rest of the posse went over to the rock where Serle and Simms lay and one of them yelled back that they had the money. Jim Deever looked down at the kid, his head on his lap and the kid’s eyes were closed. Jim saw that he was unconscious. He reached out and his hand shook a lit- tle as he pushed a damp lock of hair from the kid’s forehead. “T don’t quite sabe this,” said Guy Rank. “Three gents rob a bank and I think you were one of them. Then this young fellow jumps into the game and tries to stop two of the robbers, But this young fellow must be a friend of yours because you walk out here without any guns to try to get to him. If he was a friend of yours why has he trying to stop the gents that helped you?” Jim Deever looked down at the kid again and his hand still trembled. He was glad the kid was unconscious because he wouldnt want him to hear what he was going to say. Guy could tell him after it was all over. “I helped rob the bank,” said Jim Deever, “I used to be an outlaw. But twenty years ago I stopped that and turned honest. Those two fellows over there threatened me, I went with them because I didnt want the boy to know what I’d been. They shot | me when we got to my place. Me and the boy took after them. We thought mebbe if we could get the money back and tell it the way it was that the law would call it quits. “I’m gonna tell you something else,’ he went on. “I’m gonna tell you because I’m gonna die. I’m not so sure I’d tell you if I was going to live. I don’t believe I would because I think too much of this boy to lose him. I worked for him for twenty years, He’s honest. He's fine. He’s as good as you are, as good as any man alive. I want you to know that because he’s your son and I’m the Brazos Kid! I walked out here to get the kid because I had to stop that fight. I had to keep you from killing him or him from. killing you.” 9 UY RANK stood there for a minute and stared at Jim Deever and the kid. Then he squatted down.