Action-Packed Western, May 1957 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

78 ACTION-PACKED WESTERN — -— Herb had always been a heller, afraid of no man. disappeared and the Border River con- tinued to dwindle as it eked past the Callosos Plain. A combine of ranchers had dammed off the trickle and thus brought the present killing spree into being. It was Jed Martin’s singlehand- ed raid on the dam that had led to his shooting. Now, with Jeb’s sons on the prowl, men who had been in on the murder walked with tight nerves. A week after Will Thatcher’s death, Alex Minor died. The body was found in a hot swale, amid the long-whitened bones of a winter-killed steer. Five empty cartridges told of the fight he had put up. His neck was broken by a slug that had stabbed its way under his lean jaw. The trampled straw, scraped clear of the black rocky ground, told the Sheriff that Minor had died fighting. “Looks to me like one man did it.” Sheriff Hannibal was hunkered down beside the dead man. Slowly, he raised his eyes to his lone deputy. “Looks like he come ridin’ hard—this killer—on Minor’s trail. Minor outrun him and got into his place. He put up a real fight, but this killer crawled straight forward,” he pointed a long finger. “Then he made a runnin’ dive into the swale, firin’ sideways.” “You think it was Ray or Herb done it?” The deputy was struggling to hoist Minor’s stiffened body onto a skittish pack horse. “Could’a been Ray but it’s fhore like Herb’s kind of gunfightin’.” He turned his head nervously. “Why don’t you blinder that horse?” “Won't help, the critter smells blood. Now if the Martins really done this, how’d they know Minor was in on their Pa’s killin’?” The deputy had the body over the pack saddle and was looping a short rope under the animal’s belly. “Don’t know,’ mused the sheriff, “Maybe Minor wasn’t in on the old man’s killin’: that’s the trouble. There’s a lot of men real worried that Martins’ll tie some innocent man into their vengeance set up. Y’know how certain ranchers sort of stick together at roundup, and on social and range meetin’s... But that don’t mean they’d still hang together on a water- fight killin’, see?” “What’s our next move, Sheriff?” “We'll hold an inquest on this body. [Turn To Page 80} Gomichbooks (E(O)