Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

10 THOMSON BURTIS had any reason to be scared of the law!” “You might figure he acted in good faith for the good of Verona,” Tex ruminated. “Lots of these towns don’t want law in the ordinary sense. They want women and booze and six-shooter law.” “But I'll be damned if they try to de- stroy Government property and de- liberately alienate officers of the law.” “It might be that those two bozos originated the idea themselves, and the big boy had little to do with it,’ Tex suggested. “Possible, but not probable. Here are the guards.” The two roughly dressed, stubbled bearded riders dismounted leisurely, and the heavier of the two inquired— “MacDowell and Daly?” “Right. You’re the guards Mr. Ivers sent out?” “Yes, suh.” Both men were armed, and looked thoroughly competent for a job which, within the last few moments, had assumed importance. “Know Jed Conklin?” Daly asked them. : “Shore do,” said the smaller man, wiping his mustache with the back of his hand. “He just tried to put this ship out of commission. Looks as though some people in this town didn’t want it to fly. So you may have work to do. The orders are this. Put up stakes in a circle twenty feet away from the ship, and shoot if any- body tries to get closer. You’re guarding Government property now,” Daly told them quietly: He was watching the guards closely, and they showed no signs of surprise. “That’s funny,” the tall one said ruminatively, scratching his incipient goatee. ‘Must be this here election’s gonna be a humdinger.” Darkness was falling, and Daly could see no reason for questioning the guards further when more information could be obtained from Ivers. They were to use the guard’s horses. As they walked toward them Tex remarked: 7% “That’s a good ship there. Looks like a Robin’s Cruiser to me. Notice the Liberty? It is a Cruiser.” Daly nodded. The ship was a heavy- set, thick winged model, with space for two passengers in the front seat. The pilot’s cockpit was the rear one. “She'll do about what the DH will, won’t she?” he inquired absently. “Uh huh—a little more.” They mounted, and as they were on their way across the field Tex remarked: “I don’t see why an election should make it necessary for a ship to be put out of order. If we planned to interfere, we couldn’t do any good in the air. What do you make of that, Watson?” “Who can tell what’s up in a town like this only ten miles from the river? Do you figure, furthermore, that it’s a bit peculiar for that man who was alongside the ship when we were coming down to disappear and fail to extend greetings to his fellow flyers?” Tex grinned blissfully. “Probably all a pipe dream,” he chuckled. “But it doesn’t hurt to hope that something might happen, does it? We’ve made a great start. One of the powerful men of the town hates usal- ready, and we’ve got an unknown guy to fight for the honor and money of the family. This election, by all signs, should mean quite a fruity day tomorrow. Allin all, Duke, my boy, I’m glad to be among you.” The big Texan was in his private idea of the seventh heaven. Daly smiled, his eyes momentarily warm. “T’m not sorry,” he said evenly. “In fact, ’'m not too sorry that this Conklin chap has got me thoroughly and com- pletely bewildered. He may be anything from just a dunce to an outlaw so sure of himself that he thinks he can run the Border Patrol as well as Verona.” “That'll probably be cleaned up in our minds after we talk to Ivers,’ Tex said. “Say, wouldn’t it be a joke if he was the bozo who was rooking dad?” comicloooks.com