Adventure Magazine Cover — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

round here for a few digs He was tryin’ to whip his hoss into a gallop, the —— ten- derfoot, and the poor animul was streaked with lather as if he’d been goin’ it hellity- brindle for a week of Sundays.”’ Uncle Dick thanked him with a nod and ~ commenced tugging at his iron-gray locks. The stage-driver’s gossip upset his plans. The real game was to be found south of the pass. He entered the station and went into Joe Peace’s room. There he found Joe awake and disposing of an ample lunch which had been brought in by the Quail. “The squaw says Miss Mary is sleeping like a top. I was powerful glad to hear it,” greeted Peace. Uncle Dick agreed that this‘ was good news and said: “A while ago I was saying to you that I reckoned the gang had gone south and that I intended to follow them. Since then, Yellow Bear’s bucks have learned that the gang split, part going south and part re- turning toward the Purgatory. I shifted my bets and decided to track ’em north again. Now comes the north-bound coach and the driver swears he see Chuckle-Luck hiding in the woods beside the road, and that he met Sam Keene riding hard toward the south. So I’ve come back to my first plan. T ride south.” “They'll scatter. You'll have a hard time finding them, even one at a time.” “That’s what I’d opine if they had all gone south, but, with half returning to the Purgatory, it can’t be the other half is dis- banding. It’s dad-burned mystifying. So long as they trifled with the coaches, I left it for the government to give ’em their med- icine, but when they troubled my girl they challenged me to fight. I’m peaceful as ——., but after you slap my face about so much I’ll show grit.” “ll go with you,’ promptly declared Peace. ‘But how do you know those going north aren’t planning to disband?” “It ain’t the country to scatter in. In- juns everywhere. Only white men are in the forts, the folks that agents will steer. clear of. In the south they can drift into Mexico or to Californy.” He might have added, if he had felt at liberty to disclose what he believed to be the girl’s personal affairs, that he suspected the north-bound party to be in search of the place where the girl had picked up the nug- gets. This esas while forcing itself upon here. The ‘Gate Tee the Nioeatela’ BS him, did not afford any explanation fix 5 Chuckle-Luck’ s riding south. “Making for Santa Fé,’”’ remarked Peace. “They'll rest up somewhere on the way. At least Keene must stop and get a fresh mount—probably at Whos-Haw, this side of Cimarron.” “We'll 80 where they can be found the thickest,’’ muttered Peace. Uncle Dick hesitated; then asked— “You still opine Keene is the leader of the gang?” % “He must be if he is a member of the gang. The rest are common riffraff ruf- fians.”’ Uncle Dick agreed to this, saying: “From what I see of ’em—and I had a pretty good chance to size most of ’em up— there wasn’t any man of big caliber except their boss. Chuckle-Luck is a rattling good hold-up man; he knows the work part of it, but he ain’t got brains enough to keep the bunch together and under his. thumb. But he’s good as far as he goes. I'll give him credit for that. He worked hard and cleaned up fine, when operating alone.” ‘T ain't interested in Chuckle-Luck. When I meet him I’ll shoot him, but Keene’s the man I’m after, his hide! Had the gall to try to make up to Miss Mary. I'll get him if I have to follow him to Mexico City.” 4 “You didn’t ought to travel before day after tomorrow,” mused Uncle Dick. “See S’pose I start at once, while the trail is fresh, and just dog ’em along. If you’re able, day after tomorrow, you can come after me. My first stop will be at Whoa- Haw. If I pick up any news there and have to move on before you come, I'll leave word for you at ‘Old Tommy’ s’ bar in the Happy Fortune. But I’m free to say Id feel safer for the girl if you was to stick along here and keep guard.” “T’ll stay here two days, if I don’t feel fit to pull out before,”’ saidsPeace. ‘‘No rules against my talking to Miss Mary2” “Rules are all off. She’s got back her senses.”’ “Holy Pike’s Peak! You don’t mean it! cried Peace, his face lighting up and losing its worn and haggard look. “She remem- bers everything, then?”’ “Everything. When the gang stole her and took her down the pass in the coach, you'd expect she would ’a’ gone crazy en- tirely. Maybe she was scared ’most to hae , < > ~ “ rs ss ¥ — S —— = 3 a | | gg a al ees I Lesage é ~< ig an * ws = = os a = —— Slag ia “