Adventure Magazine Cover, February 3, 1921 — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

70 Kitts shifted his gloomy gaze from the dead man to the trader and said: “You must go back. Your arm must be fixed up.” “Ouil Ouil’” faintly agreed Laramie. “Ride on, my friends. I go back ver’ quick.” As he reined his horse about he swayed in the saddle and might have fallen had not Reason’s strong arm supported him. “Take him back, Parson,” growled Joe. “Tom ’n’ me can chase these critters alone.” Expressing his exasperation in low-voiced oaths, Kitts rode beside the trader and consented to escort him to town. “Don’t try to more than find out where they hide up,” he warned Joe. “T’ll have Oakes send men to fetch in Shirley’s body and bury it. As soon as I get your friend fixed up Ill follow after you with a posse. Leave signs to show which way you're making.” Joe nodded and raced up the slope, only finding on reaching the top of the hill that the four men had vanished. Reason fol- lowed, yelling something unintelligible. Joe ‘slowed down to permit his friend to catch up with him, and when Reason did so he exclaimed: . “That Injun has mighty strong medicine! Wish I was sure my snake is as good.” “Derned poor medicine when it come to a pinch. Let him be shot down by th’ murderer of his whole fambly.” “Wal, if ye’d squinted back at th’ wagons afore ye dipped over th’ rise ye’d seen that same Injun walkin’ round in circles with both hands on his head.” “So? Wal, Tommy, yer snake medicine hit it off mighty pert. Ye said there was white as well as red blood; an’ here’s a red an’ white man wounded, an’ th’ red-head dead. An’ his dyin’ don’t help us any in Varnin’ who’n sin this Half-Mask is. I still say it’s Old Oakes.” “But he was dealin’ his game last night.”’ “Part o’ th’ night. I ain’t sure he was dealin’ when Laramie started for home.” “Laramie says Half-Mask used rough language. Oakes is pretty-spoken.” “So’s th’ devil,” grimly reminded Joe. “We'll put it another way. Nothin’ to stop Oakes from gittin’ one of his men to use th’ mask an’ make th’ hold-up. If th’ feller was killed th’ hunt of Half-Mask would stop. If he got clear folks would be- lieve Half-Mask was some ignerant feller. Adventure “We both can cut this notch in our stick; Half-Mask ain’t nobody’s fool. These fellers we’re chasin’ are jest blind tools. Lost all hankerin’ to wipe ’em out. Better to let ’em live an’ foller ’em till they lead us to their boss.” CHAPTER X THE ENCOUNTER IN THE CANON R twenty miles the trappers searched for Half-Mask. At last they found themselves in the Cafion of the Platte with- out having discovered any sign of his trail. It was California Joe’s insistence that took them thither. Reason, scarcely less in- sistent, had urged that they first search Clear Creek Cafion. But Joe had had his way. They were now at the beginning of fifty miles of crooks and turns, walled in by precipitous heights or gradual slopes. A pistol-shot away up the river seemed to issue from the base of an overhanging cliff. A brief reconnaissance brought them to the bend and permitted another vista to invite their exploration. The cafion, twisting and turning, alternated between stretches of thousand-foot walls so close to the stream that only a slit of blue sky could be seen, with the day’s seasoning of sunshine endur- ing only for minutes, and here and there wider spaces where the walls had begrudg- ingly withdrawn. Through the crevices the_river was tu- multuous, and, brawling violently, pro- ceeded with its work of erosion. Where the walls were broken down and the slopes permitted an escape from the bottom of the cation the waters were almost placid in their relaxations. | California Joe had selected this locale as a likely hiding-place for the outlaws because of its innumerable recesses, its tortuous course and the perfection of its offerings for ambuscades. Longer and wilder than the Clear Creek Gorge, it should be, he logically maintained, Half-Mask’s first choice as a retreat. The trappers had ridden direct for the cafion, scarcely expecting to find any tell- tale signs on the way. . Reason said that his medicine was strong, and that it had proved its worth during the first of the chase when its prophecy of blood was fulfilled. . The snakeskin had spoken truthfully at comicbooks (C@)