Adventure Magazine Cover, February 3, 1921 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

My February 3 1921 Vo!. XXViT No. 3 (a Dorado Ee G HUGH PENDEXTER- Author of “Red Belts,” “Kings of the Missouri,” etc. CHAPTER I AT BENT’S OLD FORT OR half a century traders had risked the"dangers of the Arkansas River road for the sake of Santa Fé prof- - its, while free trappers had pene- trated to the headwaters of the Arkansas to barter for Indian robes. During a great portion of this period the American Fur Com- pany and its various rivals had exploited the upper Platte and Missouri for furs. . But neither trader nor trapper caused much apprehension to the mountain and plains Indians. The former kept to the trail, eager to make Taos and Santa Fé and bring their profits home; the latter were one with the red man in desiring to con- serve the wild life, and therefore had no sympathy for home-seekers. Thus it had been for years; white men came and went, seeking Mexican silver and mountain beaver. Copyright, 1921, by The Ridgeway Company in the United States and Great Britain. Then white women and children appeared on the plaigs; and word sped from the Blackfeet and Assiniboins in the north to the Lipan Apaches on the Rio Grande that the white race was deserting its lodges under the rising sun. The traders and trapper - foresaw that the women and children meant a mighty migration. ~ Until the ’45 migration these venture- some settlers usually moved in one com- pact party, their wagons and steck giving the aspect of a mighty host. As the pion- eers developed confidence they dared to travel in units of from fifty to a hundred and fifty wagons each. The grass was ‘‘fed down” along the Oregon Trail, and the groves of timber marking the waterways began to show shrinkage. No wonder the astounded red man be- lieved that the East was emptied of its people; nor is it surprizing that he should dream of crossing the Mississippi and taking over the abandoned lodges and fields. It All rights reserved, 3 COMNICLOOOKS (C@