Adventure Magazine Cover — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

A Pot of Gold to back away but another hand reinforced the first. A queer sensation came over Tom. His brain numbed. Then he clenched his teeth. With a mighty heave of his arms he tried to pull those clutching fingers away. He couldn't. , His breath shortened. He felt his strength leaving. And this man was trying to throttle him! Longing to kill him! Savagely, desperately, Tom swung a hammering fist at Hill’s bluish jaw. The big gambler staggered but hung on. Tom smashed again. The fingers relaxed. Tom gathered his last strength and swung a paralyzing fist. It struck squarely. The terrible fingers lost their grip. Hill’s battered head drooped forward and his knees doubled under him. He tumbled to the ground and lay still. Tom, gasping for air, swayed drunkenly on the porch while the crowd seemed to re- volve in bilious circles before his eyes. He put hands tohis throat. Deep indents were still in the flesh and he rubbed them. His mind began to clear. He stumbled over Hill and looked at him. The big gambler was quivering back to con- sciousness. ‘Bring him some water,” choked Tom. em@ees FOR the first time he noted that the yey crowd had grown enormously, reach- ““—" ing almost across the street. Tom felt like an actor on the stage. Even the bearded doctor was in the audience, and the dance-hall girls. Puzzled and speculative faces looked at Tom from all sides. The episode had come swiftly. The men wondered what it meant forthem. Their world had changed. Tom resolved to give them no chance to organize against him. He had dethroned a leader and he must take the leader’s place, otherwise there would be anarchy. That minute he saw his future task. It was a large contract. Hill was recovering. Tom‘turned to him. ‘“‘Are you ready to start?’” The big gambler looked over the crowd somberly. No one had struck a blow for him. If he were some roistering Robin Hood or Dick Turpin things might have been different, but with him everything had been cold cash business. | “Yeh. I’m ready to go,” he growled at length. ‘Then we'll see what becomes of 29 this bunch. Lemme inside. I want to git my money.” “Come ahead.” Tom was suspicious. Hill accepted de- feat too easily. But the big gambler made no false move. ‘““You needn’t be skeered,”’ he grunted. ‘You couldn’t hire me to stay heres. I’ve seen enough of em. We’llsee how they get along without me.”’ Hill stuffed money into his pockets and filled a satchel. Tom didn’t like the idea, but he couldn’t rob Hill; so the big gam- bler got away with it. He started down- country, disappearing in a cloud of dust. The big gambler had hinted at the truth. He’d let the district suffer for a while with- out him! Tom had become responsible for the future of the country. He began to see the stately job he had taken. His crowd still further impressed it upon him. “Well, you did it, young feller,’”’ said the bearded citizen. ‘‘Now the rest of it’s up to you.” Tom accepted the challenge. In two days he organized the town’s better citizens. In two weeks they held an election. A town government came into being. Big Red was made constable. Tom had prestige, won by beating Hill. It held down the opposition; but the rough- er element formed the majority and began to reassert itself. Fights started. Newspapers from San Francisco saved the situation. Spread on their inside pages were flam- boyant advertisements of the Escalante Bonanza Mining-Company, with pictures of money-bags all over the borders. The advertisements were printed in the days before California’s corporation laws were well developed, and the sky was the limit. Modesty and conservative statements were rigidly suppressed. Adjectives were fairly spattered over the page. Never was there such a glittering gold- mine as this. Never was such a chance offered the public. Fabulous riches await- ed the lucky investor. Didn’t the famed Comstock give thousands to a man who put in a few paltry hundreds? Aren’t there millions of dollars taken from gold-mines every year? Invest now! A person has to grasp opportunity by the forelock. Put your COmiclbook ©