Adventure Magazine Cover — page 185: what you’re looking at

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

. Law Rustlers I could shoot. A bullet splatted into the books, but before I could lift my gun, Hashknife’s shot was echoed by a crash that shook up the whole country. ; [ seen the front of that building jump of the ground and dissolve into smoke. ‘Come on, you law rustler!” yelps Hash- knife. | I ducked a piece of two-by-four and set my spurs into that hammer-headed gray. Hashknife had been lucky enough to send a bullet into that box of giant caps under the fifty pounds of dynamite. T looks back as we hammers down the road, but there ain’t a soul on our trail. We swings across a high bridge over Willer Crick, and Hashknife stops. “Get a couple of heavy rocks, Sleepy,” says he. ‘Rope one on each side of that bunch of books, and drop the whole works over the side.” ‘“‘Ain’t yuh going to turn these over to the lawe”’ I asks. 3 “No-o-o, I reckon not. I don’t believe in rubbin’ anybody raw. They’ll never know but what we did, and we’ve sure amended the constitution of Sol Vane and his bunch.” : We sunk their law in six feet of swift water and then rode on. About half a mile from the forks of the road we swings around a curve and almost runs over Al Bassett and another man. Bassett’s right arm is out of commission and the other feller is kinda sick from too much lead. “They were sent after that old man,” says Buddy. “Tt’s been a hard day for Willer Crick,” observes Hashknife. Bassett can’t hang onto himself any longer. Hashknife takes off his hat and holds it in his hand until Bassett stops. “Sleepy,” says Hashknife, “did yuh ever hear the like. I wish I could cuss like that. Bassett, you’re one of the fellers who was sent down here to stop the old man, ain’t yuh? Did the mule kick yuh or did the old man bite yuh?” Bassett refuses to talk, and the other feller is too sick to remember. “A feller by the name of Poky Vane is tied up in Mitch Ames’ cabin,” says Hash- knife. “I reckon you'll see that he gets loose.” “Willer Crick will git you yet!” snarls Bassett. “TY refuse to argue,’ grins Hashknife. 179 “Home won’t never seem the same to you fellers. Adios.” We left ’em there in the road. “Why didn’t we take Cale Ames out with us, Hashknife?”’ Tasks. ‘‘Mebbe the sheriff won’t be able to find him.” “Tt would be our word against a hun- dred, Sleepy. Me and you ain’t so danged lily-white that a jury’d take our word against a hundred; and besides, hangin’ ain’t half as bad as thinkin’ about it.” At the forks of the road, where the old sign-board hangs, we found the old preacher and Glory Sillman with a rifle. “T had a escort,” says the old man, nod- ding at Glory. “She—she saw that I got out safe.”’ “She did,’’ nods Hashknife. a mile or so ago.” Glory starts to swing her horse around. ‘“I—I reckon I better be going back,” says she. “You come wit’ us,” says Buddy. “We licked ’em.” Glory looks at Buddy and then at Hashknife. “I’m goin’ to adopthim,” says Hash- knife. “Yuh might come with us, Glory. There ain’t no more Willer Crick law to stop yuh now. ‘The trail’s wide open.” Glory and Hashknife sets there and looks at each othér. I looks at the old man and he looks at me. I turns and points down the valley and says to the old man: “Do yuh see that peak ’way down there, old-timer?” “T do. What about it, son?” “T never climbed it in my life.” “Well, well!” says he. “Ain’t that queer?” We sets there like a pair of danged fools and admires that peak, which don’t mean a thing to either of us. ‘You comin’?” shrills Buddy, and we turns to see Hashknife and Glory riding down the road side by side, while Buddy leans out past Hashknife and yells at us. The old man looks at me and says— “Son, if you’ll ride slow, mebbe I can make my mule keep up.” I turns in my saddle, grabs that old sign and tears it off the tree, after which I throws it into the brush. Then I turns back to the old. man. “T ain’t in no hurry, ’cause I know I'll never get there anyway,” says I. ‘““Where?”’ he asks. “Alaska.” “T seen that COPMICLOOOKS (FE)