Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

Safe for Sam “Get out! And you say you’re going to pack up?” “Yes. I figure [ll fold and blow this evening. Catch me taking fifteen days on this joint. Too many other good places to go to.” , “You’re right, old man. Don’t blame you a bit.” Seeley’s inward satisfaction was not so well covered up, however, as to prevent Lee detecting a hint of it. He made nosign, but like Sam began to collect his things. “T don’t give a hoot,” he affirmed. kind of a relief to get loose.” “Be ) ABOUT three hundred yards west F lees of “WN” tower, or not quite half- way between the tower and the depot in Willowburn town, the N. & P. was intersected at right angles by a north-and- south highway. On the northern side of the tracks the surrounding land was clearof trees and underbrush, while on the southern side the road passed directly into a rather exten- sive stretch of second-growth timber and for a considerable distance ran through it. It was a highway not greatly traveled, being more of a byroad into the back country, and connecting on to the main highroad a little farther south. All things considered, it was a spot made to order for the affair which, Lee Wheeler felt, was to be pulled off this Wednesday night; a spot that doubtless had been a mat- ter of careful selection by those involved. All parts of the affair were not clear to Wheeler. But as he mused and reflected in the midnight quiet near the road crossing, he believed that he was gradually aligning the segments into a semblance of order. He had departed from the vicinity of Wil- lowburn, as far as any person in or about the town knew. But he had not departed far, merely this quarter-mile east. With his suitcase in his hand, he had stepped on a local passenger train leaving Willowburn shortly after dark. But after the train had started he had promptly stepped off into the darkness on the other side, quite unseen. A rumble in the north presently roused him. He faced that way, listening; and in a little time he beheld a single light bobbing this way and that as it moved down the roadway toward the tracks. ' “A truck,” muttered Lee. “Sort of thought there would be. We'll see.”’ The droning motor drew nearer. And in 65 a few minutes, dimly vague in the starlit night, there passed across the tracks before his eyes a huge covered motor moving van, curtains flapping like quivering bat’s wings. The truck cleared the rails, dipped into the shelter of the trees, which on the south side closely encroached on the N. & P. right-of- way, and stopped. The motor ceased its ag te By that time Wheeler had crept close. “Switch off the lights,” he heard a rather heavy voice say, guardedly. ‘This is the place.” ‘“Right-o,” said a second, milder voice. The single front lamp and the red tail lamp blinked out. ‘“There.”’ A short silence. “TI s’pose a guy couldn’t have a smoke?”’ “Better not. Don’t reckon there’s any one around, though. Especially not since Seeley called the chief up this afternoon and told him that first-trick guy was leaving. He’s the only one the chief was anyways bothered about. But we'll play safe; no smokes.”’ The words, carefully as they were spoken, reached Wheeler’s ears where he lay, flat on the ground, not twenty feet from the speakers. He smiled in the darkness; he’d had Brayle worried, sure enough. “Guess we just about made it on time.” It was the second man. “He said to get here not more’n fifteen minutes before Ninety-Two was due. Must be about twelve-ten now.” “Just about. Don’t s’pose there’s any chance of Gip missing Ninety-Two.”’ “Naw! You know Gip’ll not fall down on us; he never has yet. If that Seeley does his part and stops the high-ball freight you can count on Gip having the car open and about fifty thousand dollars worth of stuff out before you can bat your eye. All we'll have to do will be load up and beat it after Ninety-Two goes. That crew’ll never know anything’s happened when they leave here.”’ Wheeler, tense, ears straining, took in every word. This was something to hear! The links which had been missing in his chain were supplied. The plan lay before him, clear! On the gentle breeze that came from the west drifted the far-distant, faint whistle of a train. “There she is, Dusty!” exclaimed the first man’s voice, rising a bit. “All out!” Silently Wheeler backed away from the truck Dusty and his pal would not likely cComicoooks C©