Adventure Magazine Cover — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

78 He slammed down on the bar a piece of ore that resembled lead, a chlorid of silver impregnated with gold and worth four dollars an ounce as taken from the mine, and so soft as to be cut with a knife. “Any counterfeit about that, huh?” “Ruby silver, by !? some one gasped. The half-circle seemed to shiver. Eyes that burned with murder were focused on . the ragged fellow. There were men at the bar who would gladly have cut his throat for an ounce of dust, and if his boasting was half-true he possessed the secret to millions. The spokesman for the group breathed deep and fast as if exhausted by fast running. When he could control his voice he signaled for the others to remain quiescent and pushed the bottle before Lucky Tom and in a jovial voice cried: “Good luck to you, my boy. I hope you've got tons of it! Hope you live a million years to enjoy it! Drink up on a poor devil who hasn’t any bonanza behind him.” The miner chuckled sardonically and flipped a nugget across the bar and said: “We'll drink, but I'll do the buying. No use for me to cart any of this stuff back with me.” Before any reply could be made a sturdily built fellow with a polished bald head leaped up from a small table, his cards still grasped in his hand, and buffeted his way through to the miner’s side and demanded: ‘“Where’s the gulch you're yelping about? Spit it out! You men are too soft and polite. His secret belongs to all of us. Curse me if I’l] drag along when I sce a man who’s found enough gold to make us all rich! Now, you big fool, where’s those diggings located? You don’t hog them any longer.” And, still gripping the cards, the gambler drew a dragoon pistol, sawed off short, and held it under the miner’s nose. “Y’m desperate! Tl stand no holding back. You spit it out, or off goes the top of your head. The game’s big enough for me to risk anything onit. The percentage makes me sit in. Come! I’m waiting.” The group remained silent, no one in- terfering. Shoshoni Hale reached a long arm over a man’s shoulder and tapped the gambler qn the head with his open hand. “Easy thee stranger,’ he gently warned. “Tf that pistol should go off by mistake your head would follow his at once.”’ Without removing his gaze from the miner the gambler quietly asked— Adventure “Has he got me covered?” “No gun in sight but he looks like he’d draw right smart.” “All right,” calmly observed the gambler and, lowering his weapon, he backed to a clear space in the floor. The miner faced about and rested his elbows on the edge of the bar and grinned delightedly at the discomfited gambler. Without glancing at Hale he said: “Much obliged, neighbor; but now I'll take the ribbons. I ain’t so drunk but what I can take care of all the trouble that comes head-on. You boys scatter to one side so’s I can size up this critter that tries to sink a shaft in my private affairs.” The crowd quickly melted away. Hale gave the miner a sharp glance and decided he was able to look after his own business. With a gesture to indicate hé was through with the situation he moved down the bar. For nearly a minute the gambler stood with his pistol dangling from his right hand, the left hand still clinging to the cards, his bald head thrust forward like a vulture’s. Lucky Tom, still leaning against the bar with his hands hanging loosely before his deep chest, found the situation amusing, and he began to laugh loudly. The gambler slowly announced— “T will now teach you to laugh.at me.” With that he threw up the pistol and at the same moment the miner’s hand flashed from the bosom of his shirt, and the two explosions almost came as one. The pistol ball grazed the miner’s neck and smashed a bottle of whisky on the back-bar. The lead from the revolver drilled through the polished bald head and the gambler went down on his face. _ Instantly Hale had the miner by the shoulder and was pulling him toward the door and whispering in his ear: “Git out of town! I’ll swear it was self- defense. But git out now.” ~ He fairly hurled him the remaining dis- tance to the door. Lucky Tom gave him one look of thanks and fled. The room was a pandemonium for a minute. Many of the patrons had crawled under the tables, or behind the bar, or had .bolted to the street in anticipation of further shooting. That a man who had appeared to be so helplessly drunk should be so capable of defending himself left the remaining spec- tators stupefied. Hale was the first to advance and kneel GOMIIGoOO S (©)