Adventure Magazine Cover — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

122 ‘|! That seems brutal!” gasped Dins- dale, wiping his perspiring face. “Reckon it would seem more merciful if we left him here to die by inches with the timber wolves dropping in to keep him company,” was the sarcastic rejoinder. “When you have something disagreeable to do, go through with it quick.” As he said the last he climbed over the _ dead tree and picked up the Indian’s gun and examined it. “See! This is why the cuss couldn’t give us another shot. Got a cartridge jammed.”’ “Ugh! Let’s get away from here. All right in fighting, but when a man’s helpless, even a Sioux——” ‘And when a white man’s helpless they’ll skin him alive. Know how Raw Hide Creek got its name? Injuns caught a poor white and skinned him alive,” crisply broke in Pyrites. “If I was red and treated a prisoner like I did this scum they’d kick me out of the tribe for hav- ing crick water in my veins instead of blood.” “Oh, I know it was the most decent thing to do, Pyrites, and that it couldn’t be toned down by any amount of ceremony. But my tummy revolts. Come on.” “Waita minute. Let’s prospect a trifle— Ah!” And he found something under the débris and dangled it before Dinsdale’s eyes. ‘This makes you feel any better?” It was a non-commissioned officer’s blouse with “‘7 C” on the collar. A hole through the front of the blouse showed the savage was wearing it when shot and had pulled it off to get at the wound. There were other rents in the garment which had been made when the original owner was wear- ing it. Dinsdale’s face hardened. “T don’t feel squirmish any more,” he gritted. “He helped wipe out Custer on the Little Big Horn. The owner of that blouse was in the Seventh Cavalry. Bring it along, Pyrites.” “T want to take his hair back to town. The boys do make a lot of fuss over Sioux or Cheyenne hair,” said Pyrites. Dinsdale*® turned back down the slope. Pyrites overtook him with the scalp fastened to a short stick. “Tt’ll fetch us good luck,” he declared. - ‘When I have time [’ll cut a medicine pole and hitch this to it. San Juan will admire to have it in front of his tent.” “Tt’s getting along. There may be others Adventure about. This fellow didn’t have any bow and arrow, and there was the arrow we found. Let’s eat and move on.” “Suits me. Farther we go the nearer we get to a fortune. I’ve found color ever since you went wandering, but nothing bet- ter than day wages. But don’t worry about that Injun. If he’d had any friends we’d have heard from him before this. It’s my notion he was the same cuss who was prowling around our camp at the peak. When he come gunning for us this after- noon he put aside his bow and arrers. I reckon he was an ambitious young buck who’s already counted two or three coups and wanted to get some scalps and win a new war name. Id have fetched his rifle along, but he never cleaned it. Awful foul— I don’t know whether I’ll give this hair to San Juan or Keno Frank. San Juan didn’t treat me very good when he backed down on the grub-stake. I don’t feel San Juan has treated me just right.” “‘Joe’s allright. Let’s eat and clear out,” impatiently urged Dinsdale. Pyrites was ready to shift the camp. He did not mind the proximity of the dead Indian, but he was anxious to search for rich paying hill diggings. Eating an early supper the burros were loaded and the two struck to the southeast for a mile and then turned east into a dry water-course and began mounting the divide. In all they did not cover more than two miles before the slanting sun-rays warned them it was time to make camp. Dinsdale left this matter entirely to Pyrites, and the location selected was close by a spring and near a growth of stunted burr-oak. As Pyrites pitched the tent he commented: ‘We're below Elk Buttes and about ten miles east of Elkhorn Prairie. I'd like to go over there and put in a few days. juns used to make medicine there. They put up a framework of long poles, tepee shape, and filled it with elk skulls. And there’s buffalo skulls, painted very gay ‘with blue and red, and laid out in straight rows and circles.” ‘“‘!’m more interested in the divide ahead than in any grass prairie,” said Dinsdale. “Oh, we’d look over the divide first, now we’re within pistol-shot of it.”’ ‘“Any danger from horse-thieves?”’ ‘““Hoss-thieves? Goodland! What made you think of hoss-thieves?”’ “San Juan Joe was saying they are COMMiICLOoOokKs In- (C@