Adventure Magazine Cover — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

a slim, olive-skinned girl. her shoes were worn off, and her dress had aha RANCH ‘ , TOPAZ oe Bite wasBRoucH's RAN iN Pte an Ge a SILVER Hes MINE. (J ye Has SBROUCKS 9 HOG-uUP oq 00 ANNAMUCCA The toe-caps of been washed and patched until its original color was only a memory, but her eyes _. drinking with joyful gurgles. ~__ occurred to him that he was trespassing. were calm and unafraid. Dal removed his “s hat, and stood awkwardly while he fumbled _ for words which would not come. “You wish to buy some water?” the girl z asked clearly. Dal turned toward old Spot who was It had not “Yes, please, I want to water my horse.” “That will be twenty-five cents,” she an- ae Sao quietly. o> | Dal dug down into the pockets of the new __.___corduroys where his purse was supposed to be, but his hand came back empty. For oS ‘the first time he remembered that he had neglected to take his money from the cast- - ~ off overalls back on the ranch. He became crimson in embarrassment. “T—J—suess Pll have to work it out. oss Mebbe you can let me chop some wood or something. You see I’m—I’m broke,” ; -_ hurriedly. water but—but that i is all we have to live Ze on. = _ he faltered. “That will be all right,” the girl said “IT hate to charge any one for > _ She blushed as furiously as Dal had done. “But what. I come for mostly, was to a help for an old man up in the cedars Adventure — who is pretty badly hurt,” Dal paRtanrs to say. “My father?” the girl gasped. — Dal swiftly scrutinized the girl’s features. - The soft, luminous eyes, rather highly arched nose, generous mouth, and delicate — but firm chin were the same as those of the old man. “I’m afraid so,” he answered. The girl’s face went white under the tan, but she preserved her balance admirably. “How badly-is he hurt?” she asked. “TY don’t think he’s in any danger, but his ~ back seems to be hurt so that he can’t move—much,” Dal informed her. -“Tve been afraid some of those pros- pecting holes he has been digging would cave in on him,” she said nervously. Again Dal sized the girl ip with a keen, covert glance. Undoubtedly she was of firm fiber. It was better, he felt, for her to know the truth at once. ‘Your father was hurt in a fight with a man named Hasbrouck,” he said. “TI got there just after it was over, so I don’t know ‘Hasbrouck assaulted my father! Oh, the brute! The beast!’’ she whispered. The soft lines of her mouth became straight and hard. : “Have you got a team an’ buck-board?” Dal asked. The girl’s face flamed at again bain forced to acknowledge her poverty. ‘“‘We have the front wheels of an old wagon with shafts in that we used for a cart until our old horse died.” “That’ll be fine,” Dal said. is just as amiable in harness as he is under the saddle.” He recaptured old Spot and led the horse to the cart. Every object he came in contact with seemed to be tainted with bitter, abject poverty. The frame on the cart had to be rebuilt with cedar poles, and the ax he was compelled. to use was nicked and blunted almost past redemption; but finally, with the aid of his lasso rope he had the frame large and strong enough so that a man could lie on it fulllength. It required considerable more ingenuity to hook re- luctant old Spot to the cart with the rotten remnants of what had once been a harness. But in less than half an hour he was able - to pilot the cart around in front of the cabin. The girl was waiting anxiously “Qld Spot com cS G ' ~ 000) (C@