Adventure Magazine Cover — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

J. ore a Pee we. ant ~ . ee Sy and neither have we. ss blooded, cynical—won’t touch any case ' “We got along very well, however,” Vincie went on, “until recently we began having trouble with a big cattle outfit twenty-five miles west of here. The trouble today is an outgrowth of it.” “You mean to say that this man Has- _ brouck owns a cattle outfit in this country?” Dal demanded incredulously. “Yes,” Vincie replied quietly, not notic- ing his surprize. ‘‘He intends to winter his cattle on the strips of sweet and white sage, and he refuses to pay us for watering his stock, though of course they must water here. Furthermore, he declares .that he will not allow any sheepmen to come near Silver Zone Spring. It will mean starva- tion for us unless we leave, and we have no place to go—even if father was not hurt.” __ Dal tried to detect the bid for sympathy .that seemed natural, but there was none. ‘Isn’t ‘there anything you can do legally to protect yourself from Hasbrouck?” Dal asked, though, knowing the man as he did, he knew the question to be foolish. “This is a long way from civilization,” the girl said wearily. “It is fifty miles to - the nearest town, and another fifty to the county-seat. Besides, Hasbrouck has a great deal of influence with the officials, and we have none.’ “Then there’s no possible way to stand him off?” “He has offered to respect our rights on one condition.” “And that is?” “That I marry him,” the girl said simply. A wave of anger surged over Dal, and he saw red. He knew that Hasbrouck had a . wife and children in Idaho. He picked up =e . his gun and started toward his horse. “Where is Hasbrouck’s ranch?” he de- manded huskily. “Please Mr. ——” Vincie’s voice recalled - him. The flaming desire to kill subsided as {quickly as it had come, and he returned to the girl. He saw that what she needed was not vengeance but help. - “T was just goin’ to git myehorse an’ go e for that doctor in—Hog-up is it?” he said. ~~ Ves. But how? You have no money, They say he is cold- unless he has his fee in advance.” “Don’t you worry none—I’ll send him out here tomorrow,” Dal asserted. He mounted old Spot and loped away. | Adventure He looked back orice, and seeing the girl watching him, waved an encouraging hand. “She thinks she’s seen us for the last time,” he told old Spot, ‘“but believe me, old hoss, we’re comin’ back. We don’t run from no man but once,” CHAPTER IV THE SUPREME SACRIFICE g Bos is no toughness like that of a range horse, and old Spot was equal to the toughest of the breed. Once finding out there was to be no night rest for him he loped along through the moon-lit mysteries of the desert on tireless legs. Dal was so - innured to the saddle that except for the inability to sleep he was as comfortable as he would have been in his blankets. Lack of sleep did-not bother him this night in the least—his mind was too busy trying to see a way through the queer com- plications that had thrown him so suddenly into indirect contact with his worst enemy. The one ‘positive, :unalterable fact in the situation was that no man, who was a man, could abandon Vincie Bently to the tender mercies 6f Bill Hasbrouck out there in the desolation around Silver Zone Spring. And Dal was a man. Whatever complications might arise when his identity was disclesed to Hasbrouck would have to be faced when the time came. Before he reached Hog-up Dal had solved, to his own satisfaction at least, the reason for Hasbrouck’s double life. In five years _ acquaintance with the man the times he had actually seen him had been comparatively few. Hasbrouck and his crew of hard-bit- ten punchers kept very much to them- selves. Hasbrouck was known to be a cat- .tle buyer rather than a breeder, and: it seemed so obvious now that many of the supposedly purchased cattle had been rus- tled in Nevada and trailed to the Topaz ranch that Dal wondered why he had not thought of it before. There was rustling known to have been done around Topaz, and though suspicion had never rested upon Hasbrouck Dal was now sure that he was guilty,-and that the cattle stolen there were driven to this ranch in Nevada. No won- der Hasbrouck kept his movements coy- ered, and his ownership of two ranches in different states secret. The development of this theory raised COMUNE IOOKS ». (E@)