Adventure Magazine Cover — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

bounty. ‘ att after caitnight he saw something avitg furtively through the cedars sev- eral hundred yards from him. In an in- : stant he was neeety alert, his fingers grip- he heard another sound ftom a different direction which gave him a different kind — of a thrill} This was unmistakably the = _ tramping of horses’ feet. The animal he had been watching also heard the sound, and it slipped behind a bush out of sight of the approaching horses - and waited. In doing so it came broadside to Dal, and he saw that it was a monstrous = _ timber wolf, His fingers itched for the trigger. At = that ‘distance he knew that he could not _ miss. Another fifty dollars would be enough to retrieve old Spot, and buy supplies. But if he shot the wolf he knew he would send - not return to that locality for months. He = eeated the possibilities swiftly. There eS owas still two weeks to rescue old Spot, and ___ he stood a good chance of killing more ~ eS coyotes even if Thad failed him, but he ____ knew that it might be the last chance he ity surely meant that he would have to ‘walk __. to Hog-up. The gambling instinct, never - _ far submerged in him, rose, and he dropped ater « theriffe. A moment later the wolf slunk away. ‘They were grazing, and it seemed to Dal _ that they would never arrive. At last they fed “See to the bottle-néck of the cafion, ae: s the salt he had sniffed for he turned in- oes 5 “ quir ingly in that direction. The salt-hun- ate BTy - animal boldly advanced through the : = : 2 cae in after him. _* Dalloped through the brush like a coyote, See: 6tt “saa daring to breathe until he reached faile to see the man until he was within a hundred feet of them. When they did see = = they scattered in a panic; some rush- ing blindly against the wall at the farther <= “<a nd; some endeavored to climb the sides of _- the canyon, most of them losing their foot- ing and tumbling back. _ the wild horses into a panic, and they would | The gray alone atbid perfectly still while | 23 = his companions bolted in aimless confu- sion. He was whistling shrillyashe watched = = = the man, his intelligent eyes shining. with suspicion. -Suddenly he broke for the en- trance to the cafiion with the speed of a rocket. Dal had no time to swing his rope as he wanted. He made gne desperate swing, and heaved the entire length of the lariat, except one coil, almost parallel to the course the horse was ‘taking. For a moment it seemed that the gray had evaded the rope, but in the long leap he had made to clear it he miscalculated and both front feet came down squarely in the noose. In the second before he could with- draw them Dal jerked up the slack, and with a lightning movement ‘‘took his dal- lies” around the top of the cedar post with the last remaining coil. Rope, post, and Dal held, and the gray came down with a terrific thump upon the hard: ground, for the moment knocking the wind out of him. Dal had just rope enough to tie a knot at the post. Then picking up the other rope he dashed to the prostrate horse and sat upon his head. He threw a pair of half hitches around the horse’s forefeet, then slipped his improvised hackamore over its head. The horse was hélpless, but he was far from being subdued. As it struggled Dal talked soothingly, sincerity in his pleading voice. . When the horse ceased to fight Dal got up and made the end of the rope, which was tied to the hackamore and the horse’s ankles, fast around the snubbing post. This done he returned to the horse. “Take it easy, Sport, old-timer,’ he ad- monished gently. He was supremely happy for the moment, for he was a horse-breaker as well as a bbe: . lover; but unlike most cowboys he was not a broncho-fighter. There is a great distine- tion between the two methods of dealing with wild horses. . After the next violent efforts of the horse to escape had subsided, Dal took off the half-hitches and allowed the gray to get to — his feet—but only to begin his first lesson In being led. With his hand on the McCarty rope he began pulling the horse first to one side, then the other; all the time clucking and talking to him encouragingly. Soon the horse began to respond, reluctantly at first; but as he found that each step slackened — = €omicbooks SS ae a es fy Se ee = x ~ < . ~~ = wax - Sie ‘ = ° oe ~~ $e ay ~ Ee - . oe via > =a) ~ . + - x 7 of ~~ = on = . : : — = <a = oa ; eae “ *