Adventure Magazine Cover — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

H Le <a to me—an’ don’t let oe - tt. __ “Awright,’ ” the man agreed, somewhat Se taken back. _ i _ Dal’s first step was to go to the post-office and inquire for a letter for Walter Dallas. z3 ‘a one a. long, raillike specimen Abe; = but a single shect of paper. “Dear Dal,” = he read, as Wuz glad to ress you'd got away. Awfully sorry can’t send you no money. Somebody done beet | ants and tuk yore pocket-book. Bill fee done rounded up yore cattle and es Ernictcd them. He claims you owed him money - and Nobody can’t say you didn’t cause you ain’t : ae =S ae to say so yoreself. Hasbrouck Also knocked = fence down and Pastured off yore wheat. He His cattle in dish Pan basin now. If I had “any money id send you some, but I ain’t sold a thing off my Ranch. Me and brick will be in topaz on the 15 of Octe but for God’s sake don’t you _ be there. The Sheep growers have raised a of a commotion about that killin’, and Hasbrouck and slim are tellin’ how they saw you Kill ’em cold, so if i was you I’d put a —— of a lot more distance between me and oe The missus sends her re- ‘ Ee ards. As ever, T ad Thompson, ,P: & Nobody __ knows about yore letter or this one.’ ee Dal’s head whirled dizzily for an instant what cramped handwriting. This meant _ another hope gone, and signified that Bill -__Hasbrouck’s victory on the other side of the - mountain was now complete. It meant 3 & sors old Spot must suffer.a longer term risonment. ost-oflice occupied only a small | fae ‘dently the proprietor. see around here pays the bounty on = eal. superior wisdom. “Why; you can’t collect the bounty till ¢ papers are sent in to the State capital, da tam eee set to. the Feed of the = es che had deciphered his friend’s some-_ and the postmaster was — there cies here then that'll buy em at ~ a discount?” “Well, I might,” Cutler, the postmaster 7 said foxily, “providin’ the discount is big. = enough.” Later Dal learned. that Tom Cutler prac- aa tically owned the town of Hog-up, and his: interests were far-reaching in other parts of — the county. | “ve got a hundred and fifty-five dollars worth of scalps, an’ [ll take a hundred dol- lars in cash, an’ fifty 1 in trade for ’em,” Dal_ ‘offered. ‘Do you think I can afford to: wale six months for my money for a measly five dollars?” Cutler asked contemptuously. Dal cast his eye speculatively over the — various goods in the store. Everything was plainly marked to conform to the caption above the door: “The One Price Store.” The sign was appropriate all right for there seemed to be in fact but one price . —and that utterly, unreasonably high. ‘“‘Judgin’ by the tags on your stuff F reckon at that you’d be makin’ about twenty per cent. profit for the six months,” Dal said. - “T’ll give you twenty-five dollars cash, an’ fifty in store trade—take it or leave it,” the old profiteer said firmly. “There’s other stores in this country,” Dal ventured. “Ves; at Annamucca, fifty miles away— and they ain’t bargain stores either. Go there if you want to,” Cutler grinned. Dal was beaten. He knew that the old robber was in a position to dictate terms, and had no scruples about doing it. As cheerfully as he could he accepted the offer and traded out the fifty dollars for food, and medicine for Bently. eae me an envelope to pack this stuff ” Dal. requested in a spirit of sarcasm ees by the small bulk of his purchases. One thing he had fully intended to buy he had to forego for lack of funds—a six- shooter. A rifle was well enough for some purposes, but for the kind of clashes that seemed to be impending a six-shooter was almost a necessity. But now since he knew he could not get old Spot out of the barn he realized that it would take nearly all of his remaining cash to hire a pack horse to get the supplies to Silver Zone. _Sport was too unused to carrying a man’s weight to be able to return to Silver Zone that day, so Dal wandered into a salon - ~ - mag a ——— ret Wes hae ees eS Tere =, te Tete OPP = igen Ie a ee Se P a Aon 34) re ee ot eae oe oe ee > ei