Adventure Magazine Cover — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

aS Sith Hasbrouck he might force the man to fight, but after all he ‘felt it would be too much like murder, even if Hasbrouck did _— Geserve killing. Besides, there was small -_ chance of getting anything valuable in the way of information. His best chance, he decided, was to do a little eaves-dropping; but before doing so he took note of a small shanty, not more He judged it to be open space until he stood close beside - @ window of the bunk-house. 7 . Dal took it as a good sign that his efforts to drive himself onward had been rewarded x _ by getting him to the place just in the nick of time. ee Already he could’ hear the usual _ grumblings of sleepy men’ pulling on their - clothes inside the bunk-house. From the other end came the rattling and banging of pots and pans which told that the building was cook-shack as well. _ “What’s on the program today, Kutch?” Dal heard a man ask. “There won’t be much of anything to do except fix up around the corrals, an’ mebbe do a little brandin’ with a fryin’ pan till the ; : poss gits back. A couple of you, though, can come with me an’ try to git Nevada’s saddle back.” “Want me to go back to Silver i= as usual?” the man who had spoken first, asked. _ “No; I’m on that assignment from here in, _ Bonanzer,” came Nevada Brown’s queru- lous voice. ‘All you ever done was to go - to sleep under a cedar.” “Like ——!” Bonanzer snorted. ~ “You've been stickin’ around there off an’ on ever since the old man done up oid = Bently, an’ you never once got a look at that = sheepherder he brought ‘in there to help him ee prospect,” Kutch cut him off. | ; ““When’s the boss comin’ back?” Bonan- ___—s ger grunted. “None of your —— business,’ Kutch replied shortly. Then Hasbrouck was not at home, which meant probably, Dal reflected, that the cattleman had gone back to Idaho. Dal was = ee now warned who to look out for around _ Silver Zone, but he felt there was little more _. to be gained for the>present in the way _ than six by six, that stood about sixty feet © from each of the buildings, forming the apex ‘of a sort of triangle. a smoke-house, and admirably located as a hiding-place should the necessity arise. _ Then he moved swiftly over the remaining Adventure of.information; and if the majority of the cowboys were going to stick around the © ranch that day it was going to be dangerous for him to linger in the vicinity. But just then a brilliant idea occurred to him. Breakfast could not yet be ready in the bunk-house, so the cowboys were un- doubtedly going to do their chores before they ate.. Some of them would surely drive in the cavy. Dal figured he could hide in the shanty behind the buildings until the men came in to breakfast, and then he could slip out to the corrals and replevy Sport if the horse was there, or borrow another horse if he was not. Boots were stamping across the floor toward the door, and Dal ran to the shanty, Instantly he realized his mistake. The shanty was not a smoke-house, but a spring-house. In one corner of it a clear pool of water bubbled up, and hanging above it by ropes were jugs and buckets containing milk, eggs, and butter. He started to withdraw, but already the yard was full of cowboys; he knew that he could not get twenty feet before he would be seen. It was now broad day, and the spring- house was in full view of the corrals. was almost a certainty that the cook would visit the place before he called the men in to eat. Even if he could surprize and over- power the cook the cowboys would miss the fellow before he could take any steps to escape. i All speculation was cut short as a bow- And it legged Chinaman came trotting hurriedly’ toward the spring-house. Dal looked around helplessly, but suddenly he hap- pened to look up and saw that the rafters | were held together by four wide collar beams. Instantly he leaped up and caught one of them with his hands, drew his feet up between two others, and wriggled on top of them, where he lay breathlessly. The cook entered and hauled up his milk and butter. After untying the ropes he started back for the house with a jug in one hand, a bucket in the other, without once glancing toward the roof. But as he started through the door Dal dropped softly to the ground floor behind him, “Hop Sing,” he called softly. Jug and bucket clattered to the ground and the Chinese gave a startled squawk. His eyes bulged in terror until he saw Dal, then a slow grin wreathed his face, and he extended a yellow paw. cS: Eboo co