Adventure Magazine Cover — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

| == assayer was failing fast. briefly to him that Dal was going into the ae mine, ” the old man urged. =z = her own protector; but for her sake there was no other way. * “7 had a little hard luck today, Vincie,”’ he began tentatively. “The result is that _ I’ve got to go into the hills for a few days. - D’ye reckon you can git along without me?” _ “Certainly—we never did have any claim - on your time at all, of course—but what was ___ the hard luck?” _ Should he tell her? No doubt it would be ee only a matter of hours until she knew from Others, so why postpone the inevitable. “T shot a man.” The girl turned pale. “Dal! You killed a man?” “T didn’t stop to look, but I ee so— | practically know it.” Ze Were there—any extenuating circum- stances?” “Tt was me or him.” : “But still—yet I suppose——” “There were reasons,’”’ Dal said Sains = “But I’m afraid you couldn’t understand. You ain’t been used to this sort of thing.” “T’m afraid I can’t understand. I can’t understand Westerners at all. Perhaps I a _ should try to conform to the standards of the country, but I——”’ “T’m not askin’ you to approve of killin’ aman,” Dal broke in. “You'll notice that I ain’t makin’ any defense, or excuses rather, because I will make a défense when they come after me. I’m only explainin’ to you why it’s necessary for me to go into the hills for a few days.” He waited expectantly for her to’ say something. He rather expected her to ex- ex _ press her disapproval—perhaps to tell him ___ never to come around again. __ turned toward the cabin. “You must come in and get part of the < | supplies if you are going into the moun- _ tains,” she.said quietly. Dal looked in on Bently for a moment, : and it was evident to him, though the girl perhaps did not notice it, that the old Vincie explained -_-mountains for a few days. — “Keep your eye out for Lonesome Jim’s ae “T have been oe thinking lately that it may be farther back ‘ than I ha've looked.” “Pil keep watchin’ for it,” Dal promised - _- absently. With a scant-grub supply tied on behind =< his saddle Dal struck into the mountains. Adventure | : But she only He kept more to the northwest than he had ever been before because it placed him closer to Hasbrouck’s ranch. But as the mountains grew higher and rougher he sel- dom caught sight of even the desert itself. He was moody and depressed. Everything seemed determined to go wrong. He had always destested “killers” and now he had slid into the class himself as naturally as though he had always trained for it. * His previous state of mind upon the sub- . ject made him appreciate Vincie’s attitude, for her views would naturally be more un- compromising than his had ever been. She’ had not even rebuked him, but he knew that was through no toleration of his act. It was only_her sense of gratitude which kept her from showing how much she abhorred him. However, Dal was too much of an opti- mist to be long depressed. Things were as they were, and he must make the best of them, offering Vincie all the help and pro- tection he could, and doing his best to get the goods on Hasbroyck. His immediate concern was to find an out-of-the-way place where he could camp in safety, and find feed for his horse. Fortunately the grass was yet good, and his Sport could get all the feed hg needed within the radius of a picket- rope. Riding up the bottom of'a cafion he hap- pened to look up, and saw, half-way. up the almost vertical side of the cafion, a coyote looking down on him curiously. Leaping to the ground Dal took a careful aim at the animal, but with the opportune shiftiness of the breed the coyote sprang just as he pulled the trigger. Dal gaped in amazement. There was not even a bush to give the coyote shelter—but it had disappeared. The canon wall was too steep for a horse to climb so Dal clambered up on foot, de-. termined to see what had become of the coyote. When he reached the spot where the animaf had stood its disappearance was easily explained. There was a deep pot- hole, or depression, in the side of the hill, perhaps three hundred yards in diameter and a hundred feet deep. The coyote had been standing just on the rim of it, and had jumped down as Dal had fired. The peculiar thing was that the hole was not visible from either the top or bottom of the cafion on account of the peculiar slope of the sides. Dal debated a moment whether or not \ JOOKS Comic NS $