Adventure Magazine Cover — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

- Lonesome Jim’s bones, and covered them the best he could — a rocks. When this distasteful job was not being entirely due to the hobbles. - give it up in disgust, for he knew the only _ reasonably sure way to get those gaunt, desert ghosts was to let them come to him. _ Then he went back to where he had found skeleton, gathered up the mpleted he again made*a minute search a e place for further evidence. All he : Fond was the old prospector’s pick, which further bore out his surmise that Lonesome Jim had simply been dabbling at the rocks in usual prespecting style. There was not _ the slightest sign, however, that the pros- pector had found any color there. ~ By sunset Dal had stood it as long as he Bs could. He threw the saddle on Sport and started for Silver Zone. On the way to - camp he had shot a brace of pheasants. He “2 : _ cleaned them carefully, and denying his own stomach, took them with him as a peace = offering. He tied Sport in the closest clump of cedars to the Bently cabin and went on afoot. It was a light night, and he knew there might be men at Silver Zone waiting - for him, so his approach was cautious. The — Jast hundred yards he crept in stealthily as an Indian, but there was not a sound to 3 indicate danger of any kind. There was no light i in the cabin, but when he presséd his ear to the cracks in the wall he could hear deep breathing inside. An occasional moan from Bently told him that nothing critical er had happened in his absence. Dal gently opened the kitchen door and without entering the room left the pheasants = just inside. Then he started back to Sport, = before he had gone far he stopped in amaze- ment as he heard the shrill whinny of a It was old Spot. He would have “any circumstances. . -- He sank to the none and waited, his : hand on his revolver. have been in a livery stable in Hog-up, and his presence here augured a trap of some kind. He could think of no other explana- - - tion than that the horse had been planted - there for a bait. As he waited he could hear the horse coming slowly toward him, the lack of yee _ $pot had evidently scented the presence of _ his master and was trying to find him, for _ he was zig-zagging back and forth. Motion- less as a cat Dal waited. He was sure that Old Spot should still Adventure somebody expected him to come to the | horse, but he was equally positive that they would never expect the horse to go to him. Finally old Spot caught his scent again, or some other tangible evidence of his best. friend, and came on. Dal half-expected him to whinny again, but there was no sound save the clanking of the hobbles. At last the old horse stood directly in front. of him, quietly nuzzling the top of his hat with a soft nose. Without arising Dal took off the hobbles, then leaped from the ground to the horse’s back. With a pressure of the knee he headed Spot for the place he had left his other horse, and they disappeared — silently as ghosts. In the morning Dal came back, leaving his two horses in the-cedars. Thin, blue cedar smoke was ascending from the ‘cabin but there was no sign of lurking spies. Nevertheless Dal’s advance was cautious. On three sides of the cabin the country was flat, so he was certain there was no one very close to the place. He went up to the door and knocked boldly. ‘Come in,”’ Vincie called. He entered diffidently, but the girl’s man- ner was unchanged from the last time he had seen her. “Thanks for the birds,” she smiled. “Hope you'll like ’em,” he said. The pheasants were already in the frying- pan, and the savory odor made his mouth water. “Vou haven’t had breakfast?” she asked. Dal gave one look at the girl’s white, pinched face and replied: | “Sure. I’m an early riser in the hills. Had a chicken myself. Has anybody been here inquiring for me?” He hastily changed the subject before his hunger betrayed itself. “Only Mr. Cutler from Hog-up,” ‘she answered. “Cutler? Now what the —— could he want?” Dal wondered. “Fe wanted to stay here until you came back, but I told him you might not come for weeks. Really, I never expected to see you again,” she confessed. “Anyway, he left: your horse and saddle here, and said: to tell you to be sure to come to see him immediately—that he would do better by you on a certain proposition than anybody else could do.” “Well, Pll be danged,” Dal said softly. “Last time I seen that old pelican he ordered me never to come to his bloomin’ town bP) ting - _ d . Se eee fc)