Adventure Magazine Cover — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

again, an’ here he brings me my own horse to ride in.” : “He said that he felt it was his duty to pay for the doctor for father because he was our friend; so he brought back your horse and the ‘pill of sale you gave the doctor,” Vincie explained, as she handed over the paper. Dal slowly tore it into bits. Then he laughed softly. “What are you laughing about?” the girl asked wonderingly. “T knew when I saw old Spot last night that he was the bait for some sort of trap, but I never thought old Cutler was the trapper. I reckon I know now how a coyote feels when he sneaks the meat off a trap an’ never loses a hair.”’ “Mr. Cutler was terribly worked up about something,” the girl insisted. ‘He said he knew you were a detective, and so you needn’t be afraid of any trap.” Dal clamped his jaws on the natural comment that arose. He did not believe _ for a minute that Cutler thought him a detective, but if he failed to deny the charge ° there was a chance somebody else might _ believe it and it behooved him to seize every helping straw that might be blown across his trail by the winds of chance. “Mr. Cutler was not acting. He was almost hysterical with alarm,’ Vincie insisted. “T may call on him,” Dal said. “But,” he added under his breath, “‘it’ll be when he ain’t lookin’ for me.” Then, because he had lied about having had breakfast, and because the pheasants were so tantalizing, he went outside and chopped wood until breakfast was over in the cabin. CHAPTER IX A DATE IS KEPT en beras 2 days passed slowly. with Dal shifting back and forth from his moun- tain retreat to Silver Zone—and nothing happened. Once in a while he caught sight of some shadowy rider but that was all, so naturally he began to abate some of his caution. Not that he believed Has- brouck had given up getting him for the killing of Nevada, but because he could not forever keep tensed up to expect an im- mediate battle. Yet he was not running blindly into any traps. Silver Zone 3 2 eo 35, 6 Bently was growing weaker, so rapidly S now that even his daughter noticed it, and in her deep trouble she was coming more | and more to rely upon Dal—no matter what she might think of him as a man. — One morning when he arrived, her face clearly showed greater anxiety. “Your father worse?” Dal asked. “T don’t know. He has had something —_ to worry him more, and he shows the effects = ~of it.” | ““What’s happened?” “‘Hasbrouck’s foreman, Kutch, was here = | yesterday with a notice of contest against 5 this place. The hearing is to be in Anna- mucca next month. Kutch says we haven’t lived up to the law, and that we must = vacate in ten days or he’ll put us off.” “He was bluffin’,” Dal said confidently. “He wouldn’t have bothered to file a con- test if he meant to try to throw you out.” “But we haven’t lived up to the home- stead law, and we can’t tell what to ex- pect.. Western men are so violent. Even you——”’ “The government is more liberal-in these homestead contests than a readin’: of the law would lead you to believe,” Dal cut in to cover her rapidly mounting confusion. “Tf a man is livin’ on his place, an’ usin’ it for what it’s best adapted for he’s not likely to lose it because he don’t meet some ~ fool requirement like plowin’ up this desert to raise a better crop of sage-brush,”’ “But that only shows that they are more > likely to try to eject us by force, if there is a possibility of our winning the law-suit, zi Vincie said quickly. Dal saw the logic of her contention, and he knew that Hasbrouck would never wait — = = to settle the issue by law. “Just remember that you’ve leased this place to\Sawyer, an’ he’ll have something to say about Hasbrouck throwin’ you out. © He has the whole Sheepgrowers’ Associa- tion back of him,” he encouraged. : “Tt will mean more violence,” Vincie said wearily. “I almost wish you had never brought Mr. Sawyer here.” flushed. eS “T don’t blame you in the least,” she said quickly. “I know you did it for us.” ‘Well, all there is to it we can’t let Has- — ge brouck have: his own way. Your father _ can’t be moved, and I'll say frankly that _ Pll be tickled to death to have Sawyer’s = “Tt may have been a mistake,” Dal a comicbooks.com