Adventure Magazine Cover — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

rie girl’s eyes wandered off across the _ desert and came back to the humble cabin in — its squalid setting of a by-gone mining town. “Tt seems a pitiful thing to fight over,” _ she said at last, “but we didn’t start it. I a begin to see that half-way. measures won't do. When you live in Rome, do as the Romans do. That means that we’il have — fight for our rights.” __. “Now you’re talkin’, ” Dal said enthusias- tically. “We'll fight ’em in the courts, an’ we'll fight em on the range.” “And I believe you’ll like it,” she said ee _ Shrewdly. That remark caused Dal some deep _ thought when he was alone. He had al- = ways hated trouble, but now he had to admit that he looked forward to the in- -___ evitable clash with Hasbrouck with interest, _ if not positive zest. Whether or not he was Serine to like trouble for its own sake, 2 : “being an outlaw was at least making him more daring—more keen to take desperate _ As a result of this changed state an idea ~ had been lurking in his mind for several a days, which two “weeks before would have - seemed to him rank folly. But now, the __ more he thought about it, the more possible “his belief that it could be pulled off. The _ plan was to go quietly back to Topaz and prove up on his homestead under the __ Very jaws of the law that was anxious to - hang. him. - — - Going back to his camp in the moun- ss “tains Dal saw a man digging at an old _ prospect hole. The fellow was too far away for his features to be discernible, but _. Dal supposed him to be some casual pros- -_ pector until the man, suddenly becoming alarmed, started for his horse. Then the peculiar rolling glide showed it was Has- --brouck, ~ ~ Dal pulled his hat well down over his eyes and started in pursuit. He was im- _ pelled more by curiousity than any wish to overtake his arch enemy, but Hasbrouck showed no intention of being caught. He was riding the same black horse om which Dal had escaped after shooting Nevada, = a he was urging the animal to do its a pect Dal quickly turned back; he had no tS desire to be ambushed, or lured into the i = - Hasbrouck domicile. For the first time “ he took Lonesome Jim’s lost silver-mine — seriously. Hasbrouck undoubtedly _be- lieved in it or he would not waste his time pecking away at solid: masses’ of rock. Bently had stated that Hasbrouck was hunting for the mine, and had voiced his suspicion that Hasbrouck had done away . with Lonesome Jim; but. Dal had dis- counted the old assayer’s statement. He had figured that Bently seeing the man riding for cattle in the hills a few times, had been so obsessed by his own interest in finding the mine that he jumped to the conclusion that Hasbrouck was actuated by the same motives. Now he knew Hasbrouck really was hunt- ing for the mine, so Bently might be right! about Hasbrouck having killed Lonesome Jim. Somebody had murdered him, and it was much more likely to have been Has- brouck than Bently. The poor old pres- pector had hit hard sledding all around. After having found a silver lode his assayer had lied to him, and then, perhaps while he was hunting ‘another lode, he had been murdered. . Dal stopped his horse and rolled a cigaret. While he smoked he made up his mind as to his next course of action. He decided that the silver mine could wait. Kutch had given the Bentlys ten days to move off, and at least there was little dan- ger of actual war at Silver Zone until Sawyer’s sheep arrived. But the thing he had been contemplating could not wait. This was the eleventh day of October, and in four more days he was supposed to prove up on his own homestead at Topaz. If he should fail to appear he knew that one of Hasbrouck’s men would promptly take possession and file a claim that would win on his default:’ To go back into the town where he was wanted for murder, and where he would assuredly be hanged if he was caught seemed little short of madness, but that was the very thing he contemplated. The thing he-pinned his faith to was the | element of surprize. No one would dream | of his coming back to Topaz, especially at ten o’clock in the morning. And he was not going blindly; he had turned his plans ever and over in his mind and found them reasonably sound. Of course there. was always the chance of the unexpected hap- pening, and it was dangerous at best; but if he could pull it off it would be a ‘body blow to Hasbrouck. comicbooks (<(6)