Adventure Magazine Cover — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

~ of the men had stopped a friend’s bullet. Dal fired at the closest man and had the satisfaction of seeing him drop his gun and = _ howl with pain. As long as he was among the cattle he = had a great advantage in that his horse _ could not be shot unless a lucky shot got _ him in the head. But he was also losing’ ground. He knew that six-shooters are t = ~ clear of the cattle they wer mighty unreliable weapons when fired from the undulating back of a moving horse ‘except at extremely close range. thing to do, he felt, was to get clear of the cattle and risk a running fight with the two remaining punchers. The only The men made the mistake of going into the bunch after him so that when he got ill impeded. This gave Dal the advantage of a short lead. Sport was still at his best, fully able to main- tain his speed until they reached old Spot. Of course he could not hope to side-track the posse now, but there was a good chance that it could be done when he changed : z had no other thought than that he must e. fore | that stained the grey hairs from shoulder to hoof. But the indomitable mustang - Zone again is to keep that leg a movin’. Sport promptly picked up speed and Dal 2 laughed softly as the two cowboys lost Adventure ground, and their shots became correspond- ingly wild. Then, suddenly, one of Sport’s front legs buckled under him and the horse ~ went down. Dal rolled clear as the horse fell and was on his feet in an instant. He fight it out to a finish and die with his boots bronco was on his feet almost as quickly as Dal. There was a deep chasm of clean, red flesh exposed across the muscles of one a moment, then a gush of blood was still traveling. Dal made a flying ee esp: and landed in the saddle without ___ touching a stirrup, and fired the last shell in his gun at the nearest cowboy. It _ missed and Dal groaned. “Do your best, you wild mustang,’ he “Your only chance to see Silver + So b> Mees implored. ‘The horse responded with a burst of speed that once more put them where there was little danger of being hit by a revolver shot, and there was little likelihood that either of their immediate pursuers would be lucky enough to make such another chance shot as the one that had brought Sport down. Dal reloaded his gun and ____ on, but Sport was far from finished. The shoved it into his belt. All his attention was devoted to riding with:such skill as would to husband his strength. Then, inch by inch, Sport began to lose ground. Dal could see the blood that spattered off the horse’s hoof and left a give his horse every opportunity ~ red trail behind. The horse was obviously | growing weaker and he began to favor the wounded leg. Only the unconquerable spirit inherited from his mustang ancestors kept him in the race. A bullet zipped into the dirt close beside them as the two cowboys again came within firing distance. original posse was> gaining, and he could make out Bill Hasbrouck and Matt Wells: among them. He leaned over Spot’s neck and spoke to him in the low, encouraging voice he had taught the horse to have confidence in. “Keep ’em out of range, horsey, for just another quarter mile an’ we'll fool ’em, boy.” Sport seemed to sense the need of doing more than the possible. He had been fay- oring the wounded leg slightly, but now he ceased to limp. Each time the wounded leg pounded the ground blood flew in all directions, and Dal winced in vicarious suffering for’ the horse—but they held their own. In the distance Dal had named they swept around a bend, and were greeted with an eager whinny. Old Spot rushed t6 meet them as far as his stake rope would permit. On his back was Dal’s own saddle; Nevada’s saddle being on Sport. In mere seconds Dal had jumped from one horse to the other, -slashed the stake rope, and was away. “We'll see you ketch us now,” he gloated over the posse, though his victory was dampened by the fear that Sport would not be able to keep up, and might fall into the hands of Hasbrouck’s outfit. Weary, winded, and wounded shoueh he was the mustang’s spirit was far from being broken. Relieved of Dal’s one hun- dred and eighty pounds he came along gamely; holding his own with the posse, and even old Spot’s gain on him was not impressive. As the two cowboys swept around the bend and saw Dal on a fresh horse their eyes popped out, and they brought their own horses to a standstill until the posse arrived. As he topped a rise Dal saw the KS COMIGE Dal saw that even the JOO, (6)