Adventure Magazine Cover — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

Finally, as the bullet wound along his a 2 skull healed, the fever left him. He had been five days since leaving Topaz. His _. grub was exhausted, and he was weaker than a ten-year-old boy but he was in possession of all his faculties. From the best he could judge he had wandered far from his trail to the east. That day he me found a sheep-camp, and the Portuguese herder cooked him a good dinner and gave im a small supply of beans, coffee, and canned goods. ‘The herder had never been to Silver Zone but he knew the general direction to Hog-up, and with his help 3 Dal was able to lay a reasonably straight course to where he wanted to go. Twelve days after he had left Silver Zone he rode out on a ridge from where he could 2g see the bluish water sparkling in the after-. noon sun; but for all he knew of time it ___-taight have been longer. Anything might -have happened in the time he had been gone. He had no time to think of possible ambushes as he rode straight in toward the e spring. He was a weird figure, white as wax, and huddled low. over the saddle- horn on a wise old cow-pony.. Behind imped a gaunt-flanked, but indomitable _-_—__—s gray mustang under a galling stock-saddle that had not been removed for days. ‘The cabin looked peaceful enough, there on the edge of the desert, and it looked in- habited—though there were no signs of life. It lacked that dreary look, however, which. any log cabin seems to assume the hour it is vacated. Yet Dal had a vague, uneasy feeling that something was wrong. He was within a hundred yards of the spring before he saw tangible proof. Close in to the water lay a dead sheep. Looking closer he saw another and another; in fact a white stream of them running back into | = the brush: Without dismounting he drew his gun and advanced toward the cabin. Sud- denly the door was opened_and Vincie stepped out. Dal heaved a sigh of relief and tried to slip the gun back in his belt without her seeing it. The girl was pale, and her eyes were rimmed by dark circles induced by sleeplessness, but her nerves © _ were steady. As she caught sight of the ____ white-faced man on the horse she uttered an exclamation of pity. ____ .Dal mustered a*smile. “Gee, I’m sure glad to see you,” he ex- claimed. _ Adventure swung off the horse.’ ~~ ~p ‘Dal! Are you ist? Let me help you down,”’ Vincie gasped. “T’m all right,” Dal waved her away and vit looks like ——— had sure been a poppin’ here,”’ he surmised, “‘What’s happened?” ““You’re starving. When I get you some- thing to eat you can hear the story,” the girl said firmly. Dal followed her obediently, but in the doorway he paused in surprize. “Welcome to our hospital,” Vic Sawyer. called from a pallet in one corner of the > room. Despite his insistence to know what had happened no one would talk until Vincie had a meal on the stove to cook, and had given his wounded head a proper dressing. Later, while he ate, she talked. “The day after you left,” began, “Hasbrouck and Kutch cad here “The day after I left?” Dal interrupted. ¢ ‘Yes. Why > Cg “Nothing,” he denied, but his mind con- tained a large sized question mark. He had made the trip from Silver Zone to Topaz in three days with two horses that he believed to be equal to the-best, * and he had hurried. Yet Hasbrouck had contrived to make it in a day less, It seemed uncanny. “Go on,” he urged. - “Hasbrouck said he had heard that we had leased the spring to a sheep outfit, and that as our claim was contestable we had no right to do it. Consequently, he warned us, he was going to consider it a public water-hole and the property of any one who could hold it.” , “Did—did he make any other—proposi- tion?”’ Dal asked “He made the same one he has made several times before,” Vincie replied, a rush of blood coloring her face. “‘He’s made it the last time,’’ Dal seabcted hotly. “What you talkin’ about? The conver- sation has got switched on toa side-trac Pa Sawyer observed peevishly. Nobody answered him. “Yesterday,” Vincie went on calmly, “Mr. Sawyer drove one of his herds here to water, and Hasbrouck and his men attacked them. Mr. Sawyer was wounded in the fight, and the herder and cahap . mover were chased away.” Eomicbooks (oy