Adventure Magazine Cover — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

- ae . -— ee ape ee Aen SS StS om a f. w SS Sa Ct OE ss ee are So ioe ee ere ~ al . re te Le eee Nhe gs ae a meet him. “My God, Vic,” he cried, “where are the The sheepman grinned at him foolishly, 2 ‘s ~ but offered ne reply. “Plumb leco,” Dal cursed softly. He led the sheepman to the water, helped “him to get a drink, and then washed and bandaged the wounded shoulder. Gradual- ___ly Sawyer’s senses came back to him. _ Under Dal’s prodding questions he began to ee remember something of the horror. of the a previous night. “T don’t know what become of the rest,”’ he said. “When we heard ’em startin’ to rush the house Pet said for me an’ the girls to run, but we hadn’t no more than got out of the door until we met ’em. Some fellow bumped into me, and bein’ so weak.from my wound I went down. It was lucky for me-it happened, I guess, for they didn’t pay any attention to me. “The girls was fightin’ like wild cats, but of course there was too many men. I ‘saw that I couldn’t do any good so I crawled into the brush figuring that 1 - might be able to get help, but I suppose I went daffy. » “What Serna of Bradley?” “He stayed inside to stand ’em a siege. God!’ Sawyer’s eyes roved wildly toward he must be——’”’ “No he ain’t,” Dal cut in. “There ain’t nobody there but Bently, an’ he was dead, 4 56 Adventure 5 recognized Vic Sawyer. Dal rushed to Dal deliberated the problem with all the concentration of which he was capable. The first, and paramount fact was that Vincie and the nurse had been carried off by Hasbrouck. No time could be wasted in rescuing them, for there were no limits to Hasbrouck’s capacity for evil. Sawyer was all in. Everything depended upon Dal. He might go to Sorensen’s camp, but he had already decided against that as being too indirect. By the time he found his horse he, too, would be all in— and there was a chance that he might not find the horses at all. Sheep-camp horses were given to playing hookey, and Sport would be with them. There was no place to go for help. Hog- up, the closest place was fifty miles away. The very idea of going there, even if he was able to walk it, made Dal laugh ironically. It all simmered down to the fact that the only way to get help was to-wait for it—for somebody to come along. But one man could wait as well as two. Sawyer could not move anyway, and with plenty.of water he was not likely again to. get delirious. Curiosity would surely impel some sheepherder to slip in during the day to see what had happened. “You stay here in plain sight until some- body comes,” Dal told Sawyer. ‘“Then send to Annamucca for help—ain’t no use sendin’ : : _ the smouldering heap of ruins. “Isaw’em toHog-up. Tell ’em to send a posse at once fire the cabin, and I knew Pet was inside. to Hasbrouck’s ranch. That’s probably _ That’s the last I can remember. He is— where Hasbrouck has taken Vin—the girls.” “What are you goin’ to do?” Vic de- manded. — - “Y’m goin’ on to Hasbrouck’s ranch. I wasn’t he?” hate like —— to leave you, Vic, but——” “Yes; he died yesterday. But if Pet “Don’t mind me if you can do any good wasn’t killed in there where is he?” there,” Sawyer broke in. “But I don’t see,” ~ “Probably runnin’ his legs off for Texas, Or wherever it was he come from if he got’ away from them,” Dal said curtly. Somehow he held Bradley responsible for the thing that had happened. If the --—- man was an ex-Ranger, an ex-cowboy,.and the wonder he advertised himself to be, ; 22 why had he attempted to hold Silver Zone Spring single handed. Furthermore, it ap- peared a cowardly trick to send two women ’ —_ -_ and a wounded man out to face a mob while he stayed indoors. “What are we goin’ to do?” Vic asked It seemed " that there was little they ee - could do. he continued; “chow you can git there, nor what good you expect to do single handed after you do git there. Likely git yourself killed.” But Showalter had other ideas. In the Chinese cook at Hasbrouck’s he had a powerful ally whom no one suspected. If he could once get in touch with Hop Sing he might find out where the girls were kept, and by the exercise of proper strategy might possibly contrive to outwit Hasbrouck altogether. On the other hand he had little faith in any outside help. By the time some one should chance to come to Silver Zone, then ride a hundred miles to Annamucca, gather — 2001 AA) Eomic ‘Ss an (<0)