Adventure Magazine Cover — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

ee , oe 96 es oy a OS at Se < | - poblisd on the strict understanding that aa oe would not be called to testify. Dal threw the paper down and walked over to the stove. Automatically he filled = the teakettle and put a quart of fresh _ spring water into the coffee-pot, mto which = he. carefully measured four heaping table- ae Peis © of coffee. But his mind was not on his cooking operations; rather, it was upon Bill Hasbrouck. The cattleman had __ tried every way he knew, even to attempted ES murder, to drive him out. Could there be Ss _ anything Hasbrouck could do in the next _ month, Dal wondered, to keep him fromrkeep- = ing that. date with the Land Commissioner? ___ Anirresistible desire to survey once more the scene of his success mastered him, and he walked to the door. He thrilled as he _ had always thrilled at the sight of the flat : a reaching from shoulder to shoulder of the cafion, from which the second ates crop of alfalfa had just been hauled. An- % 2 other eighty on the bench was a softly ___ $waying sea of yellow as the wheat stood ae ey for the binder. . Dal decided that he must get at the harvesting immediately. ed the wheat the remainder of his EE oeecad completely closed the only en- _ trance to the natura 4 pasture in Dish-pan _ Basin above—the clue to the undying hatred _ of Bill Hasbrouck. oF ogee . _ Five years before when Dal had seen the eS | RK = ~ possibilities of the ranch and filed upon it, he had less than a hundred dollars, and his cow-horse, old Spot. It had taken courage Cand hard ‘work, and more irksome still, a ; Soraplete separation from a somewhat frivolous, happy-go-lucky past. But now he had half of the place under cultivation, and his brand upon a nice-sized bunch of cattle. Once the title to the land was irrev- _ ocably his the reward would be ample. . Suddenly his eyes rested upon something 5 a that moved just inside his pasture. His smiling brown eyes hardened, and he = a reached for his hat. On second thought «he took down the .30-30 Winchester that hung across two pegs, then started toward =~ ~ the -corral. - __. “What you. goin’ to shoot?’? some one "shouted from the road. Dal looked up and saw the two neigh- 7 ae Shar who had agreed to help him submit 7S ee Ss his final proof—Thad Thompson and Brick tae aparently. * 3 ~ “Guess I’ve got to shoot up them —— ~~ _ oi Basque sheepherders that’s been stickin’ Adventure around here,” Dal replied. ‘‘See their sheep up there in my pasture ure?” “Looks like they wasinsideall right,” Thad agreed after a long squint in that direction. “—. of a lot of the two-mile limit law,” Brick broke in. “Tf you ask ‘em who told ’em to herd in there they'll say they don’t sabe no English an’ let it go at that. Only way to talk i to smoke ’em up!” “Those fellows up there couldn’t sabe English a couple of- weeks ago, but a few days afterward I happened to be in ‘Topaz when the camp-mover was in for grub, an’ he could talk as good as anybody. He’s goin’ to talk again today,” Dal declared. “Be careful,” Thompson advised. ‘Ever respect they’ve got for _ \ since they convicted Goldfield Jack, this - Sheepgrower’s Association is out for blood. They don’t care how much money they spend to convict anybody that kills one of their herders.”’ : ‘An’ every cussed one of ’em takes ad- vantage of it to graze off the flowers in your front yard—if you happen to have any,”’ Dal gritted. “Want us to ride up there with you?” ‘Thad asked. “___ no, I can handle a ‘couple of Basques all right,” Dal declined. He strode on toward the corral. Thad watched him a moment, then he and Brick rode on. Thad had been foreman of the + H L outfit when Dal was its star twister, and he had a fatherly interest in the home- steader. Old Spot, the sage pinto cow-pony, came to the corral gate and took the bit in his mouth without being urged. Dal swiftly saddled, and with the rifle on his arm rode roward the sheep. He soon saw the camp on a small knoll a quarter. of a mile outside his fence. Leaving the sheep unmolested he rode around to a gate and on to the camp. Before he got to it he could hear an animated conversation being - carried on imside in Spanish. A moment _ later a pair of sheep dogs detected him, and noisily disputed his arrival. Three men, all armed, filed out of the camp and awaited the rancher... Two of the Basques were the ones who had herded in his field before; the other was a visiting camp-mover from some other herd. “T thought I told you fellows to stay back two miles: from my fence,” Dal began ee Pd (E@) micbooks (E@)