Adventure Magazine Cover — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

3 e _ happen you glit allested.” 658) Adventure _ face sharply, hoping to catch some clue to CHAPTER XV his mental processes. __ _ _-_-Vou p’lice officer?”’ Hop Sing inquired y- “Absolutely not.” “Too bad—you makee me out aw- * fal liar,” was the cook’s astounding com- =< - ment. “J—what?” Dal gasped. “Vou killee Nevadla. Me ee what With three expressive gestures the China- 3 = -man went through a suggestive pantomime _ Of a man being hanged. “You my flind, Dal. : Me lie like —, _ “What’s that?” Dal cried eagerly. “You Mean it was you, you danged old pelican, __who kept ’em from arrestin’ me?” Hop Sing fairly beamed as he nodded “But how?” “That day you killee Nevada, Hasblook gone. Cowboy no ketchee you, Kutch say = ee send to Annamuc’—have you ’lested. Then _ _ me tellee Kutch you a de-teck-e-tiff. Me’ _ ___ tellee Kutch me flind out you stealee much paper flom Hasblook’s cabin beflo’ you - shootee Nevadla, an’ pape’ laise plenty _ ——. Hasblook come home—miss pape’. _ He flaid have you ‘lested,” Hop Sing explained comprehensively. — , Let me git all this straight. You told ~~ ’em that I had gone through Hasbrouck’s _ cabin that mornin’ an’ took some of. his -__ papers. found the papers missin’, an’ because you Then Hasbrouck come back an’ told him I was a detective he didn’t dare have me arrested. Then you must have - swiped those papers to keep me out of __trouble,’”’ Dal ruminated slowly as he or- - Se ganized the facts in his mind. “Yes. Many time me clean up Hasblook’s cabin. Know where is papers—know where Ee is key. Cowboy all chasee you me stealee pape’—then make evelybody ase’ you take,” Hop Sing explained. Dal’s eyes gleamed. “Have you still got “ — those papers, Hop Sing?” he queried ___ breathlessly. _ . For answer the Chinaman knelt down and ran a long, yellow hand far under _ the floor above the spring. Withdraw- ___ ing it he produced a wisi packet of letters. steal like ——-, so you no glit allested.. __ Hasblook find out you ketchee plenty ——. =. -Me.too.” DAL LOSES AN ARGUMENT ¥ THE light of Hop Sing’s lantern Dal ran through the letters eagerly. Some of them appeared to refer guardedly to certain shady transactions and might mean much or little according to what was otherwise known of the business referred to. But there was a packet within the packet which Dal could understand, and which brought a gleam of satisfaction to his eye. The name of the person to whom each note or letter had been addressed had been care- fully torn off, but the initials of the writer at the end of each one had been left on. They were, “*T. C.” As if to prove that the initials stood for Thomas Cutler, at the bottom of the pile was a simple business. letter underneath Cutler’s letterhead, and signed with his name. ‘The similarity of the handwriting showed conclusively that the initials had all been written by Tom Cutler. The letters cried aloud that they had been kept by Hasbrouck for no other purpose than to have them to hold over Cutler. Hasbrouck’s error had consisted in keeping them with other papers that could be used to incrimi- nate himself, though naturally he had not intended to lose possession of any of them. Very easily understood now was Cutler’s anxiety to get possession of the letters he believed Dal held. In them was sufficient evidence to send Cutler to the penitentiary for the remainder of his life. As long as Hasbrouck had those papers he was in a position to grind the Hog-up post- master into the.dust, but once out of his possession they became fully as dangerous to himself, especially if Cutler should decide to talk. This explained why Cutler had been promptly notified of the loss of the papers, and explained, too, why the attack ~ upon Silver Zone had been delayed as long — as it had. The fact that Cutler’s man had seen Dal and Bradley meet and part at Monument Rock, without seeing what transpired there between them, had convinced the outlaws that the two men were working together, and theyy had waited for bors of them to When it appeared appear at Silver Zone. ck they had that Dal was not coming attacked anyway. Two letters in particular Dal found which A) (E (e(0) JOOKS © (E@)