Adventure Magazine Cover — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

Silver Zone / and put us on ponies. The men soon sep- arated and Hasbrouck and his man Kutch brought us here. They didn’t come in- side—merely pushed us through the door and fastened it behind us. But on the way up here Hasbrquck threatened that we would be kept here indefinitely unless we spree to marry them. The nurse told utch that she was already married, and that took some of the wiid out of his sails, but of course they couldn't let her go under the circumstances.” Dal contemplated the nurse specula- tively. ‘Were you married?” he asked. “T should say not,” she answered indig- - on “ —— « It had been—just once—when Dalfound the letter Bently was supposed to have — written to Lonesome Jim, but he made no comment. ! “Tt was too bad he never found the silver- mine,”’ Dal offered. “Ves. and the irony of it is that he died — the day before it was found,” the girl said with a touch of bitterness. Dal slipped from the table and stared at her with vast incredulity. “Who claims to have found that mine?” he asked. ‘‘Hasbrouck?”’ “T do,” was Vincie’s surprizing answer. = She walked into the cellar in the back and ~ returned with her hands full of ore. : “8 Fed ny spay + Te . phn r% > “ ee By) rye wt AS,» Peay bas Cre ; bay ie, - {Aas ! t . JA - - 7 ‘ + t s y ad ef. ? 4 ¥ oy A » - - woe teak oe Sy Utrera pee) Te 6) ud apie vee Y, te nee ne, aT Ten 4 yes Le Gee Bit GRE WEN Wie ye ee oh ea eT Ws hoagie Ee Bees Peat Li th aed Beet 4 ery AK he. 5 Es te . . Si AG yh eds ort Rts 4 , PP ARU AN Mado BAe a ¥ ey Nt A ail Sos Fe ea C434 bk AY 4 At Seg ‘ 7 x ad > te eee aes ' +3. ORs ’ erry 4 HS i 2 LF oy ts , ‘ ¥? TEL CLG tiny a , rf : ra wage @ > ‘ : ' ‘This is exactly the same sort of rock that Lonesome Jim sent to my father.” “But how——”’ “We found an old rusty pick and chawel here, so we attempted to dig our way out through,the walls of the cellar, or what we supposed to be the cellar. The rock was so hard that we had to give it up, but it felt so heavy that I brought some of it out here to look at and made that discovery.” “It’s simple,” Dal broke out. “So darn simple that it’s no wonder your father nor Hasbrouck ever stumbled on to it. When Lonesome Jim believed he-had some- | thing the secretive old cuss built his cabin | over the tunnel an’ let ’em rave. You two girls are sure lucky.” nantly, “but I wasn’t going to advertise the fact.” “T couldn’t run a bluff like that,” ‘Vincie said ruefully. Again Dal saw where his mistake in thinking there was only one Hasbrouck had put him at fault. He had ridiculed the idea of*Hasbrouck wanting to marry Vincie because he thought him a mar- ried man; but Jim Hasbrouck was single and so sincere in his desire to marry the girl that he was ready to commit murder, and kidnap in his effort to get her. “Hasbrouck and his man came back here last night and tried to get in, but we had the door barred,”’ Vincie said. “Tt must have been.a terrible strain on athe / ; me ie i hei s: ¥ al Ph _" of 2 Fg e " , abt oh Ae rs al al y you,” Dal began tritely, completely at a loss how to express the sympathy that seemed to be in order, and which he surely felt. “Tt was not so bad as far as we were con- cerned, only on account of our anxiety as to what had happened to the others. Poor father was already dead and they couldn’t hurt him,” she went on bravely, ‘but Mr. Sawyer was wounded, and Mr. Bradley stayed inside to fight them off and we saw the cabin burning.”’ “Sawyer and Bradley both escaped,” Dal explained hurriedly. ‘Bradley raised a posse and wiped out Hasbrouck’s gang. He sent men back to look after Sawyer and bury your father, so everything is all right.” At the mention of her father Vincie’s face went white, but she quickly recovered her self-possession. “Tt’s a sad finish for so good a man,’ she said slowly, “but perhaps it’s just as well. Anyway, his honor was never ques- tioned out here.” “Excuse me,” the nurse broke in em- phatically. “I’m off this country for life. There may be a silver-mine here and all that, but I’m not bein’ tied up with it. Besides, I didn’t have anything to do with discoverin’ it. If it’ud been left to me the . only use I’d of had for it would have been to maybe chuck a hunk of it at that Kutch guy’s head. — ~ “However,” she finished demurely, “‘if~ anything should come of it and you could slip me a few thousands I wouldn’t kick.” “We’re no luckier than you are,” Vincie said evenly addressing Dal. “Any in- terest in this mine that you will take won’t begin to compensate you for what you have done for us. You will accept an interest in it won’t you?” “T certainly won’t,”’ Dal refused bluntly. ‘“‘After "Lonesome Jim, you and your father — 5 ee: had the best righ to it witho&t your dis- covery.” There was a finality in his tone against which the girl saw it would be useless to -” -_—_ NALS fy CS Ag wis t ih ys, CORMGCWIOOLS