Adventure Magazine Cover — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

about a dozen fellers back in town we’d have stood some chance.” “T don’t want to argue with you, sheriff, but the reason I rushed things was because I’ve got an idea that Hasbrouck pulls a lot of strings in this county, an’ if we went ‘ around gatherin’ up a posse promiscus the chances are we’d find Hasbrouck missin’ ____ when we got there, or else settin’ up waitin’ . forus. Besides, I learned from the last Has- ‘brouck I went after that numbers are apt to be confusin’. If anybody’s got cold feet now’s the proper time to hunt a stove.” No one spoke and the posse. moved on. Once they were within sight of Dal’s ranch. A few weeks earlier Dal would have viewed the wreckage of his years of hard labor with seething indignation. Now he looked at it with-an odd sense of detachment. Somehow, he felt that it could never become a ae soul-satisfying again. Something else was needed. At last they reached a place from where they could see Hasbrouck’s ranch. A powerful kodak could have taken a picture of the whole place. It was a flat, unpic- turesque place, spread out over a wide - . creek bottom, with a huddle of squat buildings in the center. Bradley reined up and the others fol- ~~~ lowed suit. . “Any more suggestions, sheriff?” the - detective asked. Wells took a squint at the setting sun. *Seein’ as we won’t have long to wait I’d advise that we wait till after dark before takin’ any action. -If we ride in now one or the other of the men we want may not be in yet, or they may git scared an’ run; or worse yet they might decide to fight, an’ the five of us wouldn’t last as long as a speck of grease in a hot skillet.” _~ “There’s wisdom in that,’’ Bradley ad- mitted. “They don’t dream of anybody comin’ after them, but they might think we was too numerous if we rode in on ’em in force. Fellows in their business are apt to be plumb gun-shy anyway.” They waited quietly, only the sheriff breaking in to speech. “Y’m plumb tickled to think you wasn’t the man that done the killin’,” he told Dal. “A man with the nerve to come back an’ prove up on a homestead in the town where he’s wanted for murder is too good a man to-hang.?? = 7 As no one made any reply he went on: -ynade for the ranch. At the sheriff’s Adventure “Tt’s no great surprize to me to learn that — it was Bill Hasbrouck. There’s been cattle _ rustled, an’ other —— pried up around here for years. T ve often suspicioned that Bill Hasbrouck an’ that —— sneak of a foreman of his was at the bottom of it, but I never could git the proof.” “T reckon beth’ a sheriff in a big range country is a right smart job,” the Texan commented. “Tt shore’ is,” gloomily. ~The moment the lamps were lighted in Hasbrouck’s house and bunk-house the posse sug- gestion they tied their horses a short dis- tance below the corrals and went the rest of the way on foot. At the corrals they stopped:for a final consultation. ‘There won’t be anybody in the house except Bull, an’ his wife an’ kids,” the sheriff stated. ‘“‘Better let me go up an’ knock on the door like nothin’ was the matter, an’ when I git inside J’ll flash a gun on Has- brouck an’ slap the bracelets on him. Then we'll go to the bunk-house an’ call Gurley outside. He’ll never s’picion anything wrong, an’ we'll nab him «before he wakes up. How does that plan sound to you?” he asked. “Sounds all right. Has anybody got a better plane’ Bradley questioned. The plan was agreed upon and they skirted around the bunk-house, coming up to Hasbrouck’s residence from the other side. ~They all stayed in the shadow of the building while the sheriff knocked boldly on the door. Dal fingered the gun which Bradley had given him with nervous fingers. He had a presentiment that things were not going to work out as nicely as the sheriff calcu- lated. He knew that the other fellow sel- dom acted according to schedule. Matt Wells admitted mM ‘COME IN,” Hasbrouck roared, in answer to the sheriff’s knock. mW Wells entered boldly and -closed the docr behind him. “Hello, Matt, what are you doin’ here?” the eager listeners on the outside” heard Hasbrouck inquire. “Oh, just passin’ by, an’ thought I’d stop an’ have supper with you,” the sheriff drawled. Suddenly his tone altered, and he snapped: OOK * COMMIC (E@)