Adventure Magazine Cover — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

Sdmtied up to the camp, but the murderers had disappeared in the timber on another = 3 - slope before he arrived. aaa “Poor devils,” he murmurd pityingly, - standing over the murdered men. ‘You ee ‘sure got a rotten deal, an’ you were only ___-tryin’ to git ahead like the rest of us.” Fhe real significance of the murders was not lost upon Dal. He was never a slow _ thinker, and his reasoning processes were ee usually accurate. Hasbrouck’s only object in killing the herders was to Jay the crime upon Dal, and the very boldness of it would = af - could not doubt that the murderers had been keeping close watch on him and the herders all afternoon. He picked up the cartridges the men had ejected from their rifles, and every one was a .30-30—the same oe caliber as his own rifle. By one simple ruthless act Bill Hasbrouck had accom- _ plished what five years of scheming had failed to do. There was no doubt that Hasbrouck are soon contrive to have the herders - found, so Dal returned to his cabin. The — _ fire was not yet out, and the coffee in the ___ pot seemed to sing a welcome. The Ava- ~ tanche lay on the table, with the heading _ that had meant so much an hour before in _ plain sight. 2 _ Final Proof.” = a _——tesque mockery. a : Mechanically Dal wrapped several days’ ~~ supply of grub in his shcker and tied it behind his saddle. Then he pulled -off _ __ his dusty overalls and donned a pair of new = _ corduroys he had bought that day in Topaz. ; In his nervousness he neglected to go through the pockets of his old overalls = which contained his purse, and all the cash he possessed. He went out, gathered up the reins and - swung on to the old cow-horse. “Spot, old timer,”’ he said with a mirthless ae, “it looks like we was right in the _ Same shape we was when the 7 H L busted eS fe up six years ago—only a —— sight worse.’ Now it all seemed a gro- CHAPTER II HASBROUCK 25 Pa eae pe stopped on a hill and made‘a final es Sete sad survey of his ranch. Then he ___ brushed his hand across his face with a curse. = = = had not realized before just how affec- make Dal’s defense look ridiculous. Dal ° “Notice of Intention to Make ‘Adventure tion for the place had grown upon him. It sickened him to think that Bill Has- brouck had practically swept it from under his feet in five minutes without the least bit of opposition. Dal was a fighter—but he was not a fool, and he saw clearly enough that Hasbrouck held all the cards. Yet instead of taking to the hills as he had first intended he rode toward Thad Thompson’s ranch. It was after dark when he reached Thad’s, so he tied Spot to the fence, well out of sight and knocked boldly on the door. “Come in,” Thompson shouted. Dal opened the door and walked into the rancher’s kitchen. Thompson, a grizzled range veteran of fifty, sat smoking a pipe in one corner of the room. His wife, still a young woman, was cooking supper. ‘Thad had married rather late in life, and the three children squatting on the floor like Hindoo idols were all small, “Hello, Dal, have a chair,” Thad wel- . comed. Dal dropped into a chair, and let his hat and gloves fall to the floor. - “You look like somethin’ had gone wrong, boy—have any serious trouble with them sheepherders?” Thad asked. Dal nodded, and explained briefly what had occurred that afternoon. Thad sat drumming on the arm of his chair for several minutes after Dal had finished, without making any comment. In the old days down on the Promontory, near Salt Lake, Dal had been his pet puncher, and the fact that the two of them were the only ones of the old bunch that happened to drift into the Topaz country had brought them very close together. “You’ve known me for years, Dal,’ Thad said slowly, “an’ you know that ten years ago I’d ’a’ hooked on my gun, an’ went with you after Hasbrouck an’ Gurley. But don’t you see, boy, that I can’t do it now? I can’t take any chances on account of the woman an’ the kids.” “T wouldn’t ask you to,”’ Dal smiled. “But I don’t want you goin’ out after ’em alone.” “T’ve put aside childish things, Thad, R? Dal smiled. “I know that Bill an’ his outfit would git me before I could git any — of them. One man don’t lick ten outside of books.” | “I’m sure glad You look at it that way,”’ Thad said with visible relief. ‘I sure hate EComicbooks (E@) Se