Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

Hidden Trails road. He drew into the bushes. When the care- fully dressed rider drew up, Johnny stepped from his place of concealment. Together they examined the bodies. ‘Then the stranger suggested: “We might as well go back to the Bend together. They’ve got too much of a start to do anything.” “Howdja know I’m goin’ to the Bend, anyhow?” questioned Johnny. , “This is how,” came the answer and he stared into the twin-barrels of the stranger’s Derringer. Johnny, disarmed, riding in front, the Derringer in the rear, they rode to Paradise Bend. HEN the town was reached the captor an- nounced he had caught a road-agent red- handed. “T’ll getcha my rope!” yelled a citizen and the crowd pressed forward. While Johnny was trying to yell his explanations, “Soapy”’ Ragsdale and Jim Mace, two old friends of his, edged their way forward and took their piaces by his side. . “T got my finger on the trigger,”’ Ragsdale an- nounced, pointing his carbine. “I don’t like this here bellerin’ for ropes an’ I don’t give a —— who knows it.” The crowd remained at a respectful distance. Then arrived the marshal who ordered a trial and picked Dave Dusenbury’s store.as the court-room. Constituting himself judge, the marshal chose twelve jurors, although he declared ‘‘a jury ain’t really necessary,’’ and proceeded to the trial. CHAPTER VII SCOTTY MACKENZIE ERE’S a spent shell!’ cried one of Scotty’s outfit, a_ bristle- haired young man named “‘Swing”’ Tunstall. He handed the shell to Scotty, and the latter held it up forthe marshal to see. “Vuh’ll notice Swing found her on the buckboard side o’ that cottonwood about ten feet off the road,” Scotty pronounced ina dry tone. ‘An’ here’s Johnny’s twin scratches down the side. Le’s go look for the heel-marks.”’ The presence of the heel-marks in the soft ground having been verified, twenty men, including the jurors, Scotty and the marshal, climbed the steep slope to where the two boulders snuggled between their guardian pines. Behind the boulders they found three spent shells—two 45-90’s and one 40-65. “Not scratched a bit, none of ’em,”’ observed Scotty. ‘‘Dug that bullet out 0’ Homan yet, Cal?” he called to an earnest seeker after light on the trail below. “TI5 While every window of the store was jammed with people, Harry Slay, the man who had brought , Johnny into town, told his story, twisting fact and argument so cunningly that the two appeared as one. But the light came to Johnny. By working cartridges through his rifle he proved that if he had fired the shots, the shell cases must be nicked, for all which passed through his gun came out that way. Next he declared that the empty shells, if they had been thrown out, would be found in the ambush— without a nick. One nicked shell would be where he had thrown it after shooting at the horsemen. In conclusion he declared that if the bullets were dug out of the wounds they would be found to be 38’s while his were 45-90’s. But the marshal and jury did not want to lose time investigating. A murmur arose. The mar- shal coughed, fingered his six-shooter and said: “Gents, y’all heard what Harry Slay said. Y’all heard what this feller said. What do you say?” ‘Yes, gents, what do you say?” drawled a voice from the doorway. Scotty Mackenzie and eight of the Flying-M riders pressed in and stood by Johnny’s side. “Gents, yuh was goin’ to say somethin’. What was it?” reminded Scotty. “They was a-goin’ to adjourn over to Yaller Medicine Crick to look at some evidence,” put in the marshal. “Oh yeah,” said Scotty. ‘‘Guess we'll trail along. Yuh see I was standin’ in that doorway a good ten minutes before anybody saw me.” “In a minute,” replied Cal. “My knife done touched her all right, but she’s kind o’ behind a bone. She’s a-comin’.” She came and was duly examined by the multitude. ‘“ao-65 bullet,” was Scotty’s remark. “So Johnny didn’t fire that cartridge. An’ he didn’t fire them two unscratched 45-go’s neither. I guess that pretty near settles the cat-hop.”’ | “Shore it does,” the marshal affirmed with forced heartiness. “I guess the jury’s satisfied. Gents, yo’re & “But I ain’t satisfied—yet,’” interrupted Scotty smoothly. “Yuh forget Johnny seen three jiggers cross the creek. We'll slide down and look at the tracks. An’ while we’re about it, we might just as well find out where they tied their hosses while they was bushwhackin’ Old Man an’ Bill. All them li’l things help like ——, yuh know,” he added plaintively. No one was deceived by his tone. All accompanied him without demur. After quartering the ground for fifteen minutes Scotty and his followers halted in a pocket among the pines. “Here’s where they tied their hosses,”’ COnnicloookxs (C@