Adventure Magazine Cover — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

i16 motioned for his friend to take the barrel- chair. Ignoring the invitation the wagon boss exploded— “Catch-up and stretch out, or make a fighting corral.” “Meaning just what, Whip?” softly asked Goss, his dark eyes glowing. “Camp's mad as Taos whisky. That counterfeit script found in Skillings’ wagon is raising hobb. They now saying the Sing- ing Pilgrim was one of the gang.” “Well, go on. How do I figure in what the camp thinks?” demanded Goss as his friend paused. “Some hot-heads say the boy slept here along of you being such a friend to him. There’s talk that you knew about the crooked money.” (“Let one of them dare to say as much to face!”’ _ “There’s fifty headed this way to say it to your face. They swear they'll clean the guich. You light out.” “No. Iknow no more about the counter- feit than the Pilgrim does. That means nothing. I have done nothing except gamble.” _ “You gave the younker a bed. They’re foolish enough to make a lot of it.” “Yl go when a committee tells me to. I’m not afool. But I won’t run before the camp says the word.” Whip King nervously played with the long lash of his whip and warned: “They'll be here soon. Maybe you won’t have a chance togo. You know the hair-trig- ger temper of a crowd that suddenly decides to make a mining camp pure and noble.” Goss returned to the couch and quickly emptied the cache, disposing of the money in various pockets. Whip King looked much relieved and urged— “Don’t bother about anything else. I'll look after your belongings.” “Ym not running away before I hear the talk. ~You trot out of here. I'll play the hand alone.” “Like ——! Think you can fight the whole gulch?” “Ym not looking fora fight. I'll hear the committee’s talk. I'll say it’sa lie. Then Vil quit if allowed to go decently. But I won’t be man-handled or hustled.” “T’ve hustled to get here ahead of them. I’m afraid they won’t let you go,” omi- nously warned Whip King. Adventure “T’ve done nothing outside the law. If I start running now before being accused I'll have to duck and run ali my life.” “They’re coming! Thought I had more of a lead. Stay inside,” tersely directed Whip King. He pulled his black slouch hat well for- ward, stepped out and closed the door and leaned against the logs. Fifty men were streaming up the slope, the foremost being within derringer range. It was more ominous that they came in silence. They halted a rod from the hut and eyed Whip King curiously. The leader in- formed: “We're the latest improvement com- mittee in Oro City, Whip King. We're looking for Nate Goss.” ““He’s at home and well, Tom Cameron. He’s my friend. What do you folks think to do with hime” “Improve him!” cried a man. Several smiled y. “That’s no talk to make to a friend of Nate Goss,” said Whip King. ‘“He’s a gambler, but he’s a square one. You can drag him from that shack and kill him, but he’ll take a lot of you along with him. Be- ing his friend I shall have to stand by him and get killed. And I shall take a few with me, even if I be a great lover of peace, S’pose you men let Cameron do the talking for you and leave out the war talk.” Cameron, who had been in Colorado City two years and whose Union Ranch, fifteen miles from Oro City, was a well known stopping-place for travelers, quietly ex- plained: “The boys are getting tired of the way things are going in the gulch. Being in town and being impartial, they asked me to take a hand. They’ll keep shut and I will do the talking. The solid men in the mountains never intended to have any such doings that have disgraced the camps in California and Nevada. “‘The Montana diggings have called most of our bad characters away, and we’ve got along quite decent. Now a man’s been murdered. It’s known he was in with the gang plastering the towns with worthless money. Many believe the man who did the killing was one of the gang. I don’t know nothing about that. That young man has skipped before any one accused him. [If looks like he was guilty. He slept in this hut the last time he was here, At least, he Gomicbooks.com