Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

Lisbeth a joke. There was some other motive— there had to be. | His mind flashed at once to the gold in his saddle bags. With sudden fear gripping him he turned and ran the entire distance to his camp. The mules had finished their oats and were grazing a few rods from camp, Everything was as he had left it. In a few seconds he was his usual cool self. He did not minimize the dangers of his situation. He had not the least doubt that he would be followed, and he had no means of defending himself. Furthermore, he had calculated rather freely upon provisioning himself with his rifle and if he kept on he was pretty likely to run short. To go back to Timber City was not to be thought of. Ii he was really being followed he would be intercepted and killed before he could get back, and even if he had known he could get back there he would not have con- sidered the possibility of a retreat. He simply was not that kind, and he had lost more time now than he liked to think about. He brought his mules to camp and re- saddled. Lisbeth regarded him wonder- ingly but cheerfully out of her placid brown eyes. Hate to do it, old girl,” he assured her, “but we got to lay a lot o’ miles between us an’ whoever is on our trail.” _ Within half an hour it was dark, but Alex possessed an uncanny ability to stay on a road which he had once been over, and his sense of direction was as accurate as a com- pass. Without hesitation he kept Lisbeth at her fast, running walk with the big mule lumbering along behind at a jog trot. It was midnight before he stopped, turned loose his mules and rolled into his blankets without supper. For this he had a double reason: He did not want to risk a fire yet, and knowing that his grub would run short he proposed to ration himself from the beginning. There were certain things in his favor when he came to consider the situation calmly. The outlaws would hardly dare to leave Timber City the same day he did for fear that their reason for doing so would be guessed and a posse formed to pursue them. They would likely slip out of town immediately after dark, but he was sure they would not dare to crowd him too hard for fear of stumbling upon him in the dark. They probably hoped to get close enough to 83 see his fire and then circle around him the next day and head him off. By discovering so soon what they were up to, getting a good lead and not building a fire, he hoped not only to gain on his pur- suers, but puzzle them. Unless they took the time and trouble to track his mules the absence of a fire might lead them to suspect that he had taken some cut off and so cause them to lose time in speculation. Knowing that he had a thirty-five mile lead and know- ing that he was being followed gave him such an advantage that he felt he ought to keep it. One thing only caused him misdoubts— Lisbeth. . To doubt her ability seemed almost like heinous disloyalty, but this sudden, un- looked for crisis caused him to look at facts squarely, unblinded by the false light of sentimentality. She was no longer what she had been. In planning the trip he had ‘figured out to a nicety how to conserve her energy. No animal that he knew could cover so many miles in a day at a running walk, and it was at that pace which he ex- pected to keep her most of the time. No day would be too long for her at that gait. But now he knew that he would be fol- lowed by the best saddle horses in the country, and the outlaws would set a desper- ate pace to overhaul him. ‘To keep ahead he would have to force Lisbeth to far greater speed than he had planned, and age, even in mules, had not the recuperating power of youth. It-was going to be a close race and he realized that grim death awaited him if he lost. At daybreak he caught the mules again and got under way with no other breakfast for himself than two hard biscuits. He found himself almost immediately at the foot of a long, rather steep hill that led to the top of the first divide. It was utterly ex- posed for lack of timber, and he knew the men behind him—if there really were men behind him—would possess eagle eyes. It was climbing a hill like this where Lisbeth was at her best with her running walk. To urge her faster than that was sheer abuse and he knew it; nevertheless he felt that this time it was necessary. The slope was covered with a sprinkling of gravel and by leaving the trail or road, the tracks they would leave would be hard to follow. But if that bit of strategy was to have any results worth while they must not be seen. So he put Lisbeth into her jackrabbit lope comiclboooks CO