Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 106: what you’re looking at

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

88 Adventure such a rest, but now her heaving had scarce- ly diminished. “Well, we’ve stated this we’d just as well see it through,” he ejaculated suddenly, and swung into the saddle. The outlaws were gaining, and each of them led a relief horse. Alex could see that they were whipping mercilessly in an en- deavor to end the chase at once, and he was compelled to ask Lisbeth for more speed. Then the outlaws changed horses and de- spite Lisbeth’s best efforts Alex saw that it was the beginning of the end. Not much longer could the aged mule maintain the grueling pace. He looked at his watch and - Was amazed to find that it was two o’clock ‘in the afternoon. At any rate Lisbeth had given the bandits a race that they would ‘long remember, and she had justified his faith in her. But to save her further pun- ishment he decided to give up. And then he saw something ahead that gave him an inspiration. To his right doomed a short, steep cafion leading to a divide to the south. The road continued in the deeper cafion they were in to the east around a spur-range of mountains. When he had come in he had noted that if it were possible to cross this spur-range a least a hundred miles of road would be cut off. He had known, however, that wagons could never traverse that route, but now, in their desperate situation it might be worth their while for him and Lisbeth to make the at- The particular thing that influenced him to make the attempt was the seeming in- accessibility of this cafion. It was shut off from the main cajion by a barrier of cliffs and loose shale rock extending clear across — the base. But with one swift, calculating glance Alex estimated Lisbeth’s chance to climb, and gave her about one in three. One thing he did know was that if they could make it no horse could follow. ‘If they failed, well, the chase might as well end here as elsewhere. He rode Lisbeth to the very foot of it and dismounted. Then, giving her plenty of rope, he began the ascent, carefully picking a way where it was possible for her to fol- low. Up and up they clambered until from a great distance they must have resembled two flies clinging to the sides of a wall. There were places where Alex seized jutting edges of rock to help himself along, and once he saved Lisbeth from disaster only by a quick turn of the rope around a projecting rock which held her until she recovered her balance. The outlaws reached the foot of the precipice just before Alex and his mule reached the top. Before they could use their rifles Alex struggled to the top and, bracing his feet, surged back against the lead rope and helped Lisbeth over the last obstruction. Alex was in no hurry to leave. He led Lisbeth out of sight and returned to where he could watch the two men below. One of them tried vainly to spur his horse up the incline, but was quickly compelled to give it up. The outlaws held a consultation, and then one of them began to climb the preci- pice. Alex had gathered a dozen rocks the size of apples and he waited grimly for the fellow to come within reach. A rock at that range was as good as a bullet. When the fellow came within range he hurled a missile that struck his man squarely in the chest. It broke his hold, and the fellow rolled and bounded to the bottom. Satisfied now that there would be no further pursuit, Alex mounted his mule and began a tortuous ascent of the cafion, wind- ing in and out among the trees and dodging unlooked for ledges of rock. At dark he stopped. He had no fear of pursuit. The outlaws, knowing well his predicament, would probably wait at the foot of the cafion for him to return. Well, let them, he thought grimly. There was no more to be lost by going ahead than there was by going back. He unsaddled Lisbeth and turned her loose on a wind-swept ridge where the grass stuck above the snow. She, at least, need not go hungry yet, though he well knew there was little strength in the frozen grass. He gathered dead limbs from fallen trees and built a fire. The warmth made him forget his hunger and presently he fell asleep. From time to time he roused to heap more wood on the fire, but along toward morning it began to snow and when he finally awoke the fire was out and the saddle blanket which covered him was weighted down with three inches of snow. He did not trouble to rebuild his fire but caught Lisbeth at once. He threw the sad- dle on her and mounted. At noon they reached the top of the divide. It was still, snowing, thus obscuring the view that lay before him, but Alex knew that it was wild COMmiclboookks.CO