Adventure Magazine Cover — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

THE BUCKAROO OF BLUE WELLS engine, just before they started back to pick up the rest of the train, but he is not sure. At any rate, the dog was missing when the train came to Blue Wells. “Our theory is that the dog was merely a blind to let the man into the car at Encinas. It gave the robbers an inside man, in case the messenger might refuse to open the door. Of course they could dynamite the door, but that takes time. Perhaps the inside man did not expect the messenger to put up a battle, and that the falling out of the express car was an unexpected incident. “‘The messenger states that the man tried to pull a gun, which strengthens the theory of the fourth bandit. It is just barely pos- sible that this dog might be identified; so the owner took a chance, sneaked back to the hold-up and secured the dog. This would make it appear that they felt it necessary to have the dog in their possession. That dog was in the car when the engineer and fire- man went back to the engine. When the train arrived at Blue Wells, the dog was gone.” “Which don’t prove anythin’,”’ said Johnny Grant. “When the train was robbed there were three masked men on the car, and when the train got to Blue Wells there wasn’t a —— masked man on it.” The detective laughed. “That’s true. But it doesn’t explain when and how Mr. Legg came to Blue Wells.” “T walked,” declared Jimmy Legg brave- ly. “The train passed me.” “Where?” asked the sheriff. “T don’t know. It was dark, and I’m not familiar with this country. I got a room at a hotel that night.” “When did you hear that there had been a hold-up?”’ “T heard them talking about it the next day,” said Jimmy Legg truthfully. He did not think it necessary to tell them he had also heard it the night before. “T don’t think he knows anything about it,” said the sheriff. “He don’t fit the de- scription of any one of the robbers, and it’s a cinch he ain’t the big geezer that fought the messenger.” “What kind of a dog was it?” asked Oyster. ‘No special breed,”’ replied the detective. “Tt was of medium size, yellowish-red, and had one black eye. At least that’s the description which was given to me.” 29 A few minutes later the three officers rode away, and the cowboys turned their at- tention to Cowcatcher, the gray outlaw, which was still beside the corral fence. The collision with the other two horses had wrenched its right shoulder, which account- ed for its not going any farther. They took off the saddle and turned it loose. The boys were loud in their praise of Jimmy’s ability as a rider. The marvel of it all was the fact that Jim had stayed with the horse. “If he knowed anythin’ about ridin’, he’d ’a’ been killed,” Eskimo told Johnny a few minutes later, after Jim had gone into the bunk-house. ‘‘He had the luck of a drunk. I’m glad it happened thataway, instead of havin’ to pick him up on a shovel.” “Sure,” grinned Johnny, and then con- fidentially. ‘Eskimo, I don’t sabe that feller. Remember when them fellers were shootin’ at us from the express car? Re- member the feller we seen, who comes along the track and gets into the car?” “Yeah, I remember, Johnny. But I was too drunk to remember much more than that.” “I wasn’t as sober as a judge myself, Eskimo. But I’ll be danged if it was a big man. Do yuh remember somethin’ about somebody named Geronimo?” “That’s right, Johnny! I wonder if it was the man’s name, or the dog’s.” “And that man headed for Blue Wells, Eskimo.” Eskimo nodded seriously. “That’s right. By golly, don’tcha know,” Eskimo scratched his head thoughtfully, “T’m wonderin’ what our little friend knows about that hold-up.” “And why he wants to be a cowboy. Anyway,” Johnny grinned widely, “I’m for him. He’s got guts. If the Old Man will hire him, we’ll make a puncher out of him.” Jimmy Legg was thanking his stars that Geronimo had deserted him. He was stiff and sore from his efforts to learn the cattle business all in a few days, and he did not realize that the boys had been trying to make him quit. He had been thrown from bucking horses, until it seemed to him that ranch life consisted of dull thuds. Because he could not rope from a horse the boys had ‘let him work from the ground during a day’s calf-branding, and his hands were seared so badly he could hardly shut COMICLOOOKS Cc (C@