Adventure Magazine Cover — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

56 “Well, cheer up, Scotty; somebody will prob’ly kill yuh very soon, and then yore troubles will all be over.” “E s’pose that’s true.” The sheriff went back to his office, where he found Porter cleaning a Winchester. “Hear anythin’ new?” growled Porter. “No. Reckon there’s any use investi- gatin’ that shootin’ at the Taylor ranch?” Porter inserted a piece of white paper in the breech of the rifle, and squinted down the barrel. “With two of the smartest detectives al- ready there?” he replied. “You'd find out a —— of a lot, wouldn’t yuh?”’ “Mebbe that’s right. I understand they’re hired by Le Moyne, or by the Santa Rita mine.” ‘“Mm-m-m-m-m,’’ Porter reached for the oil-can and proceeded to lubricate the mechanism. “Tt dunno how a detective can ever find out who held up that train, if he spends all his. time runnin’ a ranch,” said the sheriff. “Not bein’ a detective, I don’t know,” said Porter coldly. “And what’s a lot more I don’t care a ——!” CHAPTER XII jimmy TAKES A SHOT BIOR the next three days nothing na) startling happened at the Double | Bar 8, except that Jimmy Legg wat) labored hard with the mtricacies of a rope, which invariably tangled around his legs, and a six-shooter, which seemed to ignore the target entirely. Hashknife and Sleepy humped against the patio wall, absorbing many cigarets, while they solemnly gave advice to Jimmy, and marveled that any man could shoot away so much ammunition and never hit anything. But Jimmy was persistent. He banged away merrily, satisfied if his bullet came within two feet of a tomato-can, at twenty feet, trying to follow Hashknife’s advice to shoot low. Apollo, the burro, entirely re- covered from his creasing, humped back in the shade of the patio wall, and watched Jimmy with solemn dignity, jerking his one good ear convulsively at each report of the heavy Colt. Nanah had watched with interest from the door of the ranch-house, until a mis- directed bullet smashed: through a window near her, after which she lost interest in Jimmy’s marksmanship, Hashknife and Sleepy rounded up several head of Double Bar 8 horses, getting Mar- ion’s opinion on them as a remuda for the coming round-up, and also trying them out. As. a result, both of the cowboys. were stiff and sore from the unaccustomed shaking which is usually meted out to a rider by horses which have not been ridden for months, Jimmy Legg had tried one, and then retired to the liniment bottle. Marion decided to ride to Blue Wells, and Jimmy immediately offered to ride with her. Jimmy had not been away from the ranch since the mysterious bullet had nearly robbed him of an ear, and he was anxious. to go to town. Regardless of the fact that his torn scalp had not been dressed by a doctor, it was doing very nicely, and he was. able to do away with the bandage. He and Marion did not indulge in much conversation on the way to Blue Wells, be- cause of the fact that most of Jimmy’s time was occupied in handling his mount. “This is rather embarrassing,’ he told. Marion. “I start to say something to you, when this fool horse goes off across the country. Id rather be thrown off than to have my conversation interrupted every time.” “But you’re learning,”’ declared Marion. “T hope so,” dubiously. ‘Jimmy, does it mean so much to you— to be a cowboy?” Jimmy reined his horse back into the road, clutched his hat just in time to save it, and nodded violently. “You bet! Say, it means an awful lot to me, Marion. Darn it, the more I think about it, the more it means.” Marion did not question him any fur- ther, as they rode down the main street of Blue Wells. Marion dismounted at the - Sheriff’s office, but Jimmy rode on to the Oasis hitch-rack, where he had seen sev- eral AK horses tied. At the Oasis bar he found Johnny Grant, Eskimo: Swensen, Oyster Shell and Tex Alden. Johnny fell upon him with a war- whoop of joy and dragged him to the bar, while Eskimo and Oyster pounded him on the shoulders and examined his scalp, much in the way of a pair of monkeys, gibbering the while. NOOK (C@