Adventure Magazine Cover — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

70 Then they heard the distant thud of run- ning horses, growing fainter and fainter, as the riders faded away in the hills. Hashknife swore softly, as he told Sleepy of the two men. Some one had extinguished the lamp in the ranch-house, and Sleepy See telling them that everything was all right. They found Marion and Jimmy on the back porch, and told them about the two men who had shot at Hashknife. ~ “Oh, I’m a fine guard!” said Jimmy bitterly. ‘Sleepy told me to keep an eye open. But we started singing, and—”’ “Oh, it’s all right,” laughed Hashknife. “Nobody hurt. If we’d only gone over and investigated, when that horse nickered, Sleepy, we’d ’a’ had ’em cinched. But I didn’t look for ’em to come back so soon. That’s sure a puzzle. The further I go into this thing, the worse the fog gets. ‘They wasn’t over here by the house. They could ’a’ looked in the window and seen who was in there. They might ’a’ been waitin’ for us to come back, but if they were, why did they let us walk in on ’em? I heard one of ’em snap a warnin’; so it kinda looks as though they didn’t expect us just then.” “Do you think you hit either one of them?” asked Jimmy nervously. Hashknife laughed. “I was shootin’ for general results. A man runnin’ in the dark, jumpin’ through a broken wall, is a hard target. And when yuh hit a man with a .45 in any spot, except his hands, arms, or the end of his nose, he won’t go far; so I'll admit that I missed ’?em.”’ For the next two nights Hashknife and Sleepy guarded the place, but no one came. The sheriff visited them, but they did not mention anything about the latest develop- ment. Hashknife was very thoughtful all the while, but admitted that he was getting nowhere in his deductions, He talked with Marion about Tex Alden and Le Moyne, and she seemed surprized when he told her that it was the general opinion that there was a rivalry over her between Tex and Le Moyne. “Why, that is ridiculous,” she told Hash- knife. “Mr. Le Moyne used to drop in here once in a while, but he hasn’t been here for over a month, except when they all came out to see the ruins of our bunk- house.” W. C. TUTTLE “As far as Tex is concerned, the opinion ain’t far off, is it?”’ Marion flushed. “T liked Tex all right,” she admitted. “He is nice, as long as his temper doesn’t run away with him. Tex has a bad temper, you know.” “And he hates Jimmy Legg, because Jimmy Legg happens to be here,” observed Hashknife. Marion looked at Hashknife, her eyes puzzled. Then— “You don’t think Tex was the one—’’ she hesitated. “That tried to kill Jimmy?” Hashknife finished for her. “Oh, Tex couldn’t do a thing like that, Hashknife!”’ ““No?” Hashknife smiled slowly. ‘Yuh don’t think so?” Marion shook her head quickly. “Not even if he was mad. He might be mad enough for a moment to kill some one, but not to shoot from ambush.” “Well,” grinned Hashknife, ‘“T’ll have to mark Tex Alden off my list of customers. It seems that Tex lost eight thousand dol- lars to Antelope Neal, in a poker game. This was before we came here. Now I’ve been wonderin’ how Tex could afford it.” “Ves, I heard about it, Hashknife. Tex works on a salary—the salary of a fore- man—and he surely couldn’t afford to lose that amount of money. In fact, I don’t see where he got it.” “T know where he got it,” smiled Hash- knife. “But I don’t see where he’ll ever be able to pay it back.” Further than that Hashknife would not say, although Marion was curious to hear more about Tex Alden. That evening Hashknife and Sleepy de- cided to visit Blue Wells, and talked things over with Jimmy. ‘““We may be back late,” explained Hash- knife. ‘‘There’s a two-barreled shotgun in the house, and I saw some shells on a shelf in the kitchen. You load that gun, Jimmy, and keep it handy. Lock all the doors, and be sure that every curtain is down. I don’t look for any trouble, but yuh never can tell.” “111 take care of everything,” declared Jimmy. “AndI’mnot afraid. If anybody comes fooling around here tonight, I’ll give them a surprize. I'll make it a point to keep awake.” DOOLK (©