Adventure Magazine Cover — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

72 “Get the sheriff and all the boys yuh can get together, and head for Broken Cafion, Sleepy. I’m goin’ back.” Sleepy did not question him. He had spent too many years with Hashknife to question any action of the tall cowboy. He merely nodded, drew his hat down over his brow and headed for Blue Wells to gather a posse, while Hashknife drew rein, turned around and went back. The poker game had just broken up, when Sleepy dropped off his horse at the door of the Oasis, and panted out his story. “Good ——!? exclaimed Tex Alden. “‘There’s more than one hole-in-the-ground in Broken Cafion! Let’s go!” Scotty Olson, the sheriff, got his horse, and they rode out of Blue Wells, nine strong; Olson, Sleepy, Tex, Gast, Goode, Johnny Grant, Eskimo and Oyster Shell. There was nothing for them to work on, except that Nanah had said that the men had gone toward Broken Cajion. CHAPTER XIII CAPTURED 5 ail WOULD have been difficult fveem fe for any of Jimmy’s friends to mm have recognized him, unless they m=) examined him closely. His face was plastered with gore, one eye swelled shut and his lip cut. He had no hat, one sleeve of his shirt flapped behind him, like a streamer tied to his shoulder. He had no saddle. In the crook of one elbow he carried the heavy, double-barrel shotgun. That was the extent of his armament. It was the first time he had ever ridden a bareback horse, and he was having plenty of difficulty in staying on the animal’s back. Jimmy was still in a daze—but a very determined sort of a daze. All night long he had stayed awake, guarding the ranch- house. Dawn was in sight when he dozed, only to be awakened by a knock on the back door. “Ts that you, Hashknife?” he had asked, and it seemed to him that an affirmative reply had been given. At any rate he had opened the door, only to find himself con- fronted by three masked men. And before he had time to move, one of the men struck him across the head with a gun barrel, knocking him down. But the blow was a glancing one, and did not knock him out. W. C. TUTTLE Badly dazed he got to his feet, trying to fight, and one of the men drove several smashing blows to his head and _ face, knocking him out. He had little idea of what happened after that, until returning consciousness gave him a blurred vision of these men taking Marion out of the house. He had tried to get up, but his limbs refused to function. He saw Nanah crawl to a window, where she managed to look out, before she crum- pled to the floor. It seemed years to him before he could get to the window, but his vision had cleared sufficiently to enable him to see the riders going away. Summoning up every bit of his courage, he secured the shotgun, and managed to stagger to the stable, where he bridled a horse, crawled on its back, and followed them. He was like a man riding through a fog. He had no idea of direction. With his right hand he tried to wipe the blood out of his eyes, but gave it up. He remembered that there were three men. But that did not matter. He had two cartridges in that shotgun, and he could use the gun as a club, after those shots were gone, he decided. He was no longer the smiling James Eaton Legg, but Jimmy Legg—cowboy. The bookkeeper was gone entirely, and in his place was a bloody-faced young man, who wanted to kill somebody with a shotgun. Jimmy did not know how Iong he had ridden. ‘The sun was shining, and his head ached badly. He wanted to stop and lie down, but he kept on going, laughing grimly to himself. The horse stopped, and Jimmy realized that it was standing on the edge of acafion. He did not know that this was Broken Cafion. Names meant nothing to him. The horse turned to the right and followed the cafion rim. At times they swung far to the right, passing around the head of tributary cafions, but always com- ing back to the main cafion rim. Jimmy’s reason was coming back to him now, but it only made the incidents more vivid in his mind. He realized that he had left his six-shooter at the ranch, and that the two cartridges in his gun were all he had The horse picked its way among a piled- up mass of big rocks and tangled brush, and came out on sort of mesa. The cafion widened here, its depths purple and gold in the rising sun. On the far side of the cafion COMiCooo Cc SS (©