Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

DAMAGED REPS. * ward the door, pulling Sam down on the floor with him. By the time Sam got out his gun and covy- ered Red, Robbins had opened the window and jumped out. Sam was still cussin’ under his breath about it when we got to the spot where he thought it happened. Taking the truck off of the tracks, we each took a side and start- ed to look for the corpse, After we’d looked for all of two hours and couldn’t find a thing, I began to suspect that Sam had got twisted in his bearings— that Robbins had jumped out farther down the road. But when I mentioned this to Sam, he got real peeved and said he was sure we must have covered the spot. He pointed to a big bowlder, just a few feet from where we stood, and remarked how they was just passing that big rock when Red yanked him off the seat. And as we'd covered the ground for a good two miles back, it looked as if he was right. Then on the way back to the truck, look- ing hard for some trace of Robbins all the time, it finally struck me that he hadn’t been killed after all. And more than that, he couldn’t have been hurt bad or he couldn’t have managed to crawl out of our sight. It seemed awfully strange with that train tearing along the tracks the way it did, but what else was I to think? When I spit out my opinion to Sam, he was forced to agree that I must be right. Then he carried on worse than ever. He swore he’d never go back to headquarters and face the music until he got his man, pointing out that he must be hidden around somewhere in the brush. He was bound we’d leave the tracks and start to look into the hills for him, he go- ing one way while I went another. But when I told him how there was too much ground in them hills for two men to cover, Sam seen I was talking sense. So when I mentioned how we’d go back to town and get up a posse, Sam fell right in line. He started on a run up the tracks for the hand-truck, shouting that we mustn’t lose any time. Once back in Highridge, I left Sam to 883 shift for himself while I gathered up all the boys laying around loose. In a few minutes I had over twenty of ‘em, armed to the teeth. And this time we took horses and went racing down the side of the tracks. When we got to the spot Sam pointed out, we split up and plunged into the brush. Knowing that a city detective wouldn’t amount to much in picking up trails in the hills, I left Sam with a couple of old- timers, telling them to keep a close eye on him so’s he wouldn’t get lost. Then I followed close on behind Oklahoma Pete, a half-breed and one of the best trailers for miles about. If there was any one who could lead me © up to Robbins’s hiding place, I figured it was Pete. By sundown, in a little valley miles from the railroad tracks, me and Pete was forced to own up that we were licked. We had covered three ranges, crisscross for a wide sweep, and hadn’t seen a footprint at all. We started back to the railroad, hoping some of the others had had better fuck. But when we pulled up to the rest of the bunch, waiting there in the dark along- side the tracks, we found that nobody had seen a single sign of our man. Sam was so sore about it that he raved fit to be tied. He acted like he was out of his head— wanted us to keep on hunting all night. But when I explained to him how we could not find an elephant in the dark, once he got in them hills, Sam listened to reason, So, telling the bunch we’d go back to town for a little grub and sleep, taking up the trail again as soon as it was light, we trotted back to Highridge. On the way, I got to thinking over things, and didn’t like ’em one bit more than Sam. As sheriff, I didn’t like the idea of a fellow like Robbins running around loose in my territory. And running loose and whole he must be, else we’d had what was left of hint by now. 3 Like as not, I told myself, he’s got some pals around here, and he’ll be heeled by morning. ‘Then, there'll be a few more killings in my jurisdiction if I don’t nail him quick. Eomicbooks (E(0)