Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 14, 1928 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

174 criticizing Mr. Tatnall very severely for selecting a new paymaster of such low mental perception, retraced his steps to the Lucky Strike. And following Jake’s narration of the episode to the bartender which was repeated by the latter with many varia- tions, a fear arose in the minds of Jake’s doubters that the murderer was not only still at large but lurking near by, waiting for another opportunity to seize the Loder pay money. But Jake and his friends only laughed at this, de- claring these pessimistic unbelievers to be worse than nervous old women, Even Simpson, the new paymaster, did not take their warnings seriously, for while believing the bandit to be at large, he scorned any suggestion that the fellow might have the nerve to re- peat the attempt, thinking the bandit was well content to make his escape to far remote parts. And even if he should be wrong, Bill Simpson, with his pair of carefully picked bodyguards, could see no cause for undue alarm, declaring that only sheer carelessness had caused his predecessor’s death. But as to who was right and who was wrong, Copper Gulch did not have long to wait to see. It was on the next Loder pay day that one of Bill Simpson’s bodyguards, bleeding from a wound in the shoulder, rushed into town, proclaiming that an- other holdup had taken place. Between his gasps for breath, he told the startled street loungers the story— how the paymaster’s party of three had been held up in the pass by a lone, masked man, Simpson killed by a shot through the head, and the pay money carried away by the bandit into a near- by cave, near the mouth of which Simp- son’s other attendant, wuninjured, re- mained on guard to prevent the rob- ber’s escape. Giving explicit directions, the wound- ed man implored them to send a posse with all haste lest the bandit should get the best of his partner, the other body- euard, and escape with the spoils. And ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, to the satisfaction of most of his lis- teners, the bleeding guard declared that the robber must be the same man who, had committed the triple murder two weeks before—that he had a blue hand- kerchief tied over his face, wore a long black poncho, and had a blue star tat- tooed on the upper part of his bare left arm. As most of the crowd happened to be belittlers of Jake’s late exploit, they accepted the wounded man’s assertion with extreme gratification and were loud in their condemnation of old Jake. Had it not been for his boasting and lying, they declared, the bandit might have been apprehended at the time of the first holdup, and Bill Simpson would not have met his tragic death, In this state of mind the hastily re- cruited posse hurried up the pass, sev- eral of their members being thoughtful enough to first secure a stout rope and a miner’s torch, And the sight of Simpson’s dead body, lying at a point less than a half mile beyond the scene of the triple tragedy two weeks hefore, did not tend to appease their anger toward old Jake. | It was not long before the posse caught sight of the other guard, crouched behind a large rock, his pair of six-shooters covering the mouth of a cave, some fifty yards away. few seconds they were at his side, tak- ing good care to keep under cover of the rocks, and started to ply him with questions. “Naw, he didn’t get away!” the guard replied in a positive tone. “I’ve been camped right behind this rock every minute since he dug into th’ cave —almost nailed him, in fact, just as he was jumpin’ in, only I shot a hair too high. He’s still in thar!” “Who's goin’ in after him?” one of the crowd groaned. “ There ain’t room for more than one at th’ start-off—the hole’s right small. And thar’s no tell- in’ how fur into th’ rocks it runs that way—don’t reckon thar’s any one in the bunch what’s ever been in.” EOPMIG LOOKS Ina (EOI