Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 27, 1925 — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

HOPALONG CASSIDY’S PAL. 333 Half an hour later, under his breath curs- they had the best of it; and he could not ing the coldness and the wetness of the lie quietly in his exposed position with any ground, he dragged himself a few inches at more safety. Cover was what he needed, a time up the far side of a little hill, straight and cover was what he would try to get; for the climbing smoke column which once hidden he could let them do the mov- marked his objective. He was a sight, for ing. he was mud from his feet to his head. He He would try to wriggle to some bit of even had managed to get mud on his back, cover from where he could keep an eye on and he was wet to the skin. the horses, feeling that they would be a By the time he had reached his present grave concern of the men he Was alter, As position he was savage from mud, water and long as he could see the chimals it would general misery; but his state of mind made be like keeping a deer lick under his gum, him all the more determined to go through Slipping down the hill a few feet, he moved with his stalking. What a joke he would on cihe iB work around to a thicket on have on his two friends if he could capture the o er side of the camp, from where he or kill two of the cattle thieves within half was certain that he could see the horses. a day’s ride of the town! While Red moved thus slowly and cau- Reaching the top of the hill he slipped off _tiously, another man, well back in the forest his sombrero and raised his head to peer and on the other side of the ravine, was into the woods. The odor of the fire was trotting in a half crouch, circling in an now strong, and he heard the intermittent effort to discover any fresh trail leading sounds of horses moving as they grazed. toward the camp. This person found the Shifting to the left he squirmed along muddy tracks of the lone stalker and, the hill, working to get sight of the camp, throwing his rifle forward, swiftly followed his sombrero tucked under one arm. Be-_ them. | tween him and the camp was a thicket, a | Red at last gained a point below the tangled and baffling mass of greenery; and coveted thicket and began to crawl up the within a few feet of this was a muddy streak slope toward it. Inch by inch he neared on the hillside, where excess storm water the top of the hill and fmally peered over escaped into the ravine below. the rim. A little trickle was running down it now, A score of paces away a muddy boot pro- and he shivered as he crawled into it; and truded, and through the mass of leafless then he froze as it broke into a murmur stems near the ground he could make out of protest at being dammed by his body. the general bulk of the wearer. His rifle To him it seemed as though the sound could slid forward, covering the unsuspecting be heard for rods. After listening for a man, and he was about to call out when moment he went on again, with a silence, caution stopped the words: if he made a considering the mud and the thin brush, sound or tried to capture this thief at such which reflected credit on his abilities. a distance he might be discovered and shot The camp at last lay under his eyes and down by the thief’s companion. he studied it, warned of danger by its lack | The thought made him glance quickly of occupants. Had they somehow learned toward the camp, and his gaze rested on the of his proximity? Reason said that they two saddles, now broadside to him. They had, for there lay the partly skinned and looked very familiar; they were very famil- butchered carcass of a deer. Two saddles iar, entirely too damned familiar after all were piled on the far side of the Clearing, the mud and muck he had crawled through. but in such a position that they told him | Having nothing to fear, since they be- nothing about their owners. longed to his friends, he gave a snort of He looked all around him, expecting a disgust, and then slid quickly down the challenge or a bullet at any moment; but hill as a bullet touched his hair; and Red’s to go back was as dangerous as to go for- hair was none too thick. For a snap shot ward, and Red hated to retreat. Two to from a swiftly reversed rifle Lanky had one, and with him doing the moving about, , dane very well, and the sudden thrashing COnniEaoo () SS Co