Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 21, 1922 — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

THE BLOOD-CALL. line of sight so that she could not keep a constant lookout for the man on the cliff. When four of the horses trotted in front of her window and wheeled frantically at the sound of the shooting in front of the house and fled, Sue could see the spider running across the narrow stubble-covered yard from the bear-brush toward her window. The at- tackers in the front of the house had crawled up and were on all sides. Three of them were running toward the door of the house. Sue screamed, praying that Quade would open fire. She raised her gun frantically, but the spider leaped from the shadow of the house, and caught the barrel as she pulled the trigger. Her shot went wild into the air, and the man scrambled up to the sill. It was then that Jim Quade, from the strategic seclusion of the shake-barn, start- ea to fire. — ee CHAPTER IX. THE HELL-BENDER. OR a few moments before Quade chose to play his hand the ranch was the scene of the wildest confusion. Dogs barked and yelped from every~ corner, horses galloped wildly from one side of the ranch to the other, and the milling herd began a frantic bawling. Jug Trilles and his men hurled a drumfire of shots at every window within range. And their fire was returned by old Ross Larkey, who had discarded his shotgun for a revolver, and was emptying his chambers as fast as he could pull the trigger. In the house the confusion was as great as the mélée outside. Old Grandpa Bob crawled from his sofa when a bullet splin- tered into one of the sofa legs. He jumped out, begging Larkey to call a truce with the murderers, but a shot crashed into a picture above him and sent the old man packing into the kitchen, where he scram- bled frantically into the wood-box with his little grandson. Old Ross Larkey, having emptied the magazines of two revolvers, fumbled with trembling fingers for cartridges and tried 29 vainly to load up. Meanwhile, Little Jug Trilles rushed to the front door, followed by two of his men. This put them out of range of Mrs. Larkey, who was afraid to lean out of the window and aim at them. The three raiders used the butts of their guns on the door and smashed the pan- eling. At this moment three clean flashes shot out from the shake-barn fifty paces away. Three reports banged out as fast as a man can count. Jug Trilles reeled back, clutching at his arm; one of his companions fell forward from the porch and lay face downward on the ground. The third turned to flee, but sank to his knees and then fell to his side. The rest of the attackers realized that they were being fired upon from behind, and fled precipitously toward the gate. * Quade saw them running pell-mell out to the plain, and then scurrying into the bear-brush where they had left their horses. As nearly as he could make out, there were only six in this retreat. Three of the oth- ers he had stretched. The fourth and last was Juan Scaly, the Mexican, who had climbed into the window where Sue had been keeping watch. Quade hopped out of the hay-rick of the barn where he was hiding, and ran across the yard to Sue’s room. He vaulted over the sill of the window, and Juan, who had already climbed in and chased Sue to the other side of the room, turned, picked up a chair, and hurled it. It caught Quade on the arm, knocking the revolver from his hand. Juan quickly followed his advan- tage and drew. Sue caught his arm, so that the Mexican fired into the ceiling. - Quade’s eyes dilated to the dark of the room, and the flash of the gun told him where Juan was. He rushed, clinching un- til Juan dropped his gun The two men separated and swung furiously at each other, their blows glancing wild because of the dim light. One sledge-hammer blow caught the Mexican in the chest, smashing him against the table, which overturned. Juan picked up the broken chair and raised it, but a right hook caught him on the mouth just as he was about to hurl the chair at-Quade’s head. .A left followed him under the jaw, and he fell crumpling. comicloool C©