Arizona Round-Up — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

ARIZONA ROUNDUP 9 try to throw a gun on Tex Burnett. He could let you clear the sheath and then blow you apart.” He was soaping his face now; the tobacco-stained beard was a mass of white foam. He rinsed, poured more water, rinsed again, and turned with a towel in his hands. Evergreen sat on the edge of the bunk. The gun was gone, the carpet bag closed. The youth looked at his father. “I don’t understand you,” he grunted sourly. “You never talk about the past—” | “And that’s not all. ’'m not going to talk about it. I—” Another shadow darkened the doorway of the cabin. The woman who came in was possibly thirty years of age. She had brown hair and eyes, a well shaped nose, and a mouth that could be tender and yet could thin in swift anger. “Hello, Pap,” she said to the freighter. “How’s it going?” “It's not,” Evergreen cut in. “The old man’s a family gent now, Lil. He's picked up a homeless orphan—a real two gun, rip- snortin badman who’s a timber wolf with cactus bristles for hair.” The woman's eyes looked a question. Jed’s hairy face came out from back of the towel. He looked at his daughter. “Don’t pay any attention to Lance, Hon,” he said. “He’s a man I knew by reputation in Texas, and I happened to recognize him when he rode by today. Name's Tex Burnett.” She seated herself on the bunk beside the youth. “What kind of a man?” she inquired. Jed rubbed the towel over his hairy chest to remove the water that had dripped down and smiled at her. “One of the greatest gamblers that the Southwest ever produced, Lil. A square gam- bler. He used to pose as a tinhorn and he cleaned them by crooked methods when they played crooked, but I never heard of him cleaning an honest man on a crooked deal. He didn’t have to.” She pursed her lips and looked thoughtful. “That wouldn’t be a man of about thirty-five or forty with snow white hair I passed on the way down here? Black hat, shirt, and pants? Shiny boots? One gun at his hip?” “That’s him. Burnett.” “I see,” she replied thoughtfully. “What's he doing here?” “In town? Just drifting through, I guess. Rode up alongside comicbooks.com