Arizona Round-Up — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

60 . WILLIAM HOPSON a gully or waterbed somewhere up ahead, and Tex worked toward it. He was two hundred yards away when he saw the back end of the stagecoach come to an abrupt stop as a shot rang out and heard a voice of command. He bent in the saddle and brought up the .45-90, levering open the breach far enough to make sure of the long brass shell in the chamber. The rifle lifted to his shoulder, roared back in recoil. The big bullet, aimed high, slashed through a bit above the head of a man sitting a horse. He heard a startled yell, the crashing of horses through the buckbrush, and then three riders broke into view; three masked men spurring their mounts cruelly as they fled. Smoke’ wisped up from the rifle’s muzzle and Tex, reloading at a run, tore out after them. They were two hundred yards away now, far too distant for effective pistol shooting, but two of them were firing back anyhow. He saw one of the masked men slide his horse to his haunches, and years on the trail told him all too well what it meant. He was out of the saddle and hitting the ground, down on one knee. The big single shot came up as the other started shoot- ing. He was using what sounded like a .40-40 repeater, a weapon good for fast, effective work at up to two hundred yards, but not much over that, unless in the hands of an expert. This man wasn't. Two slugs struck the ground beside Tex before the .45-90 gave off with its second roar. The man with the repeater dropped it and did a queer fall backward, knocked down by the shocking impact of the big bullet. He rose to all fours and began to craw] as the grim-faced man from the Rio country leaped at the black and swung up. Tex sheathed the rifle in its boot and slid the Colts out of its sheath at his thigh. He rode the snorting, cagey black forward. The masked man had regained his feet now and, bandana off, was staggering around in circles. His horse had bolted; his friends were gone. He fell again and lay still. Back of him, Tex heard the sound of the stage and realized that Jed had swung it off the road and was lumbering toward the scene. Tex rode up at a walk and swung down. He walked over and looked at a road agent who had held up his last stage. The man comicbooks.com