Western Story Magazine, May 12, 1934 — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

The Barking Dog | coldly ordered the trailer to get busy. The trailer dismounted. The formation was lightly covered with clinging soil. The trailer had no difficulty in following the riders down the descent for a hundred feet. Then he climbed back to Jerry. — “They went straight down that far,” he said. “Just ahead of where I stopped, rock begins. It’s goin’ to be harder to folla them. You ain’t goin’ to send me all the way down there alone, are you? If them fellas kept on, they went inta the draw you can see down there.” “Tl go with you,” Jerry said. “You an’ him ain’t goin’ down there alone, Jerry,” Parks declared. “We gotta locate them fellas,” said Jerry. “We don’t know what any of them draws is. They may run through; they may be blind. Them fellas might. be in one of them. Cer’nly they ain’t above us. If we keep away from the mouths of the draws, we’ll be all right. You mer can stay here. If anything happens, I'll throw myself flat. You can pick them off from here.” “Well, mebbe that’s all right,” Parks conceded. “Look out for yourself. Look out for this trailer. He’ll outfox you if he can.” “An’ where would I go from there?” the trailer demanded. “If them fellas caught me, they wouldn’t lemme explain. They’d smash bullets inta me. They’d say I brought you men here, an’ that’d be all there’d be to it. I know ’em!” Jerry slipped from his horse and led it to one side, so that it should not be between the punchers and the bottom of the descent. He examined his two guns. “Go on,” he told the trailer. “Tend to your business. If you make a break of any kind, I'll blast 121 you, even if my shot brings that whole outfit out on me.” “Tm in as much danger as you are,” the trailer said sullenly. They went, as rapidly as possible, down to the spot to which the trailer had previously gone. The trailer stood looking farther down. Fifty feet from him and Jerry there was a clump of half a dozen trees. The space between each two was sufficiently wide to permit a rider to pass between them. Jerry and the trailer went down there, Jerry keeping his eyes on the bottom and the trailer staring at the trees. _ When they reached the trees, the trailer began to examine them. Jerry now watched the mouth of the draw below him. “Some riders went through these trees recent, some around them,” the trailer presently announced. “Horses dragged the branches of the trees. A few dry branches is broke. They come away clean an’ are layin’ on the ground. One _ green _ branch broke, too. The green branch is the thing. The break is fresh as a new cut.” “Let’s see it,” Jerry ordered. sh: trailer pushed a_ limb toward Jerry. Jerry saw that one of the branching ends was broken and hung down. The break was indeed fresh. It had been made very recently. He was convinced that it had been made by those descending riders. Com- ing up the descent, they would probably ride cautiously; going down, they would be in haste to get to security and food. “Go on,” Jerry said. *‘She’s clear from here down,” the trailer said nervously. “What hap- pens to us if them fellas has got a guard out?” “No more will hannen to you than.