A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, February 1950 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

I saw sections of the steel wall being cut away in great sweeps. Spectacular adventure lured ranchman Smoky Billi on a weird, lone voyage to the world’s periphery where reckless men waited to turn atomic science against the world. Copyright 1987 by Popular Publications, Inc. CHAPTER 1 The Summons HERE are plenty of folks on the Bitterroot range, from Apache Springs to Bullhide Crossing, who claim that the Cassidys, man and boy, have been liars and scoundrels and cotton- wood-bait for three generations, Yes, and not without cause, as I am the first to admit. So there’s not any hurt feelings My own name is Cassidy—Smoky Bill they call me mostly—and I never pro- fessed to be lily-pure. I have shot off my gun at moving targets and not all of them were coyotes. I have been a bit careless now and then about flipping my loop and dabbing my running iron. If I swore on a Bible, here and now, that I was Mahatma Gandhi or General Grant—well, it 9 a aa