Adventure, December 3, 1920 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

12 “magnificent specimen of the human male. Strength and grace, his fine features embellished by a coat of healthy tan that matched in color the bronze of his rumpled hair; gray-brown eyes that glowed with the vitality and exuber- ance of youth; a firm chin; perfect teeth that gleamed as his smile flashed; a deep chest, slim waist—as agile as a young wildcat! Suddenly Lang dropped his arms and stiff- ened. From the rim of the deep coulée came the resounding echo of a horse’s hoofs. He leaped into the willows and emerged into the grass- covered clearing with his rifle tight against his naked shoulder just as a rider appeared above. “Hold on thar!” sang a lusty voice as two hands shot skyward. ‘Wal, yo’re some fine- appearin’ fugitive, Mr. Rush; you shore are!”’ ‘“Lem Robbins!” cried Lang, dropping the rifle. “The same’s me, Lang; the same’s me,” rumbled Robbins as he slid his horse down the steep, sloping bank of the coulée. The newcomer loosened his saddle-cinches and advanced with hand outstretched. “T allowed you might hang up here a brief spell,” he grinned as they shook hands; “but with half a dozen posses lookin’ fer yo’re skin I didn’t think you’d stop to take a bath.” “Lem, I couldn’t help it,” laughed Rush. “We've had so much dry weather and the water looked so good and clear—and I feel so cheerful = ‘“Eh—what’s that?” stammered Robbins. “Well, it may sound funny, but it’s a fact,” confessed Lang, pulling on his clothes and smiling at the man who once worked for his father. ‘Trouble agrees with you, eh?” said Robbins in a doubtful voice. “Tt seems to set all right now that it’s come.” “TI was right sorry to hear about it, son; I shore was. I know you had good cause—it was self-defense pure and simple with that rat that pulled his gun on you. But Drayton; well, Drayton makes it bad.” “Drayton? Who is Drayton?” “Didn’t you know him? He’s the big fellow you plugged when——”’ “YT thought he was drawing on me, Lem.” “No doubt, no doubt—shore you did. But he’s a big man; owns a tenth of Teton County, might say; was sure o’ being ’lected State senator this Fall; going to irrigate a lot of land under the Carey Act an’ all that; lots o’ friends < “Dead?” interrupted Lang anxiously. “The little rat? Yes.” “But Drayton?” “Shot above the heart, son; he ain’t got a chance.” “Lem, listen!” cried Lang in agony. ‘You know I didn’t know him an’ thought he was drawing on me, don’t you, Lem? I didn’t know he was diving for that—that——’”’ Adventure Lang actually sobbed. ‘‘Lem, I wouldn’t shoot a man down if I didn’t think he was trying to get me, an’ it sure looked like it down there.” “T know, son,” said Robbins kindly; ‘‘but Drayton is a big man an’ got a sheep-car full o’ powerful friends, an’ if they get hold of you— good night! You won’t have as much chance as a-buck in deep snow with the wolves after him.” “They'll never get me, Lem,” exclaimed Lang with a brooding, dangerous light in his eyes; ‘“‘not alive!” : “T hope they don’t; but there’s something else you ought to know. They’ve got another count against you.”’ ‘“Vep? What’s that?” Robbins shifted his gaze uneasily before he spoke again. “Hemp’s gang robbed the Bradley bank last night.” “On the job already!’ Lang ejaculated. “But what’s that got to do with me?” “They think you were with the gang,” said Robbins, looking at the ground. “What!” cried Lang in astonishment. “The livery-stable man heard Hemp call yo re name as the gang made off.” “The skunk!” cried Lang in indignation. “Did that to implicate me because he’s got it in for me. Why, didn’t they know I knocked Hemp down for asking me to go with his gang two nights ago?” “T don’t believe they know he asked you to trail with him and they think the fight was a stalk,’ explained Robbins feebly. “Stall ! An’ didn’t I plug one of his men who tried to draw on me down in Muddy after he’d told me Hemp would get me?”’ “Ves, but you see—the fellow you plugged had been kicked out by Hemp.” “T see,”’ said Rush bitterly; ‘‘an’ they think I was sore at him for that reason?” ““T suppose so,”’ said Robbins rather vaguely. Wait till I take a look around.”’ Robbins climbed to the rim of the coulée to gaze about while Lang cinched his saddle - and replaced his rifle in its case which was suspended from the horn. It made him fighting mad to think that Hemp had succeeded in directing suspicion toward him for a second offense of which he was innocent. “You see it’s this way,” explained Robbins, returning. “They know you had a talk with Hemp in the back room of Grimes’ place; then you left an’ they left right after. They think you joined the gang somewhere out on the prairie. “Then you was askin’ in Muddy fer me, an’ they think you maybe was figurin’ on—on gettin’ me in on the deal. “Then you plugged that rat that Hemp kicked out, an’ that looked bad—to say nothin’ Gomichboo (C@