Adventure Magazine Cover — page 153: what you’re looking at

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

Till the Wolves ‘Come Home way back into the cabin. ‘Where does this ‘trail lead?” -he questioned. “Up around the east shoulder of Big Baldy, across and down the south side to Two-Corral Plateau,” replied George; ‘‘and it’s the narrowest, meanest ten miles of trail mountain goats an’ Indians ever made. Five miles to the top of the east shoulder, with a precipice just before the summit where the trail’s about as wide as a pin- point.” Boyer listened intently, for it was one of the few trails in the high hills that he had never traversed. ‘“Two-Corral Plateau,” he mused. “And on the other side is Eastern Range and then a drop to the basin and the railroad. He’s got a six-hour start——”’ ‘“‘An’ he knows that trail,” cut in the earnest voice of one of the men. “He knows it better’n anybody up here. I’ve seen him go up at night an’ come back, an’ go up in the mornin’ an’ come back with deer. He’s the only one hereabouts that would risk that trail with snow on it.” “‘She’s well named—the Pin-point,” ob- served another. “Well, by , Vl foller him up there!” declared George. “I’ve never been ten feet up that trail but Pll go——” “It won’t be necessary,” said Boyer quietly and something in his manner con- vinced the men. “I’ll go myself. Can I get a horse here?”’ “You going to take a horse up there in the snow?’”’ gasped a miner. “Tt’s wide enough for a horse, isn’t it?” asked Boyer sharply. “Just about,” was the dubious answer. ‘“‘There’s been horses up there, but bs “Can I get a horse here?’ Boyer again demanded. “I'll be responsible for his safety or his value, if you think there’s a chance of losing the animal. Giant Hooper has left a track on that trail if he’s taken it,”’ he added. “Rand and I had a horse,” said George. “My partner won’t be needin’ him again an’ if it'll help you get his murderer you can have him. He’s-eld but reliable.”’ “Get him while I get some food to take along,” said Boyer. ‘‘We’ve got to hurry; the Giant’s got a start an’ I want him be- fore he hits the basin and a railroad.”’ The men talked doubtfully about Boy- er’s chances when the deputy and Rand’s partner had hurried out. 143 “That snaky dark-faced —— will stick to Giant’s trail till the wolves come home,” said an old-timer who knew Boyer and his record for tracking men on the silent trails of the Northwest. : ‘“‘An’ the wolves usually get the meat,” reflected another aloud. “It’s a man-sized job to make the Pin- -point in the snow and at night,” said one of the men. “We'll relay a message around to Judith for a car to siart out from there in the morn- ing to head the Giant off in case he does. get through,” decided an official of the com- pany. ‘It would take him until day after tomorrow to make the basin— Look!” The group of men, walking slowly toward the Miners’ Home and commissary store now, stopped in its tracks and gazed up the mountainside. Against the white back- ground of snow was dimly outlined the fig- ure of a man leading a horse. “He’s found the Giant’s tracks an’ he ain’t losin’ any time!’ exclaimed the com- pany official. The man and the horse climbed slowly but steadily and soon were lost to sight from those below in the shadows of the sparse pine-growth that clung to the gteep sides of the lower haunches of Big Baldy. © Vp BOYER did not find the going easy. mest The sky was filled with fine clouds @ rolled so close that they appeared like curdled milk through which the moon strove to cast its.rays. The wind had fresh- ened and switched to the north; the cold increased. He had te watch closely to dis- tinguish the direction in which the tracks left by Giant Hooper led. The trail was barely a foot wide in places and there was always the danger of slipping over the edge. Much of the mountain on this, the north side, was shale rock, and to ship would mean one of two things: to start an earth and snow slide and be buried in the gulch below, or to be carried to the edge of a precipice and dashed to death on the rocks at its base. Boyer was careful to plant his feet in the impressions left by the Giant’s big shoe-pacs. He knew that where the trail would support the huze frame and heavy weight of Hooper it also would support him. It was the horse which worried him. Like Hooper, the horse practically was breaking a new trail, trusting to instinct, the feel of the ground, CoMmicbhook C©