Adventure Magazine Cover — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

148 of laughter and guttural mutterings and then Boyer came upon a bulky figure stum- bling in the snow. Boyer recognized the figure from the descriptions he had had from the men, of the mining-camp. It was the Giant. The Giant gone mad in the storm. With this discovery Boyer was con- fronted by a new problem. How to get the man back to the sheep-wagon? He could not push him ahead for there was the cord which they must follow to be certain of reaching the wagon. Would the Giant re- sist if he tried to lead him; perhaps attempt to-kill him? , While Boyer was considering this the Giant lurched and fell in the snow. Im- mediately Boyer remembered that the fugi- tive’s strength must be about spent. He stooped and with one arm helped the man to rise. The Giant leaned against him, laughing, sobbing, gibbering—out of his head. : a Boyer locked his left arm in the Giant’s right and as he did so he felt a bulge of hard metal beneath the other’s mackinaw. He stuck the rifle in the snow and, holding the cord in his left hand, he reached under the Giant’s mackinaw with his right and se- cured the Giant’s pistol. This he slipped into the right-side pocket of his own macki- naw. Then Boyer tied the end of the cord to the rifle, and, holding the rifle and hold- ing his man up and helping him with his left hand and arm, he struck back along the trail to the sheep-wagon allowing the cord to slip through the fingers of his right hand as he walked. The Giant seemed to sense dimly that he was being assisted to safety and despite his ravings he stumbled along with Boyer’s help until they came at last to the wagon and got inside. The Giant lay on the floor until Boyer had rebuilt the fire. Then, with his rescuer’s assistance, he got up on the bunk. An empty bottle fell from his pocket and Boyer knew that the cold had done its work against the false stimulant. , As the interior of the wagon warmed the Giant fell asleep. She Boyer tended the fire and kept watch over the Giant who tossed and turned and twisted his huge muscular frame upon the bunk until at times the THROUGH the rest of the night Boyer wore over his regular coat. a e e e e taken off his mackinaw while in the wagon, Adventure whole wagon was shaken by his contortions. In the warm reaction from the storm Boyer experienced difficulty in keeping awake. Once he dozed off completely and came back to consciousness to find the Giant staring at him with eyes that glowed like orbs of fire in the cold. ‘Sheep-herder!”” muttered Hooper in a fleeting moment of regained mentality. When Boyer had rebuilt the fire in the stove the fugitive had again become de- lirious. The man-hunter reflected with satisfaction that Hooper probably would mistake him for a herder even though he might be lucid in the morning. How long would they have to remain in the wagon? Until the storm abated, that was sure; and when the man-hunter remembered the bare aspect of the wagon and the senselessness of a herder’s being there long after the sheep had been taken to the basin he knew that the chances of the Giant’s believing him a herder were negligible. Toward morning the incessant whine of the wind became less pronounced. Boyer, instantly alert, listened hopefully as the fury of the gusts diminished to an occa- sional flurry. With the advent of dawn the wind ceased entirely and Boyer looked out the upper half of the wagon door at a white world, crisp and cold. When he turned about and closed the door he saw the Giant regarding him in- tently with a burning gaze in which, how- ever, the light of returning reason gleamed. And even as Boyer met the other’s look he saw that Hooper entertained no misgivings as to Boyer’s identity. Boyer withdrew from his pockets the last of the food which he had brought with him. Half of this he handed to the Giant. “Better eat,’’ he cautioned. ‘“‘We’ve got a ways to go.” The Giant complied greedily, watching Boyer the while with eyes cruel and cunning. Boyer was minded to put the handcuffs on his captive; for he realized that if any chance offered the big man would not hesi- tate to kill him. The Giant must have dis- covered the loss of his gun. The butt of the weapon peeped from the sheath which He had as he had taken off the Giant’s while the latter slept, so that the heavy garments would be felt when ‘they went out into the forty-below weather. cComicbook ©