Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

44 Finally Curry arose, panting and di- sheveled, with his face a red ruin and his clothes ripped apart. He stood with braced feet and gulped for breath. He was a horrible apparition. He glowered like a demoniac gorilla till his brain cleared. Then he bent over Minden, turned away, picked up his six-shooter and strode out to the pump. He didn’t notice Gennerveeve. He forgot all about her. The girl laid her babe on the floor and staggered to her feet. Whimpering softly, she looked around like a dazed child, aghast at the wreckage of her home. She noticed her father’s shotgun on the wall. It gave her a hazy idea. She pulled it down and turned her wabbly steps toward the little front window, laying the barrel on the sill. Curry had mounted. He was riding away without a backward glance. The muzzle of the shotgun pointed unsteadily at his body. Gennerveeve tried to pull back its hammer, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t screw up the nerve. And so Curry rode over the hill and far away, with the muzzle of a useless shotgun waving at him out of the window. Behind the shotgun was a crying little girl and behind the girl, in a dark corner, lay the crushed, crumpled body of a man who once had great ambitions. ~f{)-] WHEN a breathless Gennerveeve BF ~-Pbrought the news of Minden’s ye death to the Wilcox ranch the boss notified the sheriff and prepared for more trouble. Wilcox rightly assumed that Curry was now a worse menace than ever before. A beaten scoundrel with his back to the wall is likely to perform prodigies through sheer desperation. The history of the Southwest is full of such incidents. The task of Wilcox was made harder by the coming of Summer, bringing a heat that made men squirm and causing range-cattle to spread out farther in search of feed. The Winter had been wet and there was no dan- ger of drought, but now the animals scat- tered far afield until often a half-mile separated one steer from the next. Guard- ing such a far-flung herd was next to im- possible. Incidentally Wilcox had general charge over the Minden herds till something could be done about settling Minden’s estate. XIV Adventure “From what I know about this country we're lucky at that,’ said Steve Adams, who was taking short journeys in the sad- dle. ‘Some folks have to send their stock to California in Summer.”’ ; “We are lucky that way,” grunted the boss. “Have you heard any news from the range lately?” Steve’s brow wrinkled. “IT get rumors but that’s all. We may be losin’ cattle every day but the Lord knows how many.” “Curry will steal now for pure malice.” “Yes, but it’s not Curry alone now. I hear everybody’s gettin’ into it. Seems like some one’s seen Jim Kelly prowlin’ around with Curry. Kelly’s jest as big as Curry. He’s gotasmany men. Then folks are sayin’ Bonner and Vance are gettin’ ready for somethin’. It looks like you’ve scared ’em into gettin’ together. Instead of bustin’ ’em you’ve made ’em drop their quarrels. Curry’s set up a big yell for help.” “In other words, I'll have an avalanche of them.”’ “It looks like it.”’ | ‘“‘What would you suggest that I do?” . “Fight.” The boss nodded. But it was not so easy. Curry was hard to catch and the rumors about the other rogues seemed only thin air. The sheriff soon arrived to make an in- vestigation. He admitted he didn’t have much time for Curry. “T’ve got six other cases,” he said. “‘Every one of ’em’s as bad as this Minden murder and some of ’em’s wuss. If I go skallyhootin’ after Curry I'll need sixty days and a dozen men. I in’t got ’em to spare.” The investigation was soon over. The sheriff pumped Gennerveeve and went to the scene of the murder, after which he went to town again, taking a lot of written testi- mony and nothing else. As for clearing the range, he was pessimistic. “This yere’s a hole-in-the-wall country,” he opined. “As soon as you git one gang, two or three others come in. I shore ad- mire your nerve, Mister Wilcox, but you’ve grabbed off the hottest job in the county. I reckon she’s too hot for any man!” Wilcox also had another burden of woe to carry. Gennerveeve: had come to grace the ranch-house with her presenct. Gomiicovook (C@©