Adventure Magazine Cover — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

126 down the sloping valley. He took the same precaution at a window on the opposite side. No one was in sight in either direc- tion. From the door he looked across to the rocky rim of the lesser ridge. It was covered with pines. ‘To examine the height in the east it would be necessary for him to leave the cabin as there was no window at the chimney end of the cabin. He decided to chance it without completing his reconnaissance. The owners of the place would be sure to approach from either up or down the valley. Returning to the open trapdoor, he struck a storm-match and held it below the floor. There was a rude cellar formed by a natural depression or hole. It was about six feet deep beneath the opening and had been shaped with a spade on the sides, but the bottom of it seemed to be solid rock. The flare of the match also revealed a hard- tack box filled with packages done up in bagging and blankets. Dropping to the ground beneath he caught up the first pack- age and held it in the faint light streaming through the trap and deftly untied the cord. It contained twenty watches, rang- ing from a lady’s timepiece to a massive gold-repeater. “Agents have been swapping jewelry for horses, or else one gang is working both branches of the business,’”’ he told himself as he carefully retied the package. The next package, much smaller than the first, held nothing but finger rings. With the exception of several plain bands— wedding rings he called them—the lot was scarcely worth the risk of acquiring them. The third package was rich with gold dust and nuggets. What remained he exam- ined by the sense of touch and by weighing them in his hands. All contained jewelry or nuggets. Replacing the loot in its box he pursued his quest eagerly but found nothing. He was lifting his hands to catch the edge of the trap when the cabin door banged open. His fingers were yanked back to pull his two revolvers. The newcomer stopped short on behold- ing the reclining table. Dinsdale shuffled about and grumbled half aloud. “That you, Rusty?” demanded the man above. “Erhuh. Come down here,” Dinsdale. Shrilly whistling a strain from “Buffalo growled Adventure Gals’ the man walked around the table and unsuspectingly lowered himself through the opening. As his feet touched the ground and as his hands were falling to his side Dinsdale brought the barrel of the heavy Colt down on his head. The fellow collapsed and remained motionless. Dins- dale stepped over the prostrate form and drew himself up through the opening and tipped the trap-door back in place. “That makes it awkward,” he muttered as he stepped to the open door and gazed up and down the valley. The man’s lack of suspicion and his readi- ness to accept an intruder as a member of the gang indicated that some one known as “Rusty”? was expected to be in the cabin; therefore, Rusty must be in the immediate neighborhood and likely to appear at any moment. While it was reassuring to dis- cover no body of men approaching the cabin it was disquieting to observe there were no horses in sight. The man in the cellar had arrived on foot; and he must have come from the near- by wood or else he would have been seen from. one of the two windows before Dins- dale ventured through the trap-door. It was possible that he. and his friend Rusty had been together and had separated when near the cabin. This would permit the sec- ond man to be in the woods opposite the door. But Dinsdale dared not wait for number two to show himself, nor did he dare risk a retreat down or up the open valley.. He ran to the nearest point of the growth despite the possibility that, Rusty might be waiting to receive him. Nor did he breathe freely until he plunged into cover. He followed up the edge of the valley for a short distance and then turned west and crossed the crest of the westernmost ridge - and in a long diagonal made for the camp. He struck into his upward course at the point where he had piled the second mound of dirt. Soon he was back at the camp and Pyrites was demanding: ‘Where in sin have you been? ‘Hour to sunset and you was to be back for dinner.” : “T’ve been in a long narrow valley be- tween this and the next ridge,” wearily replied Dinsdale. ture I never looked for.” Forthwith he recited his experience in the cabin and his assault on the man in the cellar. Gomuicbook ‘“‘And I had an adven- © (E@)