Adventure Magazine Cover — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

sun-Dog Trails feller to imagine, and wondered if you fellers hed. “Cale Wesson said it was a shame for a nice-lookin’ girl to not have any females to wau-wau with, and he said he was goin’ to have Mrs. Wesson go out and visit her.” “My ——!” gasped Brick. ‘Mrs. Wes- son would talk the ear off a mule. What else did they say—Bunty and Cleeve?”’ “Nothin? much. I hears Cleeve asked Bunty why he didn’t go out to the Nine Bar Nine and serve them warrants instead of waitin’ for you to come to town, and Bunty said there wasn’t no —— of a big hurry about it.” “Bunty ain’t goin’ to strain himself and get his muscles all sore,” observed Silent. “T ain’t huntin’ for trouble, but Marlin City is big enough to suit me.’ “All right, all right!” Lafe Freeman shook his head violently. “Go ahead! Git in jail and see if I care; but before yuh get shot or hung I want you and Harp to go over to the Triangle Dot and bring back them twelve white-faced yearlin’s. Sam Slayton said he’d have ’em in the corral;” and then added as an after- thought, ““They’re wilder than white-tail deer, but that ain’t no reason for runnin’ ’em all the way home.”’ Silent and Harp grumbled, which is a usual thing in a case of this kind, especially as they were afraid that Brick wouldn’t sit down and wait for them to return. After breakfast they rode away, still grumbling. Brick watched them disappear over the hills and then threw the saddle on his top horse, Glory, a hammer-headed gray. He filled half of his pistol-belt with rifle- cartridges and shoved a Winchester carbine into a saddle scabbard. Lafe Freeman watched Brick’s prepara- tions, but made no comment. If Brick wanted to go to Marlin City and call the sheriff’s bluff it was Brick’s own business. Lafe knew that Brick could take care of himself, in spite of the fact that he was prone to get reckless. Lafe’s soul yearned to follow Brick, but he put away his desires. But Brick was not thinking about going to Marlin City to call Bunty Blair’s bluff. _ Brick had an idea; an idea that was not at all clear just yet. Something seemed to tell him that the answer was written in the cafion where the hold-up had been pulled off. He was piecing together some of the 23 things that had happened; but there were many, many things that he needed to make it complete. As he swung away from the ranch, with the Winchester under his right knee, he wondered where the trail would end, and why he was so interested. It was not be- cause Bunty Blair had hinted that he— Brick—was mixed up in it, Brick’s thoughts went to the Weeping Tree ranch. Was the answer there? He knew that Jean was not guilty. What did Scott Martin know? Would any man carry a note like that to the scene of the hold-up and take a chance on losing it? Brick shook his head. Why was Limpy killed? Did Limpy know who held him up? Where was Limpy going when he was-killed? Was he afraid that his knowledge of the bandits— Again Brick shook his head, but would not admit to himself that he was baffled. He would work on the theory that Limpy knew who held him up. King Cleeve had incurred the displeasure . of a mob, according to Silent’s story. Martin led that mob.. Why hadn’t Martin recognized Cleeve? Did Cleeve know Mar- tin? Brick scowled over these perplexing questions. He went slowly down to the*county road, and drifted along until he came to the second curve of the Whisperin’ Creek gerade, where he stopped. The wrecked stage had been taken away, and there was nothing left to mark the spot except the deep ruts where the wheels had cut into the soft hillside. Brick visualized as much as he could of the robbery, but there was nothing to give him any clue. He decided that the woman, and possibly one of the men, had jumped or been knocked off the grade into the brush out of sight. The other had stayed with the stage until it reached the pine thicket. But their manner of escape from the crash had nothing to do with their apprehension. Brick swung his horse off the edge of the grade and rode down to where the bank broke sharp to Whisperin’ Creek, where he dismounted. Brick felt sure that the bandits would not carry that heavy box very far. The reasonable thing, he thought, would be to open it, divide the contents and then go on. There was little water in the creek-bed, which was piled high with boulders. . CoOnnicoookSs (©)