Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

The Relocation of Montana Creek “Yes,” Sark told him, “four days ago. Right where you stand. And you get to blazes off the spot!” Eric reached for him, ax and all, as he spoke and jerked him sidewise off the creek- bank. Casino described an acrobatic air- swing, hurtled through the foremost ranks of the roaring crowd and landed in the mid- dle of the ice. He was on his feet in a mo- ment, his face contorted with pain and rage and the fallen ax in his hands. But at that moment Sark’s rifle spat in the air over his head, spat and continued to spit as fast as Eric could work the lever. At the first shot Casino dropped the ax again. At the sec- ond shot he shoved his arms in air, and at each succeeding report the arms stretched aloft another full inch. - After the fifth shot Sark paused, while far up Eureka way, faint as the bark of a child’s toy-gun, came Burge Kivre’s answer- ing pop-pop. Kivre had got him all right, and the wireless message to Gold Commis- sioner Thomas Fawcett and Captain Con- stantine of the Mounted Police was on its way. ‘“‘Now,”’ laughed Eric grimly, ‘‘those five shots were only for practise and to warm up the barrel. The next five’ll make a por- ous-plaster of you, Casino, if you don’t dis- solve yourself mighty sudden. Get up onto your friend Ante Baker’s ground or down on to Gunboat Kane’s. For it’s an easy guess that they’re staked on either side of you to cover up your boundary sins!” “All right,” gritted Casino malevolently, as he cringed away up-creek toward Ante Baker’s claim, ‘‘you got the say-so just for . the fightin’ minute. But your fightin’ min- ute won’t last long, and you nor your part- ner ain’t goin’ to stay on that ground long.” ‘“‘Aren’t we?” Sark bellowed. ‘‘We’ll stay till the Gold Commissioner gets here. Savvy that? We’ll hold the ground in trust. You’ve made away with our location no- tices, but that doesn’t give you the claim. Fawcett’ll be the final arbiter.” “Fawcett!”? snarled Casino. “Goin’ to send for him, eh? A whale of a lot of good that’ll do you. Ante and Gunboat and me’ll blow you to Mars and Jupiter before he gets here!” “Then you'll have to blow thundering fast. He’ll be here before night. And if you value your sordid skin, don’t set foot on this claim before he comes.” Casino deemed the Commissioner’s com- 10 145 ing only a bluff, and since dark suited him better than daylight under the menace of Sark’s rifle he was content to wait till night. But just as gloom of the early evening drew in he saw something that backed the bluff. @ and covered with sifted snow and the rime of the run, came the outfit of Fawcett and Captain Constantine. Tom Bassett was on the watch for them by the creek-bank. He hailed them loudly, and at his hail they swung in. “You fellers sure ain’t bin prodigal with time,” chuckled Tom. ‘“‘How’d you make it so smokin’ fast?”’ “Kivre met us up-bound for Australia Creek just at Eureka’s mouth,” informed the Gold Commissioner, shaking off the snow. ‘Turned us down. Five minutes later he wouldn’t have got us. What’s the trouble here, Tom?” “‘Claim-jumpin’s a mild epithet for it. Sark and me staked this ground four days ago, when the creek laid white and clean as a new rabbit-skin blanket. We was up- river a piece killin’ grub when Kivre told us thar was a big stampede in behind us. And what did we see when we lit down but Casino squattin’ here. Bin spyin’ on us evidently, swipin’ our ground and puttin’ all Dawson wise. Ericplumb sky-straddled him offa it and put it in trust till you arrived. ‘“‘We’re law-abidin’ men, and you’ve got the proper authority to pass on anythin’ like this. It’s your pass, Fawcett, but while youw’re passin’ jist remember we want'‘our claim back. She sampled well. She’s the best claim on the creek, because we had the choice of the hull creek when we staked her. The outthrust of the bluff catches the alluvial drift here. And look at the pitch of the cafion! That spells concentra- tion. Accordin’ to our estimate, that clatm’s worth forty thousand dollars if it’s worth a measly ounce. Oh, I tell you, placid and patient, Fawcett, we want her back!’’ “That all you have to tell me?” “No. I know the approximate distance from the mouth up to the bluff yonder, and thar seems to me too many men in for the ground. I ain’t measured it, but it strikes me that way. More’n that, they’s only Gunboat Kane and one other man between us and the bluff, whar thar should be three men. I ain’t bin above, but I expeck it’s the same all the way up. It looks wrong, UP THE creek, going at full gallop CoOMmichoooks (CO