Adventure Magazine Cover — page 144: what you’re looking at

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

134 as was his habit when alone in the moun- tains and on the mesas. Presently—pro- ceeded his vision—the bandits, led by the wily Straddler, would leave that point of light and ride their lean, swift horses down the hillside toward the.river. Before arriving at the water they would enter a gully that was like a deep-cut road and come down it to the yellow stream. When the vicious riders had waded the shallow water of the river they would again enter a gully and climb the hill to the table- land. They would come out of the gully at the corral, right here where he sat, and spread out on the town below like a pest. That gully on the other side, and the one on this side, they were like a road—Joash believed they were a road, a veritable highway, cut by the feet of Indian hordes in other centuries traveling back and forth between the north and the south. If only they were marching along now—so went Joash’s dreaming—how quickly the bandits would flee and Rodela del Sol would be saved! Or if there were a troop of cavalry to ride down this ancient trail and up the hill on the other side, a troop of good U. S. cavalry, how quickly the Straddler would run away! And just there old Joash’s dreaming reached a high point. He sat up sharply, as if a giant had thumbed him in the ribs. ‘“What’s the matter?’ Jim jerked out irritably. “Say, boy,” sang the old man under his breath, “I’ve thought of a way to settle this whole thing!” “Do I eat?” “You eat. And the town is saved. And I don’t have to worry any more, or be a cur!” “Sing the next verse.”’ “The next verse is this: I’m going down into town. You stay here and watch for the Straddler. If you hear him coming let down the bars so’s the burros can get away, and come a-shoutin’ down the hill to give the alarm. If you don’t hear him coming, wait till I get back and we'll start something. Oh, boy, if we won’t start something!’ eek whole, the details came readily to Joash. The first step was to go to a spot where he had that day seen three Mexicans making adobe blocks. There WITH his scheme in mind as a Adventure was the bale of hay for straw, and a barrel of water, and the mud-hole where the barefoot Mexicans tramped straw and water and earth together. Joash got the strong shovel that was there, and as an afterthought took also part of the bale of hay. It was thoroughly dark when the old man, carrying hay and shovel, arrived at Coons’ little general store, built of adobe. The long-nosed merchant was not present delving in account-books by the light of a kerosene lamp, as often he was. Had he been, Joash would have gone to the other store, owned by a Mexican. Joash went to the side of the building, selecting a spot which his knowledge of the store told him would offer no obstacles within, and began to pry and dig at the bricks with his shovel. He strove to make as little noise as possible. At first the dry, pebbly earth came away easily, but the farther that he penetrated into the ten inches of compact straw and adobe the harder the work was. A full three-quarters of an hour of listen- ing and peering into the darkness for the approach of unwanted people, and of dig- ging, was required to break into the store. Joash believed that digging through the side of a house to effect an entrance was as much a crime of burglary as breaking in by door or window. He chuckled at the whimsicality of his thought, and remembered Judge Roy Bean, who was once the law west of the Pecos. The story had it that a cowboy was haled before the judge charged with shooting a Chinaman. The court, after searching his law book carefully, announced that he could not find a word about it bein’ unlawful for a cowboy to kill a Chinaman, so he dis- missed the prisoner forthwith. When Joash got inside he used the knowl- edge he had gained in a year of trading with Coons to burglarize efficiently. First he went to a pile of boxes that had arrived only two days before and, opening cartons, appropriated two that suited his plan. Next he went to the grocery division and added a box of matches and four cans of canned stuff to his collection. “Got to take some feed to Jimmy,” thought he as he stuffed the cans into his shirt front. His final act was to measure off about one hundred feet of small rope from a spool and to find a ball of strong twine. All this he Co NOOK 1@)