Adventure Magazine Cover — page 156: what you’re looking at

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

154 Then out of a short coulée directly in the pinto’s path, appearing as if by magic with the rising sun, a man on a big gray horse ioped into sight. ‘The rider did not see the stampeding horse fora second. The pound- ing of the Paint’s hoofs reached him and the next instant the big gray was covering the ground in great leaps. Cutting in at an angle, he headed straight for the pinto. A sickening crash as the two horses met. The gray staggered to his knees and was up again. The man who had ridden him was on the ground, astride the fallen Paint’s neck, twisting the fear maddened animal’s head back to hold him down. Shorty, white about the lips but grinning gamely, got to his feet from where he had been thrown by the terrific impact. He was scratched and bruised and his nose was bleeding profusely. Tad drew rein in a whirl of dust and slid to the ground. The man astride the Paint’s neck looked from one to the other with a quizzical smile as Tad examined Shorty hastily for all the world like a hen mothering a chick. Shorty jerked free from his partner and limped toward the man who had saved him -from injury, perhaps death. Wiping the blood from his mouth, he spoke haltingly: “‘T’m—I’m shore obliged, Mister. I don’t know who yuh are ner where yuh come from, but yuh shore got here jest in time. I’m hopin’ I kin do as much fer you some day.” “That goes double,” added Tad. “Yuh done made two friends today stranger. Tad Ladd and Shorty Carroway owes yuh more than they kin ever pay.”’ The man astride the Paint’s neck looked up with an odd smile. He was a young man, probably in his late twenties. Smooth- shaven, tanned a deep bronze, his eyes were of that odd shade of deep blue that can look like the sea on a summer day or like frozen steel when the occasion demands. “If you gents will take over the horse, I’ll be on my way,” he replied. Tad slipped his catch rope over the pinto’s head and the young man swung aboard his own horse just as Ribs Austin and his men rode up. The man on the gray horse seemed to grow tense as he met the gaze of the Slash R boss. “Kinda off yore range, ain’t yuh, Dun- lap?”’? sneered Ribs, paying no heed to Shorty or Tad. Adventure “Kinda,” admitted the youth easily. “T’m gatherin’ a few head uh my stuff that strayed off while I was buildin’ fence.” “T told yuh onct tuh keep offen the Slash R range, Steve Dunlap. I’m tellin’ yuh again now. But there won’t be no third tellin’, savvy? The next time yuh cross the Slash R boundary, you’ll go back feet first. I’ll have no danged scissor-bill nester rustlin’ my calves.” “Rustlin’ talk sounds kinda comical, comin’ from yuh, Austin,” smiled Dunlap. ““Yo’re fergettin’ I worked with yore spread one fall.” “You’d play provin’ anything!” “Exactly,” agreed Dunlap. “And [ ain’t fool enough to start no ruckus when yo’re backed up by yore gunmen. I crossed Mud Creek to hunt my cattle, Austin, not to pick no row with you and yore men.” ‘And you’ll cross right back on yore own side, savvy?” Ribs slouched sidewise in his saddle, his hand on his gun. Shorty opened his bruised lips but the angry exclamation died unspoken as Tad’s gloved hand gripped his arm in a significant pressure. “Hold yore fire, pardner,”’ whispered the cautious Tad. Steve Dunlap, with a quick glance, caught Tad’s eye and the big puncher winked. “Austin,” said Dunlap, his calm voice a pleasant contrast to the Slash R man’s grating tone, “if you go after yore gun there'll be trouble. The odds is in yore favor but yuh’d never live to brag about it. Besides yo’re bein’ watched through a pair uh field-glasses that is shore far-sighted.” He pointed towards a distant knoll. Outlined against the sky was the figure of a horse and rider, motionless as if carved of stone. “Hidin’ behind a woman’s skirts, eh?” sneered Ribs, his thick face mottled with anger. ‘“‘Nope, jest postin’ a witness in case yuh took it into yore head tuh down me, that’s all.” “T got a dozen witnesses here that'll swear to anything!” ‘“‘And their evidence won’t be worth two- bits Mex if she takes the stand, Austin, and you know it. I’m a-goin’ now. You kin shoot me in the back if yuh want to risk hangin’ fer it, Mister.” - Ribs Austin and his crew watched Dun- lap out of sight. The rider on the hill rode MICLOOOLK C@ inn