Adventure Magazine Cover — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

The Grub-Line wild. The two gents with him was bad scairt, but they balked at th’owin’ me into the bog. Frenchy loses his head complete and kills one uh them. Then he makes the other ’un pitch the dead feller into the bog. This kinda cools him off and he figgers out a new plan. He puts me on Skewball and ties me hard and fast in the saddle. Then he leads Skewball down the cajion and ties him to a tree. I’m bleedin’ bad and it looks to the breed like I’d bleed to death in ahourertwo. He tells this Slash R gent to watch fer you to come back and kill yuh. Says he’]! kill this boy iffen he don’t do as he says. Then he rides off to camp.” ‘‘And the Slash R feller cuts yuh loose?” “‘When he makes sure Frenchy is gone. Then he pulls out fer a new country, I reckon. He was shore a-driftin’ the last I seen uh him. I reckon I fainted some. It was night when I come to. I hit the trail fer camp, found you gone and headed Skewball fer town. It was one danged long ride. I—I jest got here. I—I ——” Shorty went limp in his partner’s arms. Back in the courtroom, the judge had restored order. The sheriff and his deputies had disarmed the Slash R men and herded them into a corner. Others had manacled Frenchy and brought him in. As Tad laid his unconscious partner on the platform, not ten feet from the lifeless body of Ribs Austin, a doctor pushed through the crowd in obedience to the judge’s shouted request for a physician. ‘The man’s in a weakened condition but he’ll pull through easily,” the doctor told Tad and Patsy Darcey. ‘“He’ll need care- ful attention for a few days.”’ “He'll get it, doctor,” cried Patsy. Steve broke away from the crowd and approached Tad. “Pat told me how you two boys was pluggin’ for me, Ladd. I don’t savvy how yuh beat Austin and Frenchy at their crooked game but yuh shore done a good job. I’m—I’m shore obliged. Ain't we, Pat?” The girl, tears dimming her eyes, nodded vigorously. Then she impulsively threw her arms around Tad’s neck and kissed him. Shorty, stirring feebly and opening his eyes, received the mate to that kiss. The crowd cheered and threw their hats in the air. It was a laughing, jubilant crowd that surged from the courtroom to the saloon across the street. As they waited for a stretcher on which 175 to carry the now conscious and vigorously protesting Shorty to the hotel, the sheriff drew Tad aside. « ‘Now that the smoke has cleared away and things has got quiet, would yuh mind tellin’ me how come that Slash R brand on the hide yonder got changed to a Bar Be” he asked in a hoarse whisper. Steve Dunlap, at the sheriff’s elbow, mutely seconded the officer’s question. “Promise yuh won’t th’ow me and the Shorty boy in jail and I’ll tell yuh,” grinned Tad. “I promise, Mister,” smiled the sheriff. “Tt was thisaway. I knowed Ribs and Frenchy had switched hides on Steve, savvy? Thinks I, why can’t me ’n’ Shorty do the same thing? So we combs the range till we Jocates a spotted Bar B yearlin’ that’s marked enough like the Slash R hide to pass a ordinary inspection. We runs mister yearlin’ into a coulée. I butchers him while Shorty stands guard. Then I buries the meat, covers the sign, and we starts fer town with the hide that night.” “Uh-huh. But when did yuh »? ‘“‘Keep yore shirt on, Sheriff. I’m a- comin’ to that part. Yuh mind how some feller shoots six times that even’ yuh brung Steve in? Mind how yuh spent con- sider’ble time huntin’ the gent that done that permisc’us shootin’? Well it was Shorty that done it. You tears out and down the street on a keen lope. I slips into the office, takes the Slash R hide outa the tub and puts the Bar B hide in its place.” The sheriff’s hand gripped Tad’s. “The judge tells me that he’s goin’ to turn the Slash R spread over to Steve,” he said in a low tone, “fer damages that Austin’ done him. We need men like you and Carroway in this country. Steve’s aimin’ to make you two boys his pardners. I’m congratulatin’ yuh, Ladd.” Tad shook his head. “Me ’n’ Shorty belongs down South. We come here to git Ribs Austin. French done saved us the trouble. We’ll be headin’ south again, soon as my pardner kin travel. Dm shore obliged to yuh-all but me ’n’ Shorty ain’t built to stand these Montana winters.” Se “DUNNO when I been so ashamed ee] uh ary human bein’ as I was uh Be you yesterday, elephant,” Shorty, mounted on Skewball, and leading Paint, called over his shoulder as he led the way MICLOOOK C© in