Adventure Magazine Cover — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

= Soe ie . > a : - se -: . = ee Seis aa SS SP OE POR aa re SRS ee a IS ee " a =P} ss sae = TPF “ Beer in, el =< — 2 The Killing of Tom McCray the waters of the ford. Again there was a burst of wild laughter, horrible to hear; a hoarse shout was flung into the teeth of the wind, followed by convulsive sobbing, low chortling, almost as if someone were being choked, “My ——!” Willis breathed to himself, “the poor fellow has lost his mind.” For a quarter of an hour he looked on from his point of vantage; but for the last ten minutes the man, waist deep in the creek, with the dark waters swirling about him, had stood in ‘perfect silence. ‘Then True- man, turning suddenly, splashed back ‘to the road and Willis hastily recrossed the log, shrinking imto the bushes as the other man, leaving the road, turned up beside the creek. The course through the woods led pres- ently to a deserted log shack, through the sagging door of which Trueman entered. A match flared and, peering through a crack, Willis saw hina kindling dry wood within a mud fireplace. Suddenly, as he bent above the grow flame, Trueman raised his head with a jerk and called over his shoulder: “Come on in, Willis.”’ For a moment longer Willis stood with- out moving, his eyes glued to the crack, unable to believe that he had heard aright. Then, subconsciously attributing the knowl- edge of his presence to some instinct pos- sessed by the demented, he went around to the door and entered, pausing just within the cabin, expecting to find a man entirely devoid of reason. Instead, the face lighted by the crackling flames that Trueman turned to him had undergone a wonderful transformation in another way. ‘Though the gray eyes were still heavily shadowed by dark circles, the expression of weariness was gone. Certain lines about the man’s mouth had smoothed out, and he greeted Willis with a frank ‘boy- ish smile, his white teeth gleaming. “Didn’t think I knew you were following me, did you?” hesaid. “I knew it when we left the house; but I had forgotten it, until.a moment ago.” Willis moistened his dry lips with his tongue but said nothing. “Come on over by the fire; you must be soaked,’ Trueman continued. “Have a seat on the floor; it’s the best I-can offer.” Dropping to his knees by the fire, Willis said huskily: “Jim, old man, I—I thought you had = SS RN ae a es ‘es : oan Ys ‘TOO gone crazy. I was just below you on a log when you were standing out in the middleof the creek ‘back there, and the—the way you were going on, I thought you were insane.” Trueman laughed. “I guess you did,” he said. “And perhaps I was, temporarily. I killed a man back there in the creek.” “Wh-what!’’ “Ves, sir. It was a hard fight; but I killed Willis leaned and peered anxiously at the other man. “T heard something like—like choking. And 1 couldn’t see much in the darkness. But iT didn’t think there was anybody but you.” “He was there all right.” “And you mu-murdered him, drowned . him in the creek?” : “Trowned in the oreek ormot. Murdered — whatever you will. I killed him, dead ds —., thank Godt” Gently placing a hand on his companion’ s drenched shoulder, Willis said cee 7 “Let’s go home, Jim. ‘You’re unstrung. With a hot drink of something inside of you and a few hours’ sleep you'll feel better.” Impatiently Trueman shook the hand from his shoulder. “You still thmk I’m unbalanced,” he said. “But you be quiet, without mter- rupting me, until I tell you something. Then I have a job for you. “Im the first place, from certain indica- tions, I have suspected, almost from the beginning, that you were sent out to find Tom McCray, who robbed the Merchants’ National of a hundred thousand dollars in cash. I also was after McCray. Your presence complicated matters for me; for I was afraid you might arrest him before 1 hada chance to—to get to him and kall him. Beneath the floor of this shack is the money he stole from the bank. Iam going to get you to return it and ‘tell the president, Mr. Ross, that McCray, his former employee, is dead. And you may tell him that what happened to McCray as due almost entirely to him.” s0@ RATSING a loose board beside ¥) him, Trueman drew out a bundle Yona wrapped in heavy brown paper. === Untying the cords that bound it, he displayed the bundles of cumrency, so that Willis could roughly estimate them. Then he wrapped them up again. comicbooks.com : . > ae Sy pot REA — a ~sesF Ree ie ant aed FARM as ~ tee