Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

Every Tuesday BOY'S CINEMA 15 Suspicion falls on a daring cowpuncher for the robbery of a pay-roll and he fights har^ to clear his name. Roaring Quns. IT looked like being a hot clay as Bill Uakors took his seat at the steering wheel of the Wyoming Devolopmeut Lonipanys pay car, and gently cased the clutch with his left foot. A good seventy miles lay ahead of liim.^ Hi; destination was the com- pany 3 vast cattle ranch at Twin Falls and ho reckoned to make it by four that afternoon It was now close after twelve. Ho engaged his bottom gear, and turned his head towards another man who sat in the seat bv his side ^^All set?" he asked. "All sot," was the replv. "Go right ahead." The pay car moved off, and the two men settled down to the long run before them. An hour slipped by, and Chcvcnne, .he town they had just left, was twenty miles in their rear. The sun blazed down relentlessly as the car steadily climbed the dusty trail that led over the Colorado Mountains, skirting tlie boundary lino between the State of Colorado it.self and Wyoming. Bill Dakcrs found the lieat oppres- sive. Waves of shimmering air came back to him from the engine, causin<r beads of sweat -o drip from his forc" head on to the steering-wheel. He endured it for another half an hour, then abruptly drew the car to a standstill at the side of tlie frail. "Gosh, it's stewin'," he said, and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. His companion glanced about him nervously, and touched a brown leather bag that lay under the dashboard with his foot. i.^P'^^^P'" '^^^P ^°'"'- ^■"•" 'ie advised, there s been several hoid-ups here- abouts in the la.st week Oi- two, and I calculate wo oughtn't to take any risks There's ninety-five thousand dollars in our charge, and it's a tidy sum." Maybe," replied Bill Dakers phlegmatically, "but that ain't going to stop me havin' a smoke." He produced a small sack of tobacco and a packet of cigarette papers, and deftly teased out a finger of brown strands into one of the papers. Neatly loftK, 1 ' f,'"°''*'' '•"nnins his tongue deftly along the gummed edge in com- pletion of his task. "Hold-ups, eh?" h.T mused as he "w , ''t™''^^^ '"to a flame, and lit up. Waal, I guess your two sixes and the engine in this old tub will keep us out of any trouble. The hombres have onlv tried it on us once, you will remember an we shot one into a fair imitation ot a griddlc-cake, and ran the other oown He chuckled at the memory as he en- gaged Jus gears once more, and resumed tlie journey. For another two hours things were une^ventful, and by then thev were within fifteen miles of Twin Falls the only excitement being a elrud of steam from the radiator owing to the cap having b own off under pressure. . Suddenly, at the end of a sharp twist in the trail, they saw a rope. It was stretched taut across the trail from trees on t'lther side, and was about the height of the windscreen. Neither Bill Bakers nor his com- panion said a word, but they ao^od in unijon Bill crouched low over his wheel, and rammed his foot down hard on _ the accelerator, while the other whipped a pair of six-guns from their holiters. and tensed himself in readiness for a fight. Bill's mind worked with the rapidity of lightning. He knew full well that the rope had boon stretched across the trail for his own especial 'DcncCt, and ho knew, too, that somewhere behind the rocks on either side of him were men who wanted to split the Wyoming Development Company's pay-rol' be- tween them. The speed of the car rose from twenty to thirty-five miles an hour as he swung over the stcermg wheeL The wheels eft the trail for the hard, rocky ground by the side of it as Bill raced round the outside of the obstructing rope. At the same moment that he regained the trail again, ho heard a sound liko the swLsh of a stock-whip, and his hat vanisho<i from his head. Th- next second the six-guns of his companion roared and flashed their challenge and defiance. Bill paid no attention to what was going on. Ho kept his foot hard down and his eyes on the trail ahead, know- ing that ho would need all his driving skill for what was coming. Th» trail altered direction sharply a ' bare two hundred yards further on. 'ono side of It bounded by a sheer wall of rock, and the other falling away abruptly in an embankment that dropped fifty feet to the bed of a dried-up river. . Bill clung to the wheel grimly, steady- ing the bumping vehicle over the pot- holes m tho trail. The speedometer was showing about forty. Suddenly above the harsh thundering ot his companio.i's artillery, he heard another sound—a sound th.at froze him with momentary fear. A tire had burst ! The back part of the pay car seemed to rise up a few feet from the shock of the burst, and then crash back on to n n ^^,^ surface. In the same second. Bill Uakers saw the bed of the driod-up river yawning beneath his front wheels like some giant monster waiting to de- vour him. "Look out!" he roared. ".Jump for it ! There was no time Tli'-> car tilted to a sickening angle. Then. a.s it it^""^r*''^ i*s headlong phinge downwards, the front of it ploughed into the crum- bling dirt of the embankment. Tho back of it came over, and it started to roll. With a horrible crash, it struck a December 26th, IDJ