Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

Every Tuesday find it easier running cows in, Tom." It certainly was a poser, and much of the time spent in riding to the Ghost City was spent in thoughtful silence. The city, being west of Cheyenne, was nearer Tom's old ranch than Circle B, as they very soon uiscovcrcd—a fact wliich was very encouraging, for it meant tiiat such help as might be wanted would bo theirs the quicker wlicn it was C4illed for. Another fact impressed upon them was that they were taking a pretty desperate chance. Xo man liad ever gone into llho>t City and come out alive unless he were a membc^r of tJic gang tliat ran the place, old r.'i'.n Langdon had said. All the same, that .statement gave 'J'oni an idea—an idea which was chewed over and over when they were at last within a mile or to of Ghost City, and finally left them with their plans cut and dried. It only remained for tlicm to be carried out successfully—a dif- ferent proposition to having the mcic ijli-a. Meeting the Gang. SHOTS ringing out over tTie plains brought two men who were on top of llie rocky entrance to Ghosi City full up to scratch. It al<o brought to liglit a couple of riflos which they kept handy at the side of the rock. D'liwn on the plain a Tiorseman was galloping madly for the city, and he was firing back at another horseman who was riding furiously along the same trail. The guards watched them anxiously. "At th(!> distance it was impossible to see which was friend or enemy—whether it was one of their men who was chased or cha.-'cr. They kept their rifles ready f'6 iisc upon w hich ever \\ as necessary W.hen the disclosure was made. But the rider in front settled one qiu^tion for them, for with a sudden fusillade of shots ho dropped the pursuer out of the saddle. "He's got him," said one of the guards drily, and shrugged liis shoulders. "Who's the stranger?" "Don't know, but I reckon we soon shall, for he's riding pretty straight this way. Get down, Pete," said the other. They slid olT the lofty rock through the bushes to the trail, and as the nar- row entrance to the city forced Tom Langdoti to draw his hor^e to a walk, he suddenly found himself staring down at two useful-looking rifles. "Who arc ,\ou, and what do you want?" demanded he who had been addressed as Pete. "Just a stranger. I guess, who beat Old Man Law en the draw." sii calmly, and laughed as he looki along the trail. "Well. I guess you'll just wait here a bit, mister, mitil one of the boys comes along," said the guard. "Then 1 reckons you'll be see- ing Kurt Raymer." Tom nodded, although tliat name conveyed ab- solutely nothing to him. He judged it to be tho name of the gang leader, seeing that it wa.s a guard with a rifle who mentioned it. It was at that timfe that three other inci- dents of some consider- able importance rvere taking nlace. In tlie first instance, the man who had been dropped from his saddle was rolling towards the un- BOY'S CINEMA dergrowth in quite unorthodox fashion for a dead man. Once under cover of the bushes, he stared disgustedly down at his gun. "That was a plaguey good idea of Tom's, but >uro as my name's Baiity blank cartridges do dirt up a guy's gun," he growled, and he took a pices of rag from his pocket and .set about making that very useful gun something else than a mass of sooli.d steel. Secondly, in the city itself a not unliandsonie man was listening to the story blurted out by one of his men. " Bess has slipped down the trail, wearing men's clothes, boss," he heard. "Right. We'll go and get her. She was only asking me this morning to be allowed to go," said Raymer, and laughed curtly. "Fancy letting a woman go outcn- here to spill the beans to ail the sheriffs in the west! I'd say ^o —and how! Let's bo going!" And the remaining incident was the one which brouglit Tom Langdon face to face with the first woman he had seen since he had left Circle B. Waiting, with the watchful guards still keeping a grip en their rifles, Tom found it iKJssible to make a keen and careful survey of the trail out of the city and the immediate country sur- rounding. To his left was a dropping trail to the valley of Cheyenne and to his right was a level plain, thickly spiked with bushes and trees. Ahead of him was the trail aloni; which he had come, and behind him was the narrow entrance to Ghost City- the object of his visit. But it was to the wooded and bushed plain that his attention was drawn first, for he sudflenly heard tlte deep voire of a man ami the higher pitch of a girl's. " Let go that rein, or I'll lay about you with this strap !" The girl's voice came out clearly, but not more .so than the man's reply." " You'll get a .sock in the jaw" if you start any monkey tricks," he said brutally. "You're going back to Ray- mer !'' That was all Tom waited to hear. A second later lie had spurred his horse into a hard gallop, reached the scene Tom Langdon suddenly found himself staring down at two useful looking rifles. 17 of the hold-up m a matter of fen moio seconds, and tlung himself off his saddk) and at the man who held the girl's horse >o quickly that the guards could do nothing more than, look on. 'J'lic girl, the monr lit her horse was freed, should have made good her efforts to escape. But she was fascinated by the ferocity of the figiit which ensued between the two men, and tliat provtiJ lier undoing. Tom was a hefty fellow of something like six foot one jn his socks, and what. liis opponent lacked in height ho had in girth and weight. The result was a rough and tumble, no-rounds fight that would have done justice to a couple of bear cats. Tom took tuo thwacks straight under his jaw in the first second, and went down to the dusty ground with a thud that jarred eveiy bone in his body. But ho was up and back for more s<j quickly that his rival, panting under Tom's first .surprising onslaught, found his own jaw unprotected, and, crash! The meeting of fist and jaw made Bess shudder. In a flash Tom was hurling himself <lowii at his man, and here a struggle for mastery went on for fully a minute before Tom, in order to escape .1 stranglehold, had to kick out with his riglit leg to beat back liis man. It was tlicn that the half-sickened girl di'cided she would go—and found it too late. One of the guards had run for- ward and raugtii up her reins. She tried to shriek, but the ferocity of the ^trange) hokod every utterance. He had his man on the knee now, two hands round liis throat, and behind them, looking on with gkamhig eyes, wer ■ Kurt Raymer and Nevada. A Midden heave, and Tom's knees sagged, and up came a right flush into the pit of his stomach. He was down then, and like a flash his opponent had dr,-;wn a gun. But Kurt Raymer put in liis spoke, with a quick, snappy command. " I'ut up that gun !" he rapped out. Septt-mbtr Ctb, 1031,