Boy's Cinema (1935-39)

and from the interior of Jjie church Don heard the ruffian's snarling voice. "Listen, sky-pilot, I reckon you know more about the Eagle than you'd care to admit. I reckon you an' thai i rganist o' yours managed to smuggle him outa reach afore we showed up. And in case I'm right, here's some- thing that'll make you sorry you ever lent the coyote a hetpin' hand." There followed the sound of a whip's thong flailing through the air, and, starting to his feet, Don ran out of the chapel. But, fortunately for him perhaps, the crooks had mounted and were spurring away when he stumbled forth into the street. Father Jose was lying on the ground, his body smarting from the weals in- flicted by the two or three strokes that Barson had dealt him, and there was a black look on Don Loring's countenance as he raised the priest and helped him back into the mission. It was a look that boded ill for the man known as Barson, though in very truth Barson had already been singled out for doom in the moment when Don had seen his father's ring on the black- guard's grimy hand. In the Enemy's Stronghold THAT same afternoon Barson was detailed to pin up a series of notices in various prominent posi- tions in the neighbourhood of San Antonio, and it was an assignment that he carried out alone. The notices indicated that General Burr wished to interview the man who called himself the Eagle, since he re- garded the latter as a public bene- factor and was anxious to support him in his campaign against lawlessness. The contents of those bills were cunningly worded, and Burr had high hopes that the Eagle would be deceived by them. So had Barson, and having enthusiastically disposed of several, of the notices, he was in the act of nail- ing the last one to a roadside tree about two miles from San Antonio when he was startled by a voice immediately behind him. "That's a beautiful ring you're wear- ing, senor." Barson swung round in his saddle to find himself confronted by a masked, black-clad figure who was covering him with a Colt. It was the figure of the Eagle, and the gangster realised that the mysterious rider must have crept up on him through some thickets nearby. Barson glanced down at the ring to which the other had referred. Then, after a brief silence, the Eagle spoke again, indicating as he did so the notice which the outlaw had pinned up. "General Burr," Don remarked. "Is he the same man whom people know as Jason Burr?" "Yeah," Barson answered. "The most powerful hombre in the whole of California. You should be glad he wants to see yuh. He can do a lot for anyhody that he's interested in." Don appeared to consider the notice for a space. "Very well,'' he said at length, "I'm ready to go to him. Will you take me t" llln Barson replied in the affirmative with a little too much alacrity, and with a certain slyness playing in his eyes. Nor was that crafty gleam lost on Don Loring, although for that matter he had never had any intention of expos- ing himself to treachery. He knew Barson's character, had -led it at the mission where he had pretended to be a meek and innocent organ player. And it was now obvious July 10th, 1037. BOY'S CINEMA to him that Jason Burr must be the truo leader of the organisation to which this thug belonged. Nevertheless, Don allowed Barson to think that he had been duped by the general's offer, and though keeping a close watch on the gangster, he appeared to accompany him willingly enough across the range. They rode side by side at a steady trot, Don mounted on the white pony that had formerly belonged to Salva- tion, and they had covered a distance of a good many miles when the younger man suddenly drew rein. "We're pretty close to Burr's place, now, aren't we?" he asked. "Yeah," Barson rejoined. "It lies just beyond the ridge there." "Good enough," Don said. "You will now change clothes with me, my friend. You see, I have a little more sense than you gave me credit for." He was still handling the gun with which he had covered Barson at the outset, and at the first sign of defiance he threatened the rogue with it. Then, giving him the choice of obeying his instructions or dying like a dog, he compelled the man to dismount and strip to his underwear. A minute or two later they had ex- changed clothes, and when Barson bad rigged himself out in the garb of the Eagle, Don addressed him significantly. "You will now ride over the ridge and make straight for Burr's hacienda," he stated. "I want to know what kind of a welcome the Eagle might expect there. And remember, keep going for- ward, for my revolver will be trained on you." Barson was white to the lips. He tried to expostulate, and his whole manner told Don that he anticipated disaster. But the last of the Lorings was in no mood to show mercy to the scoundrel who had murdered his father and brother. Barson was forced onward. He crossed the ridge and came within view of the stronghold by the Yuba river. Then his approaching figure, clad in the unmistakable attire of the Eagle, was sighted by a look-out, and in a moment the gateway and the walls of Jason Burr's forbidding residence had become alive with armed men. A volley rang out, and Barson's life- less body pitched to the dust, riddled with bullets. And as the crook's inert form rolled over the ground Don Loring veered off to return in the direc- tion of San Antonio, picturing as he rode the expressions that would dawn on the faces of Barson's killers when I hey hurried out to discover that they had butchered one of their own cronies. It was no inexcusable vindictiveness that had caused Don to send Barson to his death. The man had met a fate which he had richly deserved, and well might Don permit himself a feeling of satisfaction now. Justice had been done, and, without soiling his own hands, he had seen his father and his brother avenged. More, he had learned the identity of the arch-rogue whfj was responsible for the misery that had been inflicted on the people of the Sonoma Valley; and in the course of the following week Don Loring concentrated his activities in the immediate vicinity of Burr's headquarters. He gleaned a good deal of informa- tion by keeping a secret watch on the stronghold. He discovered, for in- stance, that a man and a girl were being held there as virtual prisoners, and from subsequent inquiries in San Antonio he heard that Burr was supposed to be entertaining an Every .Tuesday Beer named American mining eng Beer C'olton, together with the latter's daughter. Likewise in San Antonio he gained secondhand knowledge of the interior of Burr's residence from a master car- penter who had recently been engaged in carrying out repairs there. Then one morning Don proceeded to put into execution a scheme that he had in mind. It was a plan which necessitated some slight assistance from Salvation and Whipsaw, who were completely in Don's confidence, and who had frequently ex- pressed a desire to aid him, although hitherto he had refused to let thern undertake any risks on his behalf. Their help even now was of a minor character. They lode with him until they were almost in sight of Burr's stronghold. Then Don climbed down off his horse and transferred himself to the saddle of a flea-bitten mule that they had fetched along with them. "Now tie me up just as I told you," he said to Whipsaw and Salvation. "And don't forget to fix that note to my clothes." The clothes which he was wearing, in- cidentally, were those which he had donned as the supposed organist of Father Jose's chapel; and the note to which he had made reference was one purporting to be from the Eagle, advis- ing Burr that he, the Eagle, would pay him a visit ere long. In silence Whipsaw and Salvation carried out Don's * instructions. Then the last-named volunteered a comment. "You know you're takin' an awful chance," he muttered. "The rat that murdered your father an' your brother has been knocked off. Ain't you satis- fied?" "No," Don answered. " There's more behind this than I thought. But don't worry—I know what I'm doing. Leave my horse in the thickets by the river. I'll pick him up there when" f want him." With that he kicked his heels into the flanks of the mule astride which he now sat, and not long afterwards he might have been seen approaching the main gateway of Jason Burr's strong- hold, where he was promptly seized by two 01 three men posted on guard at the entrance. He was escorted through to the court- yard, and Burr himself happening to emerge from his quarters at that moment, the note affixed to Don's clothes was soon in the general's pos- session. He read it through while one of his hirelings was untying Don. Then he looked at the young fellow through narrowed lids. "How does it happen that the Eagle has selected you to deliver this mes- sage?" he demanded. "I—I don't know, senor," Don fal- tered with an assumed nervousness of tone. "I'm a poor musician—the organist at the chapel in San Antonio He was interrupted just then by a drumming of hoofs, and all at once he was amazed to see a squadron of men in the picturesque uniform of Russian Cossacks entering the gateway—men armed to the teeth, and led by a hatchet-faced individual who made straight for Burr and saluted him smartly. "Yon are the general. I presume," the Muscovite announced in very fair English. "I am Boris Petroff, report- ing to you with volunteers from Fort Russe in accordance with the orders of Count Raspinoff." Jason Burr nodded. (Continued in page 27)