OCR Text |
Show The Fiction THE CAPTURE ;wta Corner blackness near the cabin. It was followed by another. But before the two bandits could shoot again, the two six-guns in Sol's hands thundered. Answering shots came from the cabin. Sol felt a searing pain in his left shoulder. Bis senses began to reel. And suddenly sud-denly he realized that the renegades rene-gades had accomplished what he had been unable to do because be-cause of his stumble. They had fired at the flash from his guns high hoping for, a kill. .This was Sol's last thought. When Sol returned to consciousness conscious-ness he found himself lying on a bunk in the cabin. Baldy, grinning broadly, was standing over him. "What the hell did you blow out that light for?" Sol wanted to know. "It spoiled my aim, made me stumble stum-ble and nearly got me killed. "Thought it would," Baldy grinned. "Wanted it to. You didn't think I was going to be fool enough to open the door and stand in the light so those birds could take pot shots at me?" "Well what happened, anyway?" . For answer Baldy pointed across the room. Sol looked and saw two men lying there, both bound securely. secure-ly. "Wing 'em?" Sol asked. "Winged nothing. I whacked 'em over the head from the doorway while they were shooting at you. By the way, you almost hit me with your own wild shooting." "Wish I had," Sol grinned. "Say, squirt, you ain't so dumb as you look!" "And I ain't so much of a squirt, either," Baldy replied indignantly. "Fact is I blew out that light just so's I could show you what a big feller I was." SHERIFF Sol Rock cautiously approached ap-proached the cabin and knocked three times. A bolt slid back into its socket. The door swung open and a voice came out into the night. "That you, Sol?" Sol sighed in relief. "Hello, Baldy," he said, stepping inside. "What luck?" "None." Sol heard Baldy fishing for a match, and he said. "Wait a minute, Baldy. I got a scheme I want to work out." "They've seen me," Sol went on. "Joe and Slim. They've been trailing trail-ing me all day. I just kept far enough to avoid trouble." "Avoid trouble? You?" Baldy's voice sounded incredulous. And Sol chuckled. "Lis- I ten, Baldy, we've 3 -Minute been chasing these c:.t;.M two bad men for I FlCtl0n more than a week now. I'm sick of it. And now that we've found them, I don't aim to let 'em get away." "So that's why you ran away from them?" sarcastically. "Don't be , a fool. I wanted 'em to follow me. They'll be along any time now. I made sure they saw me ride down in here by silhouetting silhouet-ting myself against the skyline 15 minutes ago. Now here's the point: They don't know about you, yet. They think there's only me to contend con-tend with. And unless I miss my guess, they aim to get me out of the way tonight." "Unless I stop 'em," said Baldy. "Right. Now get this; I'm leaving you here alone, see? Cover the windows and then light up. They'll think it's me inside here, all unsuspecting." "Fine," said Baldy. "But what's wrong with me being on the outside and you on the inside?" Sol laughed shortly. "A lot, you little squirt. Now pipe down and obey orders. I'm going." Instantly he grew tense. Every muscle and nerve and fibre became alert. He half crouched, half stood in his hiding place. And as he watched the cabin a dim figure took shape and became a man. Another appeared beside the first. They lingered only a moment, then began stealthily to approach the door. Sol stepped silently from his hiding place. At the very instant in-stant that one of the figures crouched to thrust his weight against the door, he spoke out of the darkness. "Reach toward the sky, boys! Drop those guns, and turn around. The jig's up. We got the drop on you!" SOL QUICKENED his footsteps. In the darkness he stumbled, regained re-gained his feet and came on. At the moment he went down an orange lance of flame streamed out of the |