Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 July 1936 — Page 21

Manhunt

HERIFF BLAKE, gun in hand, 8 creeping figure in the moonlight night, moved cautiously up to the door of the 'dobe hut. He listened a moment, with ear held close, then turned and raised one hand, moving it from left to right in a slow arc. | He squatted down, at one side of the door, and watched the posse close in—dark shapes that slipped from mesquite bush to greasewood clump, with here and there the faint glint of a gun barrel. '® = = NSIDE the hut, Black Pedro awakened suddenly, sat bolt upright on his cot, and clutched the gun beside him. Tensely, he listened, with head thrust forward. He heard the snap of a twig underfoot, the rustle of a greasewood bush, once the faint metallic click of ‘drawnback gun hammer. He reached over and shook the sleeping form lying in rolled blanket on the floor beside his cot. A young half-breed it was who sat up abruptly, reached for gun and knife. “Silence, my cousin,” breathed Black Pedro. He talked to the youth in rapid Spanish as he pulled on boots, charro jacket, huge sombrero, and buckled on a holstered'six-gun. “It is the cursed gringos, who have followed faster than I thought. However, they know not of our meeting and your presence here. - Therefore, remain silently in this room while I escape alone. Adios.” ” Fd ” LACK PEDRO drew his gun and glided into the front room. Flattening himself against the wall, he slid noiselessly up to a window and peeped out. But he could see nothing. Crouching he crept to the door, put his ear against the wood. Suddenly, he straightend, with lips lifted snarlingly, and leveled his gun. He shot once through the door toward the sound he had heard.From outside, came a startled curse. Then, dn answering shot ripped through the door. But Black Pedro had stepped to one side, and the bullet thudded harmlessly into the back wall. “By ‘thunder, Pedro!” Sheriff: Blake shout. sewed up this time. alive now! Yuh went too far when yuh murdered that rancher. Yuh comin’ out or do we take yuh dead?”

he heard “We got yuh It's dead or

” td 2

LACK PEDRO laughed jeer"ingly. “You theenk Pedro, he is trap, ha? Pedro trap many times. He no stay trap long.” “Wal, try an’ get outta this one,” snarled Blake. “All right, boys— let him have it!” Instantly, the night's silence was shattered by gunfire. A hail of bullets thudded into the hut's walls. The window crashed. Lead splintered the door. Black Pedro crawled over under the window, stood up to one side. The shooting had slackened on that side of the hut. Strange, he thought. The sheriff must be up to some trick.

” ” o

E peered out cautiously. He saw the very tip of Blake's hat as |: Be came crawling along the out- | side wall toward the window. | Black Pedro snarled silently. and raised his gun. But he lowered it again, with a crafty grin, as anidea sprang into his head. He stepped back a few paces, watched Blake remove his hat, place it upon the end of his gun barrel, and raise it temptingly above the window level.

Black Pedro grinned cunningly and dropped to the floor. He arranged himself there in a sprawled huddle as a wounded man might have fallen, with his huge sombrero’

By Barry Storm

a foot or so from his head, as! though it had fallen off as he dropped. His right hand was flung otit, with his gun just beyond reach of his outstretched fingers, as though it, too, had been j loose by the fall. Sheriff Blake, outside, cautiously raised himself and peered over the windowsill. In the moonlight, he could dimly see Black Pedro sprawled on the floor. He stood up, waved an arm to the possemen, and swung a leg over the sill.

NSIDE, Blake approached the sprawled figure warily. He bent over it. Like a flash, Black Pedro stretched out, gripped his gun, and swung the butt at the sheriff's head. Too late, Blake tried to dodge. He staggered drunkenly from the blow. His gun fell from nerveless fingers. Dimly, as through a fog, he saw Black Pedro spring erect with upraised gun, ready to strike again. He grappled with the outlaw. Savagely, he clutched at the gun, tried to tear it from Black Pedro’s grasp. They struggled desperately, there in the darkness. In the back room, the half-breed youth had heard the firing outside cease—had heard, too, the sounds of the struggle in the front room. Then, had come silence. For several minutes, he waited, Finally, he “drew his knife and | moved, catlike, to the door of the front reom. He opened it cautiously, perred in, then suddenly clamped his teeth down hard on his underlip to stifle a gasp of surprise. ” ” ”

N the moonlit darkness, he saw the dim outline of Black Pedro, with hands upraised, moving toward the front door. Behind, prodding him with a gun, was a gringo. The half-breed raised his arm, hurled the knife, saw it sink into the gringo’s back, saw him crumple to the floor. With a grin, he stepped into the room. He stopped short. The door had suddenly crashed open, and possemen were swarming in. He snatched for his gun too late. One of the men dove for his legs and brought’ him: crashing to the floor. The others surrounded his comrade, jamming their guns against him. Some one struck a match. then gasped. They held at the points of their guns, not Black Pedio, but Sheriff Blake, wearing the outlaw’s ornate jacket and huge sombrero.

” 8 a

OSES,” exclaimed one deputy. “We'd have shot yuh to pieces if yuh- had come out in those things!” “Pedro's idea,” said Blake, curtly. “He tricked me, got my gun, and made me put ’em on. He was gonna shove me out the door, then get away through the window.” * “But how did yun get him?” asked another deputy, nodding toward the outlaw’s becdy.

Blake grinned sourly, and glanced |.

toward the half-breed youth, whose eyes were bulging.

“By thunder, I didn’t!” was all

he said.

THE END

1936, by

(Copyright, Syndicate, Inc.)

TEACHER IS NAMED

TO WRITE PUBLICITY

Miss Helen Hollingsworth Joins

Interlochen Music Staff.

Miss Helen Hollingsworth, 1116 'W.

30th-st, local grade school teacher, is to write general publicity and radio continuity for the National Music Camp at Interlochen, it was announced today. The first program of the National High School Orchestra from Interlochen Bowl will go on the air July 12, according to Miss Hollingsworth.

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