FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD
This will be paid for
THE COYOTE
dead or alive, by San Jacinto County.
JUDSON BROWN, J. P.,
Dry Lake.
This man is tall and light in complexion, gray or blue eyes, good teeth, his horse said branded CC2 keeps himself neat, dangerous with gun, squints when mad. Bring him in and get the money.
The man swore softly as he read the last sentence. “Bring him in an’ get the money,” he said snortingly. “You’d think they was talkin’ about a locoed steer that just had to be roped an’ drug, or shot an’ hauled. Bring him in an’ get the money!”
There was genuine indignation in his tone as he repeated the offensive sentence.
“Well, it can’t be me,” he said facetiously, aloud. “My name’s Rathburn––a right good name.” His eyes clouded. “A right good name till they began to tamper with it,” he muttered with a frown as he lit a cigarette he had built while perusing the placard.
He took the stub of a lead pencil from the pocket of his shirt. For some moments he reflected, staring at the sign on the tree trunk. Then he laboriously printed on its lower edge:
Five thousand dollars more from the State of Arizona if you can get it.
Rathburn surveyed his work with a grin, replacing the pencil in his shirt pocket. Then he stepped back and drew his gun. He seemed on the point of sending a half dozen bullets through the paper when he suddenly shook his head, glanced hurriedly about him, and shoved the weapon back into its sheath.
He walked quickly to his horse, swung into the saddle, and started down the trail on the western side of the ridge.