Famous Western, March 1938

"Hell's Hot Corner," by C. W. Barrington, is a Western frontier action tale serialized in this magazine. The story opens with an unnamed camper awakening in a canyon to gunshots; a wounded middle-aged deputy with a red beard is shot and killed, his body thrown from a cliff. The shooter is a young, dark-haired man on a powderface horse who escapes northward. The camper rides toward Doubletown, where he encounters Sheriff Ivy and Deputy Shorty Hogan. These lawmen are searching for stage robbers after a holdup and murder. When a blond stranger named Dale enters the Elite hotel saloon, Ivy questions him suspiciously. Dale's evasive answers infuriate Ivy, who draws his weapon. Dale proves the faster gunslinger, disarming both Ivy and Hogan with precision shots. Holding all five men in the saloon at gunpoint, Dale demands they remain motionless, threatening violence if they move. The chapter ends with the tableaux frozen in tense standoff.