Pannin’ for Pulp: “Thirst” by John Prescott

 

Anyone who reads the old pulps can tell you there is a heap of dross there, but occasionally one comes across a bit of shine that is well worth holding aloft to catch a glimpse of sun.

Well, here we have one such nugget.

He had been in Darwin, Inyo County, indifferently considering some offers of day labor, when Lawson and Cooke had ridden in; and after the manner of a man who all his life had amounted to very little, and had prospects for nothing better, he was greatly flattered when the outlaw spoke to him.

Prescott’s lean and mean tale from the pages of Gunsmoke magazine [1953] is grim, gritty, informed and gets a lot done with a slim page count.

Well, worth a look-see.