"RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE."

Shannon News, 15 December 1925, Page 3

"RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE."

COWBOY BiUKIES FOES ' BENEATH AVALANIGHfE'. A band of outlaws riding hot. on his heels, the woman he loved rtelying on Ins protection and, to make matters worse, a little girl to be taken care ol; there ibetore him a rock w fl a,]l, rising almost one hundred feet overhead—that was the predicament which confronted him. Who was the man: Lassiter, the character Zane Grey nijade famous in his novel, "Riders of the Purple Sage." What did he do? He bent every faculty to the task of finding a. way out. At intervals, inl a zig-zag design', he saw foot-holes dug hundreds of years before by cliff dwellers who had inhabited the canyota. With the child on his back and the woman following closely, Lassiter began the ascent. ■The desperadoes made his effort harder by firing whenever opportunity afforded. Lass'iter's guns were lost on the perilous, climib. Reaching the top, weaponless, facing a. horde of brute men who gave no quarter, the defender looked for some means of defeating the onslaught, . Nearby, on the edge of the cliff, was a huge boulder that had been 'balanced for centuries on its .narrowbase. It weighed almost a ton. Gould he budge it? That .was his only chance. Striving until his tendons seemed to crack, Lassiter felt it give a bit. Aigatn he strained and foutad that it swung, almost like a pendulum. Timing the sway of the rock, Lassiter used a last convulsive, maddened effort and it toppled over the cliff. Other rocks and huge masses of earth started do\vn in the path of the houlder. Lassirter's foes were in the path of the landslide and they "went west" buried under tons of debris. This exciting sequence is the climax of ''Riders of the Purple Sage,'.' which has been transposed to the screen by William Fox. Tom Mix plays the role ojf Lassiter. The Zane Grey tale comes to the local theatre on Friday next.