Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“No; onl lay low. hic kina tei eek Halk trouble. “’s deadly. Lay low.” With this Kini admonition the giant started to get up ape go about his business, but something in Carlton’s face arrested him. The engineer, two shades paler, was looking at something# far past the boss. Dolan turned and peered around, = BEYOND the loafers at the bar, lems beyond the wide doorway, beyond uk the hitching-posts and the dusty roadway, the dark, immaculate figure of Jim Black was seen passing a small knot of men and ambling toward Dolan’s door. He stopped and nodded to some one; then he sauntered onward. Carlton had hold of his chair and was staring as if fascinated. “Lay low!” advised Dolan. “Sit tight! It might not come now anyhow.” But Carlton’s jaw was set at last, and he started to arise. He had come to the end of the road. The long siege of worry and doubt and fear and nervous tension had caused something to snap within him, and, though his teeth were chattering, he had cast the die. He was afraid—scared blue— but going forward. The eyes of the tough old boss showed an admiring glint, and he resolved to save this man from the results of his own stubborn courage. “Sit down!” ordered Dolan. “T won't!” “You will!” sipped the boss, laying a mighty hand on his shoulder. “Nix on this hero stuff! Lay low!” Carlton’s eyes were suddenly hard and cold. “Let go of mel” he demanded. ‘Get out of my way!” The boss hesitated only foe an instant. Then he grabbed the engineer’s right arm and twisted it as if in a vise. “Don’t speak to me like that!”’ he snarled. “Who do you think you are? Come on, you! You're goin’ into that linen-closet!’ ; aw) he grabbed Carlton by the scruff of his nec “What?” exploded the outraged engineer, savagely angry at last. “Why, you ——’ “Shut up!” roared the saloon- Suddenly the crowd outside the front door jumped. They scattered pell-mell. Two men, in the semigloom, rushed around an outside corner and cowered behind the wall of the building. Another yelled and got behind a hitching-post. Sudden shouts the x deathly silence that follows a y. The bystanders started running forward, away from the saloon. Dolan rushed to the side window, drawing Carlton with him. The boss peered out to the roadway. In front of an old blacksmith-shop opposite, a prone figure was lying, face forward, wi — outstretched grotesquely. An- other figure was sitting near by, sagging forward and nursing a ete Men came running up from every direction. “Tt’s done!’ grunted Dolan, releasing the engineer. “What is?” The old boss pointed a pudgy finger to- ward the prone figure. “Know who that is?” he asked. The engineer looked closer. “Tt’s Ebenezer Finch!” he cried, almost unbelieving. Right. Finch it is. cceclh gy hea how. He shot back. Cornered, re. Had to be game. Know the other feller?” The bewildered engineer looked long and hard. He had seen that middle-sized fig- ure somewhere but couldn’t quite place him. “That’s Tom Fulton,” announced the “Fulton. Fulton? You mean the man that used to own my ranch? Never met him. And yet he seems familiar, at that.” Jim Black was aoe ee suffering man, but Black was an af “Sure you seen Fulton!” eee Dolan’s voice. ‘Remember the day you was here last? “Member the coot that came in full of licker? Wanted to lick all creation? Got thrown out? That was het Carlton began to grope. was i but he could not it. Dolan suddenly appeared as sa as a cat full of cream. “This here hee cost me about twenty dollars,” announced the big saloon-keeper Se et became even rings Peis. Bia et; How?” h he ‘asked. : Fomicbookacom |