Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

24. Adventure “How? Why, he jest pulled her here by the roots! Lemme see—that was about ‘seventy-four or five; I forgit which. The boss was jest a kid th vim an’ go an’ muscle an’ ginger, fightin’ all day an’ dancin’ all night. There was nothin’ to this here town them days—only a few tents an’ a few mewls an’ a few men an’ a few burros, When the boss come, he seen there was goin’ to be a lot of prospectors an’ ranchers in these parts; so he figgered on gittin’ ready for trade. First thing he built was a saloon. Then he figgered on a gen’ral merchandise store, but there wasn’t no stock hereabouts fora store; so he went outside to git things. “In them days there wasn’t no branch- line railroad. Only the main line, ‘way north. There wasn’t no road, only a trail. Well, Dan lit out with twelve mewls an’ a big wagon. After he got to the railroad— three hundred an’ eighty miles in Winter, gents—he made up his mind that, as long’s he’d started business, he'd start right. So along with the other things he orders a gosh-wollopin’ bar from Saint Looey and camps down an’ waits till she arrives. “"Bout three months later that bar lopes in on a freight-car. The boss had her set up on the platform, an’, when he seen how shiny an’ fine she was, with a lot of dewdabs an’ dingbats an’ fancy scroll-work, there was nothin’ on earth could make him take her down again. D’ye think Dan Dolan was goin’ to drag jest a lot of boards around? No, sir; no style to that! He wanted to advertise her, and he did. It got so that the hull darned country up there wanted to keep the bar; so he loaded her on to the wagon quiet, pertected the wood- work with sacks, tied her well down and then pulled out fer home, with ten feet of that bar stickin’ out of the wagon. “The boss started from here with ten men. Sort of an escort of honor, He started back with twelve—two volunteers. The men rode on top of the bar, and the wet goods an’ merchandise was packed under- neath, makin’ a neat little cargo. Well, this here parade went along fine till up in the Juniper Mountains some fool emptied his pipe through the vents in the bar. Underneath some licker had got loose; so after the fire was out most of the mer- chandise was overboard and the bar was considerable black in spots, but still she was there, and that was all the boss wanted, : 4 f EPEEES stat ee rezeie aul =e ez picapee y ee : ““Dan’s party was all shot up. was gone; two more was down; seven. had drifted to heaven; the bar was holes, an’ Dan Dolan was They say it took him two Ss Bs EL S te E. 13 = eeRee “Finally the boss reorg’nized himself, an’ they started off again with everything overboard but the bar, seven men an’ a few overloaded mewls. The boss had his jaw set then. It looked like luck was tryin’ to beat him; so he swore to git that mahog- any here if he had to drag it! But, except for an axle or two breakin’ here an’ there an’ gittin’ bogged down in the mountains when the rain come, everything went along so-so till they came to Mud Creek. “A big cloudburst arrived that evenin’, sent forty billion gallons of water down Mud Creek all at once, scooped out five thousand acres of Mud Creek Caiion an’ sent that bar ten miles down-stream! “Dolan swore enough bad language to supply the State for twenty years, but still he wouldn’t let go of that bar! Three men went down-stream an’ was never seen again. Dolan an’ three others got the animals to higher ground an’ watched the wagon an’ bar breeze away at fifty miles per hour, an’ still the boss wouldn’t give in! “When daylight come, the waters was down some, an’ the boss found his wagon ‘way down-stream, dra around a tree that was standin’ upside down. The other fellers pried the wagon loose, but the boss kept after that bar. He found her nice polished top grindin’ the face off a half-acre granite boulder, but still he’d found her, an’ that was what he wanted. Then another trouble came. One of the comer-posts had worked loose an’ was gone. That eng tacklin’ about Bes Spo acres of swampy ground, i t post. But he found her, gents. It took three days, but he found her! She’s right under my foot now, gents—old style comicbooks.com —— a a _ ee