Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

ata The Boss b mahogany and four foot wide—an’ that was F twenty-five years ago! t “Well, in about a week he had that bar up on the wagon, and they started off again. 4 There was only three of ’em then because t one had got too far into the swamp-waters. There was only four mewls; there was nothin’ but rope for harness; there was no provisions, no terbacker, no hope—but they still had that bar! | | “Well, after livin’ on the country— ; mostly jack-rabbit—this here procession got within a hundred miles of home. The boss was startin’ to feel better when up by Sandy Mountain, on the Nevada line, the off hind wheel of the wagon curled up an’ \ quit forever. Jest resigned unanimous. Well, the boss, he sat on a rock an’ swore so bad he twisted the tails on the mewls, but do you think that fellow’d quit? No, } sir! That bar was comin’ into Mirage if he had to bite it into chunks an’ bring the [: pieces in his teeth! Yessir! “They pried some boards under the axle to makea sling, but, when they tried to start, them four mewls couldn’t budge the thing. Sand was up to the hubs, anyhow. There the boss was stuck again; so he ___ breezed out for some more animals. There was a peaceful Injun camp a few miles away where they had a lot of young hosses. ; The boss tried to dicker, but they couldn’t savvy the lingo; so he borried them colts, anyhow. =e - 2 ee “WHEN Dan Dolan got them eight wild Injun mustangs hitched t to them four mewls an’ that wagon, things begun to happen. Yessir! — First thing Dan knew, that bar was makin’ sixty | / miles per hour, bumpin’ over rocks, boulders l an’ crags, with the hosses kickin’ an’ tryin’ | to go in every direction an’ Dan tryin’ to hold ‘em down. He fell off once an’ got ‘» dragged. He lost his last terbacker, lost ‘ his matches, lost his watch, lost his temper, lost his shirt an’ most of his pants, but still 7 _he hung on to that bar. One feller got slid off for good, but they wasn’t stoppin’ jest then fer anything. They jest ripped an’ snorted an’ rattled an’ banged along them trails like a drunken comet! , “They got within fifty miles of here _ when the outfit struck a chuck-hole. Dan 5 says that was the most gosh-wollopin’ _ chuck-hole ever invented, and she jest | happened to be in the wrong place. She ae of Mirage was a big crack where the trail quits comin’ down-hill, turns quick, an’ starts up-hill. Dan’s brakes was gone an’ them mustangs swept down that hill like a stampede—each animal with his ears back, his eyes wild an’ his tail stickin’ straight out, humpin’ along like greased lightnin’, with Dan pullin’ an’ swearin’ like a wild fan. When that outfit hit that chuck-hole—bang! Kindlin’-wood! “Dan came to with a gash in his shoulder, a piece of rope in his hands an’ that bar standin’ on end, laughin’ at him. Then the boss really got mad—so mad he couldn’t even swear. But did he give up? No, sir; he was jest startin’! “The mustangs was gone fer good. Mebbe they was the daddies of that band of wild hosses folks sometimes see up in the Smoke Range country. Also, the mewls was gone. They’d come home a-rampin’. 2 What did Dan do, you say? Why, the boss | walked in here with no shirt an’ mostly no pants, rested one night an’ then collected an outfit the next day for the grand entry. There wasn’t many wagons here then. Only one old cart an’ some spare wheels. So the boss took that cart, took them wheels, took eight mewls, took three men _an’ started out to git that bar. : “Yessir, you've guessed it. He used | the-cart fer the front, put the spare wheels 4 right on to the bar an’ sailed her into Mirage one day like he was the King of Spain returning from a victory! Proud? Haughty? Why, all he needed was a nigger to fan him so’s he’d look like Cle- opatry on that there barge, like the picture » p> over there. Yessir! Half the town’s folks was gone; most of the mewls was dead; the . bar looked like scrambled eggs, and the boss was all busted up an’ caved in—but Dan . Dolan got that bar into Mirage! Yessir. She was rebuilt, an’ she’s right here in front of you. Your pleasure, gents!” “But,” interrupted one of the men, x “how did Dolan get the stock to go with / the bar?” ‘ ‘“How?” demanded the bartender scorn- fully. “How? Why, he started right back an’ done it all over again with the supplies! That's how he done it! There’ssome people can be made to quit, gents, but the boss, . he belongs to another family. Yessir! Yes—sir!”” * Underneath it all, Carlton wondered at = the misguided tenacity and misdirected ~ ~ C