Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

34 Finch did not say anything. He didn’t even brush himself. He simply turned away and walked straight across the field to his own lands, with the engineer watching until he had the last oak tree up the slope. Then Carlton finished washing his face very thoughtfully, The wife had noticed the incident from a window, and so had one of the helpers. But, by the time they arrived, it was over, Later on the engineer became nervous. The old strain was returning. Some one always kept awake of nights now, guarding the place. And yet nothing happened. Dan Dolan arrived suddenly at the end of a week, riding a buckskin horse that looked piteous under the great load. The boss came alone and unheralded, wearing an un- accustomed khaki outfit, a broad-brimmed hat and a pair of shining new boots just off his counters. “Thought I’d put up for the night,” he announced. “May stay two nights. On my way to Red Rock, back in the moun- tains. Movin’ onthe quiet, Meet afriend there Thursday, mebbe. Don’t say I was here.” Carlton welcomed him, and the wife, though somewhat reserved, prepared to make him comfortable. Thus, while she busied herself in the little kitchen for the evening meal, the boss spread his great bulk in a creaking chair before the open fireplace while the engineer told him of the latest incidents. “T knew all about it,’”’ was Dolan’s com- ment. “I’m watchin’ things here. Finch seems desp’rate to git you out of the way.” “Well, do you think he'll carry out his threats?” “Nope. He’s too busy now. Got too many irons in the fire. If he hurt you, he’d have too much extry trouble. He’s only tryin’ to skeer you. Mebbe that’s all he can think of jest now.”’ “Well, he won’t scare me, but I'll admit this thing keeps me nervous.” “Itll be over pretty soon,” grunted the boss. “What makes you think so?” Dolan gave the engineer one-of his know- ing glances. “Son,” he observed, “if anything hap- pened to you, it'll tear the county to pieces with one big fight! Fora year or more this county’s been wakin’—wakin’ like a man from sleep. There’s a crowd here that’s Adventure ie choked things for years. A combination. It’s like a net—one strand tied to another. I was a strand once, I got into a row with the rest and backed out, I'd begun to see a TI was pe eT "They — mee eld strong together, ied up witl still other strands. Only, it was all under- ground. Couldn’t be traced. “Then you came in. You made me look at Finch more careful. The more I looked the more I seen. Finch seemed like one of the strands. Bimeby he begun to ap- pear like a main cable. Then I dug around some more. There was men that hated Finch for many reasons, There was men that backed Finch for many Teasons. Savvy? They to take sides. The lines are drawin’ tight. Then there’s men that’s workin’ for the county gang, and there’s them that’s ag’in ’em. The whole county’s organized—both ways—and you're the spark that'll mebbe set off the sky- rockets!” Me?” gasped Carlton. “You or Finch. If anything happens to either one, there’s goin’ to be a crash! The whole county’s lined up! If you'd paid much ’tention to politics, you'd ‘a’ seen it!” The wife was taking a dish of steaming soup to the table, but she halted, petrified, with the lamplight setting off the astonish- ment on her pretty face. “Great Scott!” exclaimed Carlton. “So I’m a casus belliy’”’ “T dunno what that is,” said the bass, dubiously, “but there’s goin’ to be hap- penin’s around here—darned soon!”’ roe CARLTON was thunderstruck at pees! the importance thrust upon him. “4 He began to see why he had gone to the county-seat and why Campbell had introduced him around to thoughtful men from every section of the county. There was war on from Thunder Mountain to South End, and he was one of the chief factors! And yet thé boss seemed to be comfort- able about it—very. He appeared to have the satisfied, exalted expression of the cat that had swallowed the cream. It made the engineer wonder whose funeral was com- ing next. The boss was like some volcano which, to eliminate an irritating ant-hill, might blast away a whole province. “You set your mind easy, ma’am,” said Dolan to the wife. “There won’t nothin’ comicbooks.com £ J SS ee ee