Adventure Trails, February 1929 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

THE MIGHT OF THE SCORPION the riders came in view: two very ordinary Mexicans with greasy, dirty clothes and flashing white teeth. HEY looked at Ted with friendly in- terest, and after a moment’s low- voiced consultation rode up to him smiling engagingly. “Eet is the sefior who wishes men for work in the mine, yes?” asked one, speak- ing in abominable English. Ted nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on their every move. Tricky devils, greasers. “A frien’ he come from Scaja. He tell me you look for men to work een mine? So?” Again Ted nodded. An idea was taking shape in his mind, and he studied the two men speculatively. “My frien’ here and I, we might work for you. How much you pay, sefior?” Ted told him, making the price attrac- tively high. He wanted these two men. He spoke slowly, and in English. The two smiled broadly, and they an- swered in a torrent of rapid Spanish. Ted understood every word, of course, but an impatient frown was the only answer he gave them. “Talk English, can’t you?” he snapped. “Do you want the job or not?” “The sefior will excuse, please. We have forgot the sefior do not spik our language. We weel take the job.” “Good. I’m riding that way now.:' You fellows ride on ahead, and I'll catch up with you shortly.” They nodded comprehendingly, and with a courteous gesture and a flash of white teeth, rode on down the trail. “Maybe they’re not hep to the fact that I speak their lingo,” mused Ted as he mounted. “That being the case, it’s just possible that I’ll be able to get a line on - this business that’s worrying the chief so. Greasers will talk, and if they think I can’t umderstand them—guwien sabe?” OR a long time Ted jogged along just behind his new employees, but their talk was mostly of their conquests, the weather, the last fiesta, the present régime, A. T. ee ‘argued the other stubbernly, Meditatively he turned over in his mind the hectic series of adventures which had befallen Scotty and himself when they = had been in the secret service of Mexico — in the tumultuous days following the war. ee Then Scotty had married, and—well, that = rather broke up the combination that had been so nearly invincible. They hadtaken up mining, and had done well. 33 Ted had been quite contented, but now _ he could feel the old fever of the chase mounting to his head, the lure of danger and the unknown. For there was danger ahead if the chief were right, and the chief made few mistakes, SS Ted stopped his idle musing abruptly = and pricked up his ears. One of the Mex- icans had just remarked that the wages offered them by Ted were mighty good, — and that he would now buy a certain ~ Lolita many pretty things. “It is good money, yes: but the damned foreigners are getting rich by bleeding us, just the same!” snarled the taller of the Sass two. = “TI have hear, however, that it will not = always be thus,’ remarked the other softly. | “You are right! And the time is not far distant,” replied the other with grim == satisfaction. “The sting of the Scorpion _—/ will drive them all from the land!” =: “IT have heard you speak of that be- fore,” said his friend curiously. “What do you mean? The Scorpion? What is ae this Scorpion of which you speak?” a “The Scorpion is—the Scorpion,” re- plied the other mysteriously. “And the Scorpion is abroad in the land. Some day, and soon, his power will be felt. He will — lash his ta, and his sting, and then— guien sabe?” “You speak in riddles!” protested the other person. “This Scorpion, is he a man?” a. “Sh-h! He is a man, yet more than that, I think. It is better not te speak of him, for the leaves and the stones are ears for him.” ee “No man can be more than man,” “The padre say o—” , ‘comicbooks.com