Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 148: what you’re looking at

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

af Sl . vy By Fadl Ril iY pd by) 5 We Va Ae FY 134 “AN right,” nods Magpie. shoot, boys; they’re dying.” Maybe Alcibiades was shocked, too; maybe he had acquired man-eating pro- pensities from associating with Cleo- patra, but anyway he whirled, let out a mean Hur-r-r-r-r-rump ! and started after Scenery Sims. Scenery ducked straight for the crowd, and Alcibiades follered him like a bloodhound. We went some. “Don’t E didn’t go very many miles per minute, but we went awful strong. We went through Wick Smith’s yard and we took two clothes-lines full of clothes with us. We got so tangled up in wash- ing that we didn’t know where we went. Every one who took the time tried shots at us but we ignored such trifling things. I managed to get a suit of flannels Out of my eyes in time to see our animated vehicle pointing straight for the door of our horse stable. The door is too narrow for elephants, being as we only had horses in mind when we built it, and [ starts to yell a warning but the flannels came back and shut me up. Comes a ripping jar, the snap of a rope and I hit the earth with Magpie on top of me. He got up, dazed-like, and shut the door. “We've got him, Ike,” says ike: Crash! Rip-p-p-p! Smash! The front logs of the stable goes squeegeed, and from the rear comes the rattle of falling logs and a cloud of dust. We limps to the corner. Out of the cloud of dust comes Alcibiades and on his back is Bosco. The elephant skids to a stop, whirls and points straight into the desert. “Bosco!” yelps Magpie. “Good-luck! Look out for snakes!” Magpie stares at me and then at the ruined stable. “I—I wonder if Bosco really did eat them snakes?” he asks foolish-like. “He—he did,” states a voice, and out from the squeegeed doorway pokes the hairy head of Bosco. “He sure did, gents. I am the only original snake- eating = He stops and rubs his hand over his eyes. He looks all around and then whispers— “Which way is the city of Piperock?” Adventure Magpie points — the town. “Sure: 293 | 4 sare. Why? - * Sg “That’s a of a question to ask,” says Bosco, and we watches him blend into the mesquite, going away from Piperock. “That must ’a’ been Scenery on the ele- phant,” says Magpie awed-like. ‘Scen- _ ery must ’a’ lost his clothes in the crash.” “Speculation has ruined a lot of men,” says I. “Why stop to speculate ?” We saddled our broncs and we didn’t hit the main road until we’re in shooting distance of Paradise. Then we turns a corner and runs -slap into Jay-Bird and Hassayampa. They’re packing just enough to feel glad. They hands us a bottle. “You fellers going to the celebration: ee I asks, “You betcha,” agrees Hassayampa. “Looking forward to a hyiu time. How’s the circus ?” “Only thing of it’s kind on earth,” says Magpie between swallers. “Piperock is going crazy over it.” “Bet they are,’ agrees Hassayampa. “Piperock deserves it. Don’t. want to sell out, do you?” “Sell it?” asks Magpie. “Hadn't thought of such a thing. Who wants to buy it, Hassayampa?” ; . “It ain’t worth no more than you paid for it, Magpie,” says Jay-Bird, “but we'd pay that much, eh, Hassayampa ?” : “Pshaw!” grunts Magpie. “I just got started, gents.” “You ain’t got no use for it, Magpie,” says Jay-Bird. “Me and Hassayampa can afford a circus better than you and Ike. We'll pay you back in the same checks you paid us, eh? Is that “As you said, we can’t afford it,” Magpie. “We'll trade.” Magpie puts the checks in his pocket. We take another round of good cheer and ride on. “See you at the celebration,” yells Jay- Bird. “If you’ve got second sight,” nods Magpie, and we pilgrimed straight for Silver Bend. We ain’t done nothing wrong in sell- ing out. Believe me, that money sure looked good. I wondered if Hassayampa nods comicbooks “a = ~ 4.7 . ~ ~< * 7 - ee ee eet ~ ee = aah - SS ge Pe Te — = = a — . - <P ~~ se 2 . ae ae “ mm Soe , = , & ——— ay = # aa Saleh Sade he pe lin aie oS Nt \ be C8 !) a wr Nae