Adventure Magazine Cover — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

Tippecanoe and Cougars Two material things. Suddenly his expression changes, and he grunts soft-like— Stl —— Aloysius has got an egg-sized bump over his right eye, and one of them cougars has opened his clothes all the way down his back; but Aloysius don’t mind. He’s try- ing to set that moving-picture camera and all the while he’s singing, soft and low: ‘“‘Daha-a-a-a-ling, I am gro-0-0-0-wing 0-0-0-0-old, Sweet Alice with ha-air so-o-o-o brown, Through the sycamo-o-o-o-res the candle-lights are ‘gleaming, The moss-covered bu-u-u-u-u-cket that hung in the well——”’ “My ——!” grunts Magpie. ‘He’s even absent-minded in his songs.’ “He, he, he, he!” squeaks Tip, hammering his hands on his knees. ‘‘Can’t that fellow jist make a banjo talk? Whaoo-e-e-e-e-e!”’ ‘“‘Cawn’t some one do something?” com- plains Lord Washburn. “This is insuffer- able.” I see mum-maw twitch her feet, and then she lets out a screech that skinned the yowl of a cougar four ways from the jack. “All ready! Camera!’ snaps Aloysius, and he starts grinding on that machine. Then out of the door comes Bettina. She’s got her hat down over her eyes, but that don’t matter, ‘cause she wouldn’t have seen Tip anyway. She just walked right over him and lit sitting down in front of the cougar, and right behind her comes Mighty Jones. He’s got a section of that balcony around his neck and Lord Washburn’s two-barreled rifle in his hands. Before we can stop him he raises the gun and pulls both triggers. I jumped in to stop him, but all too late. IT reckon that both of them big bullets hit the rope within a foot of Lord Washburn’s legs and cut it plumb in two. The cat on the ground went right between my legs, and that camera stand caught me in the shins and I turned upside down. I seen mum-maw rol] loose and turn over on her stummick. I hears Aloysius saying, ‘‘Just a moment, Lord Washburn,” and I glances up there. Lord Washburn is try- ing to throw himself backwards, and the cat is objecting at the top of its voice. “Hold it!”? pleads Aloysius, grinding as fast as he can. “Orrr-r-r-r-r-oo000000ww- www!” ; It was too much for the cat. I seen it go 107 in the air, straight for the doorway, while Lord Washburn turned over, kicking his feet loose from the rope. The cat hit Tip dead center, knocked him half-way into the cabin door, and the cat almost popped its own tail off going inside. “My ——!” gasps Magpie. see such ——”’ “Hold it!’ gasps Aloysius. ‘Easy now.”’ He picks up that heavy camera and trots to the doorway where he peers inside. Yeo-0-0-0-0-oww! Crash! You can’t fool a cougar more than once, and that one recognized that interior. It came right out again. I reckon it meant to jump plumb over everything in sight, but it was fuddled a little and hit the camera dead center, and cat, camera and Aloysius all went down together. The cat hopped right off the ground, and went between Tip’s legs; but Tip was falling at the time, falling away from the crash, and him and the cat went to the dirt to- gether. Comes a whirl of a man, cat, and dust, and here is the cat under the machine with its tail under one of the tires and Tip hang- ing on with his feet braced to the wheel. The cat is throwing dust like a fanning- mill, trying to get loose. ‘“Huh-hurry up!’ squeaks Tip, spitting dust. ‘You wanted animiles, dang yuh— here they are!”’ “Hold it!’ pleads Aloysius, and here he is with what is left of his machine, trying to get it to grinding again. “Hold it, I demand of you!”’ “Well, I—I—I’m huh-holding, ain’t I>?” squeaks Tip. “T can’t see it,’ complains Aloysius, peering into dust. , “Go around the other side!” grunts Tip. ‘‘Aintcha got no sense?” Aloysius staggers around to the other side, and in a few moments he says: ‘‘Absolutely wonderful! I see him now.” “Good!” squeaks Tip, and lets loose of the tail. Yeow-w-w-w-w-w-w! Me and Magpie steps around on the other side, and there sits Aloysius, holding to one ear, and about ten feet away is his camera. “Is the cougar gone?” Tasks. Aloysius. looks up at me, wide-eyed, and says— **Well—I—have—hopes.”’ “Didja ever CO Ebooks C©