Adventure Magazine Cover — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

- off a whale of a fight. Se a Na a gk Oe eS ag PP ee ee SIRES Mg te eg aes Sram” Soe aoe qe Oe a Se een oe Tillicums Either way it’ll be good for vem. Let ‘em settle things their own way.” — Well, we all ake Hank’s advice—for a while anyway. But by night I’m that filled up with curiosity I’m near to bustin’; so when Ole an’ Michael saunters into the * Pioneer, contented-lookin’ an’ smilin’ like they mostly always used to be, I shoos ’em into a corner an’ demands details. An’ for once Ole does all the-talkin’. “First off,”’ he begins, “I want to say that me an’ Michael has done settled our dispute. We’ve split her down the middle, each givin’ up half. Me claimin’ that the moon is two hundred thousand miles away an’ Michael insistin’ that she’s a bare fifty miles from Manook makes a grand total of two hun- dred thousand an’ fifty miles. Half of that makes one hundred thousand an’ twenty-five miles, which as anybody with a lick of sense can see looks reasonable an’ is plumb satis- factory an’ fair to both of us. “Continuin’, I’m here to announce that I ain’t got no idea that this fool Michael ever sets into a game which he don’t noway savvy. Therefore I’m dumfounded an’ amazed when he enters into that Injun canoe-race. I’m that peeved an’ pained that I does somethin’ I never pulls off be- fore. I’m full an’ plenty convinced that there ain’t no way to hide the shame an’ - ridicule which this here harp brings down onto our heads when he enters into a game where he’s bound to quit loser; so I arranges to get the only satisfaction remainin’, which is financial. ‘Therefore, soon as the contes- tants embarks for the startin’-point I slides FAAS fA VCH Spee =oe < 117 over to the Pioneer an’ touches Rory Mack for two hundred. He forks it over without a murmur. 3 “Then I moseys back to where the crowd is, an’ I circulates. Plenty language is bein’ liberated concernin’ this imbecile Irishman an’ his chances. That’s the stuff I’m movin’ around to hear. Believe me, I’m so sore at Michael for the humiliatin’ an’ ridiculous position he done put us into that I’m out to buy me a big, juicy hunk of revenge. I’m figgerin’ to invest two hundred dollars in a way that vindicates my judgment an’ restores my standin’ in this camp. An’ I accomplishes. “Nobody that’s sane concedes Michael a chance. An’ they’re right. He ain’t got no more right to win that race than I have to wear corsets. Consequently the bettin’ public opines about five or six to one against Ireland. An’ I judges an’ approves them odds as fair an’ correct. “So I picks me out a couple of tenderfeet an’ invests a hundred with each of ’em. Then I crowds down to the water’s edge an’ witnesses the fool antics of this here boilin’ lunatic when he smashes a good canoe an’ makes light of the public’s judgment by winnin’ that race.” “T’m plumb sorry, Ole,” I sympathize. “It’s too durn bad you had to go an’ lose | that borrowed money. I’m sure put out.” _“What!” he shrieks. “You dodderin’ old has-been, what you talkin’ about?” he yells. “Whadda you-all mean? Who lose? We’re eleven hundred to the good! I bet on Michael, you sap-head. He’s my pardner, ain’t he?” © j aes ie < Comicbooks :