Adventure Magazine Cover — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

The Smooth-Bore Hermanos on their horses’ backs. Before I said good- by to Duncan I said to him: ““Say, Captain, we have been pretty good friends and I want to offer you a little token of my esteem. Here’s a set of poker- chips a friend of mine in New York gave me, and could you let me have about a million of that keepsake Torres money? I may want to choke these two Yiddishers before I get through.’ “Duncan was tickled to death with the exchange and I sure would never have let go of that poker-set if I could have packed it. Iwasa little afraid of some of the boys joshing the brothers and putting them wise, so I took them out and said to them: ‘““*Now, boys, to-day you begin to fight.’ ‘““*Vy don’t you try to make it a peace first?’ suggested Abie. ‘““*No, we begin the war. Now, here are your two guns. See, I’ve put loads in them. Don’t shoot at anything or anybody until your commanding officer tells you to and then shoot to kill.’ ‘“““Oh, Abie, he speaks to us to make a murder! Oh, I can’t do it, I can’t make it,’ said Joey, beginning to weep. “““Now looky here,” said I, getting hot under the collar, ‘I am getting tired of you two. J’i do the murder if you don’t brace up! We are going to attack a city.to-day, and if we capture it and you do your share of the fighting, I will give you fifty thou- sand dollars each.’ “For a minute they were paralyzed. Then Abie began to grin at Joey and Joey at Abie, and they picked up their old smooth-bores and marched back to camp in single file, Abie remarking: ‘“““Ve got to be brave to-day, Joey, and make it a heroicness if ve never do it again.’ eH “ABOUT noon we topped a little hill sand there lay the little white-walled, red-tile-roofed village of Ayoilo. I had picked up forty men and four horses from four plantations and had learned that ' there were two companies of government troops on station there. I deployed my men when in range and was just about to send a messenger into town to demand surrender when the rifles began to pop around an old canning factory on the side of town nearest to us and a few bullets whistled through the green overhead. The Smooth-bore Broth- ers immediately fell down and began to try to dig dog holes in the ground, so I leaned 637 over and let them have a few nips of my quirt. The yells they let out were soul- splitting. Our boys were opening up in fine style and I was about to leave the two little scamps to shift for themselves when suddenly it occurred to me to remark that if either one of them got killed I would give the other one hundred thousand dollars life insurance. Joey was up on his feet at once, kicking Abie in the ribs and yelling: ‘Come on Abie, come on! Ve got the per- centage on our side. Come on, you little coward. Look at the nerve on me!’ “T looked back a few minutes later and they were coming ahead, but, though a mile from the enemy, they were charging bayonets, jabbing, sticking and reviling Imaginary dying federals. “There was no reserve to the canning factory, and as soon as we got the range and the steel-jacketed pills began to ricochet from the stone walls, a white flag went up in a jiffy and we rode into town at high noon. I was sitting in the doorway of the best fonda waiting for the reports on cap- tured munitions and other things when I saw coming across the little plaza a pathetic sight—two thorn-torn, besmoked mem- bers of my army—Abie and Joey. They marched up proudly and I noticed that Abie had one leg bandaged above the knee, with real blood showing through, and that there was blood on his bayonet and on Joey’s hands. “They came to attention and saluted finely and I looked on them with a more than pleased smile. “Well, what can I do for you, boys? You seem to have been in the fight all right.’ “*Oh, don’t say it, gentleman,’ re- sponded Abie with a proud glance that belied his modest words. “Ve thought maybe you had forgot to make something on us?’ “ “Well, I guess I did forget,’ I said with a laugh as I reached for my roll of Torres official treasury stationery. ‘Here you are —fifty thousand each.’ “They were just about to march away to some place where they could express their joy when I called them back: ‘Say, Abie, better have the doctor fix that up for you over in the hospital. Maybe there isa bullet in there.’ “Oh, no, no. It was not by bullets. Joey sticked me in accidents.’ cConnicloooks (C@ S|