Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

108 but temporary. He brooded over his wrongs, and that is bad for a man. Like all men who believe themselves hard-hit, he did not realize that there are a great many lonesome ladies in the world, any one of whom will make a man utterly happy. One young woman had proved to be an arrant flirt, therefore all young women were flirts, and beauty was a snare and a delusion. So reasoned Loudon. Surren- dering almost wholly to his mood, he rarely took part in the general conversation in the bunk-house. The men wondered at his aloofness, but none essayed to draw him out. His smoldering gray eyes for- bade any such familiarity. When riding the range with Laguerre, however, Loudon would emerge from his shell, and a strong friendship swiftly grew up between the two. B27 Mackenzie’s return from the Cross- "~~ In-a-box, Loudon was in the black- smith-shop making a set of shoes for Ran- ger, when Pete O’Leary rode up to the doorway and peered in. “Hello,” said O’Leary cheerily. tricks?” ‘Comin’ in bunches,” replied Loudon shortly, and he blew the bellows vigorously. “That’s good. Hot, ain’t it? Well, I got to be weavin’ along. So long.” Loudon walked to the doorway and watched O’Leary till he disappeared among the cottonwoods fringing the bank of the Dogsoldier. “Now I’d sure admire to know,” he wondered, “if Pete O’Leary stopped here just to ask how tricks was. He kind 0’ looked at your brand too, fellah,”’ he added, addressing Ranger. Thoughtfully he returned to his work. Five minutes later he whacked his knee and whistled. Comprehension had at last come to him. He marveled that it had not come sooner. ‘““Now, why didn’t I think o’ that quick- er?” hemuttered. ‘It was that 88 brand on Ranger’s hip that made Scotty suspicious. So it was that brand must ’a’ made O’Leary freeze to me when I sifted into the Bend. ‘Couldn’t Sam comer’ Sam Blakely o’ the 88! An’ I never seen it till just now.” The moves of an enemy are always in- teresting. Even more thoughtfully than before, Loudon pumped the handle of the ONE day, nearly two weeks after “How’s Adventure bellows. Why was Blakely coming to Paradise Bend? To settle his score with Scotty Mackenzie? Loudon doubted it. A newly engaged man does not, as a rule, jeopardize his future happiness by reopen- ing old issues. Whatever the precise nature of Blakely’s purpose might be, it was dark and Machia- vellian in the main. O’Leary’s peculiar actions in the Three-Card Saloon evinced as much. “T don’t see how it could have anythin’ to do with me,” puzzled Loudon. ‘Sam couldn’t ’a’ knowed I was comin’ to the Bend. I didn’t know myself till just be- fore I started. Yet here’s O’Leary askin’ Telescope about me an’ skirmishin’ over to see if I am at the Flyin’ M. It sure is a heap mysterious.” Loudon decided to talk it over with Scotty Mackenzie. CHAPTER IX AUTHORS OF CONFUSION HEN Loudon went to the office that evening he found Doubleday alone. ‘“Scotty’s gone,” said Doubleday, in response to Loudon’s question. ‘“He’s traipsin’ over to the Seven Lazy Seven. Wants to get rid 0’ some of our no-account stock.” ‘““When’ll he be back?” “Dunno. He may take in the Two Bar, Wagonwheel, T-V-U, an’ the Diamond A before he comes back. He might stay away a week, or three weeks, or a month. Ye can’t keep tabs on Scotty. I tried to once, but I give it up long ago.” Loudon did not take the garrulous Doubleday into his confidence. Nor did he mention the matter to Laguerre. The half-breed had seen O’Leary ride up to the blacksmith-shop, and his Gallic curiosity was aroused to the full. “My frien’,” said Laguerre, when Loudon and he were mending a break in the corral fence the following day, ‘‘my frien’, I wan’ for tell you somethin’. Somethin’ mab- beso you not see. Yes’erday O’Leary she come to de ranch; she go to de blacksmith- shop. Isee heem before she go to de black- smith-shop. I see heem aftair. Before she see you dere een de shop hees face was de face of de man who ees not satisfy, who ees hunt for somethin’. W’en I see heem COMmichoooks CO