Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

118 and tail. When a horse in the cow coun- try is curried and combed, that horse is a highly valued horse. Johnny Ram- sey accused Loudon of wrapping Ran- ger in blankets when the air was chilly, and of taking his temperature on all oc- casions. Undoubtedly Loudon was some- what of a crank where Ranger was con- cerned. And now the inconceivable had come to pass. Ranger had been stolen—stolen almost under the very nose of his master. Loudon did not swear. His feeling was too deeply grim for that. But he promised himself an accounting—a very full ac- counting. Loudon rode onward at a steady lope. Before him stretched the dusty ribbon of trail. Blank and bare it led between the low hills and lifted over the ridges. He saw no more specks ahead. The quarry had outdistanced him. Fifteen miles out of Paradise Bend he heard a faint shout in his rear. He looked over his shoulder. A half-mile distant two men were galloping toward him. One of them waved an arm half red, half blue. “Scotty,” muttered Loudon, and checked his horse. The two clattered up, their horses’ out- blown nostrils whistling. One of the men was the owner of the Flying M. The other was the proprietor of the Chicago Store. ‘Seen him?” demanded Scotty. “Once,” replied Loudon. “He’s ridin’ with Block now, but they pulled away from me. I ain’t seen ’em for over an hour.” “They’re stickin’ to the trail,’ grunted the store proprietor, who rejoiced in the name of Ragsdale, glancing at the hoof- marks in the dust. ‘“‘C’mon!”’ snapped Scotty Mackenzie. Three miles farther on Ragsdale’s mount began to falter. ‘“He’s done,” growled Ragsdale. “Give *em one for me.” Ragsdale halted. Loudon and Scotty Mackenzie rode on. “Where did ye get that bay?” queried Scotty, eying the Flying M brand on the bay’s hip. “It was his—Cutting’s,”’ replied Loudon. “Cutting’s? D’ye mean Rufe Cutting is the hoss-thief?”’ “Sure! I clean forgot ye didn’t know about Cutting’s quittin’ his job.” Loudon explained the manner of the Adventure cook’s departure and his subsequent actions to Mackenzie. ‘“‘An’,” said Loudon, in conclusion, “I seen that feller at the 88 that time I bought my hoss from Blakely.” “Ye did! Are ye sure?” “Sure as yo’re a day old. I was walkin’ past the bunk-house with Blakely, an’ this fellah was out in front with his shirt off a-washin’ himself, an’ I seen an eagle tattooed on his chest in blue, an’ underneath a heart with a R on one side an’ a T on the other. Just before yore cook pulled his freight his shirt got tore, an’ I seen his chest, an’ there was the eagle an’ the heart an’ the two let- ters R an’ T. I knowed when I first laid eyes on him, up here at the Flyin’ M, that I’d seen him some’ers, but I couldn’t place him till I seen the tattoo-work. It all come back to me then.” ‘What was his name at the 88?” “T never knowed. I never cut his trail again down there. He wasn’t one o’ the reg’lar outfit. I know all o’ them.” “Did Cap’n Burr see him?” ‘“‘No, he didn’t. I remember now, when the Cap’n come this fellah wasn’t in sight, an’ he didn’t show up again while we was there. Cap’n Burr left when I did.” “Cutting worked for me nigh onto a year. He’s always earned his pay. Never done nothin’ out of the way.” “TI dunno what it means. It’s all a heap mysterious — special mysterious when ye come to think o’ what O’Leary asked me when I first hit the Bend. ‘Couldn’t Sam come?’ says O’Leary tome. Busts out into the street to say it, too, right after I’d asked ye the way to Cap’n Burr’s house.” “T remember,” said Scotty thoughtfully. “T seen him talkin’ to ye. I thought ye knowed him. I wonder who he took ye for?” “One o’ Blakely’s outfit, 0’ course,” re- plied Loudon. “It was that 88 brand 0’ Ranger’s done the trick for him like it done for you. ‘Couldn’t Sam come,’ says he. Then he says, ‘It’s all right. I’m Pete O’Leary!’ When he seen I didn’t’ under- stand him none, he got gun-shy immediate an’ wandered. An’ he didn’t forget me a little bit. Telescope told me that he’d been tryin’ to find out if you’d hired me. One day he come out to the ranch an’ stopped just long enough to say howdy. Wanted to make sure I was there, see? What do ye make of it?” ) COMmMichoooks CO