Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

8 Adventure “Don’t get funny. I ain’t foolin,’ not any. What I’m tellin’ yuh goes as it lays, yuh can gamble yore last dollar on it. H ; Chuck, you know me! You know I don’t like nesters no more’n you do, but these nesters is different. They ain’t hurtin’ no- body, they ain’t agoin’ to hurt nobody, an’ they’re agoin’ to stay.” 7 ‘“‘They shore have put their spell on you, that’s a cinch. Are yuh aimin’ to play a lone hand in this deal?” ““Meanin’?”’ “Do yuh want a helper?” “‘Two’s better’n one,” the Twin said hesitatingly. “Then I guess I'll trail along. What’s good enough for you is good enough for mie. The Kid’s Twin took fright at once. “Well now, yuh don’t want to go losin’ yore job,” he fenced. “I can manage by my lonesome. I guess maybe I’d better. You stay out of it, Chuck.”’ “Me stay out? Not for a minute. I’m with yuh, Twin, body, soul an’ roll. Yes- sir, yuh may lose yore job, but yuh can’t lose me. C’mon, le’s go see ’em.”’ “It—it ain’t necessary,”’ the Twin de- murred unhappily. ‘Say, of all the hawgs I ever seen yo’re hawgest,” Chuck exclaimed indignantly. “Yuh take my pants, to say nothin’ o’ the rest o’ the outfit’s best duds, so’s yuh can look pretty an’ on top o’ that yuh get me to help yuh out an’ wrastle on yore side, an’ then yuh won’t introduce me to yore girl.’ “T didn’t ask yuh to help me out!” vigorously denied the Twin. ‘I wouldn’t have yuh ona bet! I a “Yes yuh would, yuh poor fool. Yuh dunno what yo’re talkin’ about. Yuh need me, an’ yo’re agoin’ to have me, y’ betcha. Cinch the hull on yore cayuse, an’ we'll scamper right along.” CHAPTER II NESTERS eye old shack on Soogan Creek was in reality an ancient four-room ranch- house. The last time Chuck had seen it it had looked as all long-deserted houses look, dead, dilapidated and forlorn. He remem- bered that part of the corral stockade had fallen down. Now, as they topped a slight rise and sighted the ranch-house he per- ceived that it was very much alive. Smoke wreathed from one of the two chimneys, flowers splashed the ground about the spring with color, there was the green- striped rectangle of a small truck-garden on the creek-bank, and on lines stretched be- tween the kitchen and the repaired stock- ade of the corral the family wash whipped and fluttered in the breeze. ‘Must be fairly healthy citizens to mend the corral so good,” observed Chuck Morgan. The Kid’s Twin shot him a sulky glance. ‘“‘T mended it,”’ said he. The amazed Chuck stated that he would be eternally condemned. For it was a well- known fact that the Twin detested, and in- variably put off on some one else, any work entailing the use of a shovel or the handling of timbers. “Well?” growled the Twin. ‘‘She’s shore well,” grinned Chuck. “I’m just a-praisin’ yuh to myself. Can’t a man admire yore good work?” ‘fAw, shut up!” Chuck laughed heartily. It was only too obvious that the Twin’s temper became shorter and more ragged as the distance between the red willows and Moccasin Spring diminished. A girl appeared in the doorway of the house. She stood at gaze a moment, then vanished within. The range was a short hundred yards, and Chuck noted the ex- treme grace in her swift movements and was glad. “If she’s as pretty as she walks,”’ he whis- pered, “‘yo’re a lucky jigger.”’ “Td better be,” the Twin grunted sig- nificantly. Chuck winked one eye and stuck his tongue into his cheek. The Twin was be- coming more amusing every minute. Verily, a man in love is the father of all fools. So reasoned Chuck Morgan, the hardy immune. ‘‘Funny how them posies by the spring is two feet high,” observed Chuck, as they drew nearer, ‘“‘when the truck in the patch ain’t more’n out o’ the ground.” ‘“‘Them posies is geeraniums,” the Twin emphasized with hauteur, ‘“‘an’ they didn’t grow here, none whatever. They done packed ’em in pots all the way from Kan- sas. They like flowers.” ‘“‘They shore must,” breathed Chuck. When they checked their horses in front CoOMmiclsoo C©