Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

100 river. They was in to mill one day with some logs, and they’d unloaded and was starting home, and a new bully in town grabs the team by the head and says to Gunder: ‘“‘ “Understand you’re pretty good man?’ “‘Now he was a big feller and ugly look- ing, and Gunder he was young and green, so Gunder just laughs and says he never pretended to be very good. ‘* “Never had any idea you wanted to be cock o’ the river, did you?’ says the fighter. ‘“* ‘No,’ says Gunder, and the bully let go of the team, and they jogged out of town. Now old Ole he was sitting hunched up on the seat all the while, and he kept thinking, and didn’t say anything until they’d got into the timber, and then he says: ‘“‘ ‘Whoa,’ and the team stopped. ‘Get off’, says he, and Gunder gets off. Then old Ole he gets off, too, and throws his coat. ‘Go back to town and fight that feller’, says Ole, but Gunder he started to climb on the sleigh again, and then Ole grabbed and pulled him off, “You keep your hands off me’, says Gunder, getting mad just like Ole knew he would. So they have words back and forth, until Gunder goes wild and throws his coat, too, and they come together. Dad’, says Gunder purty soon, ‘I don’t think it’s right for father and son to fight. I'll go back and try that other fellow.’ ” Old Tom leaped into the air and clicked his heels twice before coming down. ‘Feel of that, boy!’ he cried, thrusting his mallet-like fist against Gaston’s chin. ‘Who says Tom’s ready to quit? The old man’s still got bone in his spine, and don’t you come around with any more talk like that, or by the great pike pole, I’ll waltz into Bradley’s office and kick over his desk just to let him know how we feel.”’ “You won’t have to do anything like that; Bradley will bring the fight to us when he gets ready.” “All right,” said Tom, ‘‘we’ll just saw logs until he gets ready.” e A FEW evenings later, in Ethel’s a room in the hotel at Wolverene, Ray Drake was saying: “Ethel, I forbid you to speak to this outcast, Thorson, again.” “Oh, Ray; you ‘forbid’?” laughed the girl. “And you call him an outcast? Adventure Why, it seems to me he’s anything but that.” “Yes; you’re nothing but a kid. Girls haven’t got any judgment of men, anyhow. Thorson is an outcast, I tell you, and I forbid you to speak to him.” “Tf he is an outcast you seem to be the only person around here who knows about it. I’ve noticed that everybody around here seems to respect and like him.” ‘Well, they won’t much longer. They’ll all know soon that he’s a bum—down and out. He'll be shown up. And I don’t want you to mention his name any more, or be associated any way with the bum.” “Ray, I don’t believe that.” A flush had flamed in her cheeks. ‘That is ter- rible talk.” “Ts it? All right; now you just listen, Miss Ethel—Thorson is more than a bum, he’s a criminal. There; I’ve told more than I intended. You forget that I said that, do you hear, sis’. But don’t you forget that I said you’re not to know him any more. You'll have to forget him, and the sooner you start to do it the better.” ‘““You’ve got to tell me why I must for- get,’”’ she said with a stiffening of her lips. **You’ve gone too far to stop.” “T can’t tell you, but you’ll know soon, Now do be sensible, sis’; you have been a little foolish, you know. But—well, he won’t trouble you much longer, and you’re going to be sensible and forget you ever saw him.” Ethel Drake stood still in the center of the room for many seconds after her brother had left her. There had been a note of assurance and triumph in Ray’s tones that disturbed her even more than did his ac- cusations. She knew that tone. Ray used it whenever he got an advance. What did he know? How could he speak so confi- dently in calling Thorson an outcast, a criminal? She sat down to think it over calmly. She knew her brother for the cautious chap he was; he would not have used that tone unless he had good reason to do so. He would not have broached the subject of - Thorson at all unless he was certain that circumstances justified such a denounce- ment. What could these circumstances be? She pictured the accused man as she had seen him leaving Crowley’s store, striking along with long, free strides, In- dian-straight chin up, every part of his being proclaiming that there was no reason oO CoOMmiclsoo S ©