Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

32 Mr. Saltoun seized the Twin by the neck and Chuck fell on a whirling arm. But the Twin was not to be so easily separated from his personal prey. What though Mr. Saltoun tugged at his neck and Chuck had. pinioned his left arm, he continued to make play with his right. In response to the frenzied outcries of Mr. Saltoun, Telescope, from the bunkhouse, and Jimmy, from the bunkhouse kitchen, came running. The four of them, not without much pain and damage to themselves, finally tore the Kid’s Twin from the unconscious body of Lanpher. Chuck, holding to an elbow and wrist of the Twin, looked over his shoulder at the man on the floor. “<____!? he exclaimed in admiration. “T shore never knowed the Twin could fight like that!” Awful indeed was the wreck of Lanpher. His nose was mashed and appeared to be broken. His lips and chin were cut. A cheek-bone was bleeding, and the flesh round both eyes was bruised and swelling rapidly. Appeared then Mrs. Kate in the door- way. She glanced at the senseless Lan- pher, at the little knot of men holding the now passive Kid’s Twin, and stepped out on the porch. “Dad, you ought to be ashamed of your- self!’ she declared severely. ‘The idea of allowing all this hullabaloo just when I’ve succeeded in getting Junior to sleep. No, you needn’t trouble yourself to explain. I don’t want to hear any excuses. Carry him round to the kitchen, and I’ll fix him up—No, no, not through the house. He'll spoil the carpet. Carry him round out- doors. That’s it. “Twin, you trot right back to your mules this instant. This instant, do you hearP—Easy now, don’t drop him on the floor. There, beyond the oilcloth. Tina, fill the big dish-pan with hot water, and then go into my room and bring me all the rags in the lower left-hand drawer of the bureau. Lower left-hand bureau drawer. Now jump.” Tina, the half-breed ranch-house cook and maid-of-all-work, ran to do her mistress’s bidding. Mrs. Kate shoved out her father and the others and set to work on Lanpher. Outdoors Mr. Saltoun scratched his head and looked disgustedly at Chuck and Telescope. “____ that Twin!” he said. “I s’pose Adventure he’s interested down at Moccasin Spring, too, huh? Oh, yuh needn’t say yuh don’t know. I can tell. I got eyes, I have. his soul, why’n —— couldn’t he leave well enough alone? I’ve a good mind to raise his wages, the fightin’ 1i’l’ rooster.” CHAPTER IX THE CAVALRYMEN 7 eae buckboard had been made ready for Lanpher’s use and comfort. For it was discovered, after he had been brought to by Mrs. Kate, that he was much too battered to sit a horse. Hence the buck- board and Laguerre to drive: Lanpher, bandaged and malevolent, was in his place beside Laguerre, the Kid’s Twin was at the head of the fractious team, and Chuck was tying Lanpher’s horse to the rear of the buckboard, when, from a draw a quarter mile away, trotted a handful of horsemen. “Cavalry,” muttered Mr. Saltoun. ‘“‘Wonder if the Injuns have jumped the reservation again. Better wait, Telescope, till we see what’s happened.” The cavalrymen, sixteen in number, under command of a lieutenant, swept up with a brave jingle of curb-chains and creak of saddle-leather. “Howmp!” barked the lieutenant, fling- ing up a hand. Beyond the buckboard the detachment halted in a cloud of dust. The lieutenant, a young man with old eyes, pushed back his hat and mopped his sweating face. He was dust-covered and grimy, as were all his men. Their mounts from fetlock to forelock were caked with sweat and dirt. “Howdy, Lieutenant,’’ was Mr. Saltoun’s greeting. “‘What’s up—Injuns?” “No, we’re after two murderers,” the lieutenant replied wearily. ‘They killed three of our privates and a cowboy in a poker game in Seymour City.”’ “Then yo’re the Twentieth Cavalry from Fort Seymour, huh?”’ ‘““Yes,”’ nodded the lieutenant and, seeing Mrs. Kate on the porch, removed his hat and bowed. ‘“I’d like to camp here for the night, if you have no objection. And if you could sell us—Hands up, you!” The lieutenant, as he talked to Mr. Saltoun, had happened to glance at Chuck Morgan. The lieutenant had gone into CoOMmiclsoo CO