Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

38 glad enough to work for me in the dance- hall. I knowed I couldn’t get ’em any other way, an’ I wanted ’em. That kind brings trade.’ ”’ “Did Cutnose say anythin’ to that?” Chuck’s tone was like ice. **“Yo’re too —— kind,’ says Cutnose, an’ he lights into Bun with his quirt. I come ’way then. I was afraid he might see me an’ get mad at me. Ol’ Rattles didn’ wan’ no lickin’, he didn’, you bet. Gimme my bottle.” Chuck gave him his bottle and returned to Judge Allison’s house. Entering by way of the kitchen he found Black Sam, the guste. servant, reading his Bible by candle- ight. “Yo’re just the feller I’m lookin’ for, Sam,” said Chuck. ‘Gimme a piece of paper an’ a pencil.” Please come out to the kitchen at once. Im- portant. CHUCK. Thus ran the message written on half an old envelope that Black Sam carried in to Judge Allison. It brought the latter im- mediately, and all the more willingly for that he was still losing. v Judge, I want to borrow one o’ yore -hosses,’”’ Chuck said. “I gotta go ’way from here quick. ‘What have you done now?” Judge Alli- son demanded severely. ‘‘You must know, Chuck, if you have snuffed out the life of one of our estimable citizens, that it will look better if you escape on your own horse rather than on one of mine.” “T ain’t done a thing, Judge,” Chuck stated hastily. ‘But I got business up north, an’ I gotta get there quick.” “In that case, of course you may have a horse,’”’ the judge remarked with relief. “T’ll go out to the corral with you myself. Perhaps walking round the corral may change my luck. Lord, the hands I’ve held tonight would ruin the temper of a saint. - The roan, Chuck, is the horse for you. He can go forever and ask for more. I never have seen him actually tired yet. He’s bridle-broke. You won’t have to rope him. Just walk up to him and put the bridle on. Have you your saddle and bridle?” ‘“‘They’re at the hotel. I'll lead the roan down there. Don’t tell Old Salt an’ the -rest nothin’ about me goin’ till I’m good an’ gone an hour. Then yuh can tell ’em I was called north in a hurry. Will yuh keep my _hoss till I can send yores back?” Adventure “Certainly. You needn’t worry your head about your horse. J’ll send Black Sam to the hotel corral for him in the morning— That’s the roan—in the far corner—Good- by, Chuck, and the best of luck to you.” “T’d like to know what Chuck is up to,” pondered the judge, watching Chuck go up the street, leading the roan. ‘Something interesting, of course. Youth! Youth! and I’m getting to be an old man.’ With a half sigh the judge started to walk round the corral in the persistent en- deavor to change his luck. Once the roan was between his legs Chuck pushed north at a good, swinging road-gait. None but a horse of excellent bottom could have stood that pace for a journey of many miles. But the rawboned roan bore out his owner’s statement. He trotted on and on, and never faltered. ““God!”? breathed Chuck, when Marys- ville lay twenty miles behind his horse’s tail. ‘God! That devil Jason! I never knowed he owned the dance-hall!”’ Again and again he called upon his Maker. He was not a pious person, this Bar-S puncher, but there and then he took off his hat, lifted his face toward the stars and breathed a heartfelt prayer that he be spared a sufficient length of time to rid the world of Bun Jason. Only the low state of the latter’s health had prevented Chuck from performing the above duty before he left Marysville. THE following day before noon the roan slid down the southern bank of the Lazy River a quarter- mile below the mouth of Soogan Creek. There is no ford there, but the roan was as strong a swimmer as he was a goer. The long legs of him propelled himself and his rider across without difficulty, yet not with- out a thorough wetting. Chuck was soaked to the shoulders when the great horse heaved himself up the northern bank. While he was strapping on the rifle- scabbard—he had held his weapons and their holsters over his head during the passage of the stream—he heard the faraway thud of a rifle-shot, followed almost instantly by two more. The sound came from the east. He knew that the camp of Willie’s Old Brother-in- Law lay in that direction. With the shot came the realization that he was exceed- ingly hungry. CoOMmiclsoo C©