Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

Longhorns “Hold still, young un,” grinned Chuck, ‘“‘while I take away yore six-shooter. Yuh might go an’ hurt yoreself. with it, an’ that would never do, never in ‘the world. -An’ take my advice, Lanpher. Don’t try to pull a gun on me when yo’re soclose. It can’t be done. There! now yuh’ll do while I try an’ bring back the happy days o’ childhood to yuh.” . Chuck lifted his hand and began to spank Lanpher with all the force of a remarkably strong arm, while the sheriff and the posse looked on in amazed pleasure. For such a jape they had never seen before. Lanpher wriggled and squirmed and swore and endeavored to childishly gnaw the leg of his chastiser, but Chuck stopped that maneuver by twisting Lanpher’s collar till the 88 manager nearly strangled, and continued to thwack with unabated vigor. When he considered that he had done a good job, he simply loosed his hold, tilted his knees and dropped Lanpher on the ground. Lanpher, out of his head with fury, scrambled to his feet and snatched at the revolver in the sheriff’s holster. But if Lanpher was quick, Chuck was quicker. He leaped from his seat on the bar and knocked Lanpher down before the latter could jerk the gun free. When Lanpher, shaken by his smashing fall, slowly dragged himself erect, he faced Chuck’s six-shooter. “‘No more foolin’,” cautioned Chuck. “‘T want to ask yuh a few questions in front o’ the sheriff an’ yore men.”’ “Riley, ’m watching you!’ came in the Rainbow’s sharp, incisive tones from the doorsill of the ranch-house. Riley, one of the 88 punchers, sheepishly removed his hand from his gun-butt. He was the one man besides the manager in all the 88 outfit whom no one hked. “TY kind o’ overlooked you, Riley,’ said Chuck, ‘But I’ll try not to from now on, T’ll try not to.” “You needn’t pay any attention to Riley,” the Rainbow assured him. ‘I’m watching the gentleman.” ‘““Now, Chuck, I don’t take this kindly o you a-tall,” the sheriff protested injuredly. “‘Can’t yuh see I’m here?” “‘Shore,”? agreed Chuck. here. What about it?” “Yo’re sort o’ indicatin’ round with yore gun too much. I wish yuh wouldn’t. Sort o’ slip it in yore holster nice an’ easy, “We're both 43 an’ we'll all be happy. There won’t be no shootin’. If they is any, Pll do it.’ That goes for you too, Riley.” ‘“‘Well, make that there Injun quit holdin’ her rifle on me,”’ grumbled Riley. ‘Rainbow, put up yore rifle,’”’ ordered the sheriff. “T won’t!”’ the Rainbow cried rebelliously. “My rifle is doing very well where it is. If that Riley horse-thief is afraid of a- girl why don’t he go off somewhere and hide? There are no ropes on him that I can see.”’ The sheriff shrugged helpless shoulders. What could a man do with a girl like the Rainbow? Chuck eased the tension by shding his six-shooter into his holster. “There y’are, sheriff,’”’ he said. we can all be happy. Don’tcha move, Lanpher.. My questions ain’t answered yet. First, I’d like to know how yuh knowed yore hosses was in the C-Y cor- ral?”’ ‘“‘None 0’ yore business,”’ buzzed Lanpher. “Yuh might answer, Lanpher,’”’ the sheriff said gently. ‘‘I’d like to know my- self. Yuh forgot to tell me.” ‘Somebody told me,” grunted Lanpher. ‘‘When?” snapped Chuck, letting it go at that. ‘““Yesterday afternoon.” “It took yuh a long time to get here.’ “IT wanted to get the sheriff first. I wanted him to see just what kind o’ folks these nesters is. Yuh foxed me on that dead cow, Morgan, an’ I believe yuh foxed me on these hosses somehow.” “Yuh can believe anythin’ yuh like. She’s a free country. What was the name of the gent who told yuh about the hosses?”’ “Y can’t tell yuh,” was Lanpher’s stub- born answer. ‘Better tell.”” Thus the sheriff. But Lanpher stubbornly refused to tell. The Rainbow walked silently forward and stood beside Chuck. 7 ‘“‘Lanpher, where were you this morning between eleven o’clock and noon?” she demanded. He regarded her spitefully. lips curled. ) “You see, Lanpher,”’ she said, the veneer of civilization dropping froni features and voice, “my uncle was shot this morning about noon, and I’d like to know where you were.’ _ There was a chorus of exclamations from the officers of the law and the punchers, “Now His thin COmicloo C©