Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

56 ““Gosh!”’ breathed Henderson, and tact- fully withdrew into outer darkness. ‘‘Her pretty as a basket o’ peaches an’ twice as sweet,’ he added to himself, ‘‘an’ him with a face yuh wouldn’t believe was true if yuh hadn’t ’a? saw it. Which that Cutnose must ’a’ used his feet.”’ CHAPTER XVI AN EXPENSIVE PROPOSITION ENDERSON held the lantern so that the light fell on the face of the dead man. Chuck stared. The stiffening fea- tures bore a slight resemblance to his own. Stiff black hair grew low on a forehead cen- tered by a round and red-rimmed hole. The eyes, open, glazed, were blue. ‘“‘He’s about yore size,” said Henderson, ‘fan’ on hossback an’ a li’l ways off you an’ him might be twins. That’s what throwed me off that day I cut down on yuh.” He nodded with satisfaction, gazing down at the quiet body. ‘An’ say, wha’djuh know? A coupla days later this here very same chunker come to the 88 where I was workin’ to tell Lanpher about a dead cow he’d found some’eres near here, an’ I never knowed it. No sir, there I was within fifty yards o’ the gent, an’ didn’t see him. Wouldn’t ’a’ knowed nothin’ about him a-tall only I heard Racey say somethin’ the next day, an’ he described the sport. I was shore hot.” “Tt’s none o’ my business, mister, but who are you, anyway?” inquired the ever- direct Rainbow, who had joined them. “Mer” cried Henderson heartily. “Which my name’s Bill Derr, an’ the Cross- T sort o’ hired me to get the men that rubbed out their puncher— Shore, the Cross-T outfit south o’ Seymour.” ‘‘An’ I thought yuh was one o’ them same murderers all the time,’ said the disgusted Chuck. ; “T know yuh did,” grinned Henderson, ‘fan’ I’d ’a’ told yuh who I was the day I run up on you an’ yore dead mules over near Injun Ridge, only yuh know how she is yoreself, the fewer folks knows o’ things like that the better. But I don’t blame yuh for thinkin’ the way yuh did, not a bit I don’t. ‘That buckskin was shore hard to swallow. “Tf I’d had any sense I’d ’a’ took one 0’ my own hosses, but when the Cross-T foreman rid over to my place to tell me he Adventure wanted them two killers got, he was leadin’ this here spit an’ image o’ the buckskin his puncher had rode to Seymour an’ sayin’ how it’s the best hoss in the Territory an’ for me to take it. An’ say, she’s been one job trailin’ these gents. “T’ll bet there ain’t a outfit in Fort Creek County I ain’t worked three-four days for. Oh, I been all over, an’ I didn’t come up on ’em complete till tonight on the 88 range. There they was, ramblin’ along with a hoss-band free an’ easy as yuh please.” ‘That reminds me,” said Chuck. ‘“‘Let’s go to the corral with that lantern.” They went across to the corral and Chuck hung the lantern over the bars. Through a fog of yellow dust a sea of dark backs heaved restlessly. ‘“‘Must be four hundred head in there,” observed Chuck with puckered brows. “Easy. An’ that ain’t all of ’em. They was that other band the two killers was holdin’ on the other side the creek all ready to throw across when you busted in an’ had yore li’l riot with Cutnose Canter. That hoss-band shore made me nervous, *cause I could hear them two killers a- argufyin’ an’ a-argufyin’ should they or shouldn’t they help out Cutnose—Hear the fight? Well, I guess yes. Yuh’d a thought the shack was comin’ down. I shore was in a cold sweat for thinkin’ them two chatterin’ killers would stay where they was an’ not gimme a chance to down ’em *‘Me? Oh, I was hidin’ out in them willer- bushes across the creek with li’l bugs crawlin’ down my neck an’ a sharp rock stickin’ into my stummick. Final, they decided to let the hosses go, an’ help Cut- nose. After that it was pie for baby. I just followed ’em across. Say, that there Miss Dale lady is shore one whizzer. Didja see her come down with that table-leg? If that feller hadn’t had a head built like a kag she’d ’a’ busted him wide open, y’betcha. S’pose we might’s well pack this stiff down back o’ the corral, huh?”’ ‘Shore. Take his feet. Dale restin’ now, Rainbow?” ‘““We-ell, seeing that he’s béen tied to his bed all day and night, you couldn’t expect him to be as chipper as a flock of little birds. But anyway he hasn’t had another of those hemorrhages, although he’s coughing a little. Jane’s with him. C’mon in the house when the funeral’s over.” The Rainbow turned back and the two How’s Mister CoOMmiclsoo CO