Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 119: what you’re looking at

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

Hidden Trails ’round the other’ll get a job in the Bend— at the stage corral, if he can. If he can’t, some’ers else where the hearin’s good.” ‘“Y’m beginnin’ to see,” drawled Scotty. “T’m shore beginnin’ to see. Where yuh goin’ to start in?” “Right where them two fellahs was downed. I’m no trailer, myself, but Tele- scope is shore one li’l he-angel when it comes to readin’ sign, an’ I’m gamblin’ he can find out somethin’ from the hoof-marks of the hosses them hold-ups rode. If only she don’t rain.” ‘She won’t,” declared Scotty. “If she rains inside o’ six weeks, I’ll eat my shirt. Them hoof-marks is there to stay. When yuh goin’ to send for Telescope?”’ “Telescope an’ Racey Dawson are on the way now. ‘Telescope’ll drift in day after tomorrow likely, an’ Racey a couple 0’ days after.” “Huh? Day after tomorrow?”’ ‘Shore, day after tomorrow.” “Say, how long you been plannin’ this thing anyhow?”’ ‘Since the stage pulled in to Farewell after the Hogback hold-up an’ Bill Stahl posted rewards for them bandits at a thou- sand per. The Wells-Fargo made the same play. I figure she beats punchin’ cattle.” ‘An’ yuh come north special for that?”’ Scotty’s eyes took on a terrier-like keenness. “Shore, I did come north for that,” replied Johnny. ‘‘Whadda yuh guess?” “Seen Dor’thy?” was Scotty’s apparent- ly irrelevant remark. ‘“VYeah—say, do yuh s’pose I come all the way here to see her?” “Why not?” yapped Scotty defensively. ““She’s one nice li’l gal, an’ any gent—any gent, I tell yuh, Johnny—had ought to be proud to ride from hell to breakfas’ an’ back again to see her.”’ “T dunno as my hoss’d stand the trip,” doubted Johnny. “Yuh know what I mean. Yuh know plenty well what I mean. An’ I don’t give a what yuh say, Johnny, ’m bettin’ yuh was thinkin’ o’ Dor’thy all the time yuh was plannin’ to come up here after them hold-ups. Shore yuh was, an’ natural too. , yes. Whatcha wigglin’ ‘round in the saddle for?”’ ‘* Cause you make me sick!” “Tl make yuh a heap sicker, soon. Dor’thy’s one nice gal.” “Vuh’ve done said that twice.” I’ve knowed several one time an’ another, an’ they’re bad medicine. Yessir, I’ve had experience, I have, an’ I’ve been gun-shy of ’em ever since. But Dor’thy Burr an’ her ma ain’t nothin’ like the ord’nary run o’ female women. Them two are reg’lar shore-enough folks, y’betcha. Why, I knowed Dor’thy when she wasn’t knee- high to a pack-rat an’ said ‘Gug-gug’ when she wanted to play with yore watch. Busted mine three times, she did, an’ throwed it in the stove final. rate “The first time she ever rode a hoss in her life was on my saddle with her li’l legs a-stickin’ straight out an’ a-yellin’ to make the hoss go. An’ look at her now. They ain’t a better-lookin’ gal, bar none, north o’ Texas. I ask yuh, is they? No, they ain’t. O’ course, on forty a month yuh hadn’t really ought to ask her, but after yuh’ve hawg-tied a bandit or two an’ got the money then fly at it. Shore. Wish I was twenty years younger. I’d show yuh, y betcha.” ‘“Yuh’d shore be welcome to,” grunted Johnny. “T ain’t out to get married—not yet awhile. An’ I’m surprised at yuh, Scotty, a man o’ yore age, talkin’ this way.” “Why, yuh pore conceited cow-wrastler!”’ blazed Scotty. ‘“‘Yuh don’t guess I meant what I said about Dor’thy an’ you, do yuh? I was funnin’ yuh. If yuh had any sense yuh’d see it, but that’s just the way, young folks nowadays ain’t got the brains they had when I was a boy. No, sir, not by a jugful they ain’t, an’ you ain’t in partic’lar, Johnny. Not but what y’ ain’t aright good feller. I like yuh quite a lot. I dunno why exactly. But you ain’t the man for Dor’thy Burr. She’s a friend o’ mine.” *“‘Ain’t I a friend o’ yours?” demanded Johnny, somewhat injured as to his feelings. “Shore y’are,” admitted Scotty. ‘But this is different, a heap different. Yuh don’t shape up like a married man, Johnny.”’ “1d like to know why I couldn’t.” “T thought yuh said yuh wasn’t out to get married.”’ “T mean I’d like to know why I couldn’t if I wanted to.” “T gcuess—maybe—yuh could. They say nothin’s impossible. But it wouldn’t do. , no. Not a-tall nohow. Just you forget it an’ think o’ somethin’ else. Be- sides, it might be right dangerous.” CoOnniclo@ol< 117 ‘OQ’ course,’ pursued the unheedingg Scotty, “I don’t cotton to ladies as a rule, (C@