Adventure Magazine Cover, June 18, 1921 — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

The Black Quag now—he will be close by, and I with him. And if there is any one among you who still desires to fight, we will reason with him—and afterward a dirt-train might be driven through his belly from front to back!” My Italian, long since disused, was com- ing back to me; I rather enjoyed laying down the law to them. I was rewarded with eighty flashing smiles. Sil Sil Si, signorel” they all murmured ingratiatingly; and we left them amicably squabbling over their hardware. Outside 1 turned to Roberts. “What do you think of your man Hand by now?” The boy frowned dubiously. “Tl talk to him. Maybe he thought it was best to settle the dispute that way. But you, doc; you’re a wonder! You can handle men. Why didn’t you study engineering? You ought to have my job.” ‘““Humph!” said I again, being uninter- ested in my own perfections. Iam a safely married man, and my wife keeps me humble. “The first thing I’d do would be to fife Lily-White Hand.” CHAPTER VII ““WHERE’S YOUR RAILROAD?” E WALKED over to the office and there found Flint, the watchman. Having reported trouble, he had effaced himself as good watchmen do, and now he sat in his chief’s swivel chair, feet on desk, smoking peacefully. To him Roberts spoke sharply. “Flint, why didn’t you let Mr. Hand settle things in his own way, and not trouble me?” Flint gawped at him, open-ntouthed, too surprized to get up. “Why—why, Lily-White, he—’ His superior’s scowl checked him. ‘Oh! Yes, sir; I s’pose I sh’d of left it up to Mr. Hand.” And he winked at me. There were two cots in the little office building, and I proposed that we spend the night there. It was more than two miles to the village, over well-nigh impassable roads; and frankly I funked the Quag. More- over, I wished to be close by if Lily-White Hand returned to complete his deviltry; for I knew that this riot had been entirely of his making. 159 So I called up Molly and told her if a call came in to rout out Phil Riley and send him after me. Then [I laid the shotgun ready to my hand, pulled off my boots and went to bed. 7 I do not know whether or not Roberts rested; my cot was soft enough for one used to taking half his sleep in a lurching buggy. And no alarm disturbed us. The bunk- house slumbered; and, I make no doubt, the watchman too. Andas for Lily-White Hand, wherever he was, he made no sound. Soon after six I woke. Roberts still snored, but there was no sleep left in me; so I pulled on my boots and went out into a clear, rosy dawn. Little birds sang to me, and our land: was very peaceful. And presently the great sun’s rim peeped over Cranberry Hill to say good morning and I wondered again, as often before, why men should value themselves so highly. A little while, and the sun would peep over Cranberry Hill once more, and find the - Black Quag there as of old; but none of us who lived by it. And when its makers were forgotten, and this new railroad with them, the same sun would look down.on the hills and on the Black Quag between them, and, no doubt, on men a thousand years unborn who should then say, as we do now— “Truly we are the people, and wisdom will die with us.” Flint, the watchman, emerged yawning from some secret lair, and joined me. ‘“‘Where’s the big boss?” “Asleep,” I told him. “Huh! Say, doc—he’s hipped on this Lily-White Hand, ain’t he?” I said nothing; and presently he went on, aggrieved. | “Whyn’t I leave him manage that scrap, huh? ‘W’y doc, he started it! I seen him. He come down here ’ith ’is arms full o’ bottles, ugly drunk. I challenged hin#; but he’s got a bad eye, that Hand. And anyways, it wa’n’t my put-in. ~ Well, he went into the bunk-house, an’ pretty soon all them dagoes was fightin’ drunk, an’ him eggin’ ’em on. He staged that scrap, right outa nothin’. An’ he sneaked outa the back door of that shack when you fellers come in the front one—I seen ’im go. I’m agoin’ t’ git my time, before— My , doc!” He fell to rubbing his eyes, then stared again over my shoulder at the Black Quag. I turned; I had not looked that way, but at the sun. And I, too, cried out at what I saw. COmicloo CN Vp) (©