Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

I20 “Gosh ding him, he didn’t stay dead!” blurted Slim; and out of the door he went. Soup Lannigan, running like a rabbit, was heading for the brushy hills, when Slim went into his saddle, shook out his rope and gave chase. And Sadie was not far behind him. Straight up over a brushy slope galloped Soup, bending every effort to gain deeper cover, while behind him pounded two run- ning horses; and now he could hear the swish of a whirling loop. Again the engine whistled, as if cheering them on. DOWN through a gully went Soup, where Slim was forced to detour; but a few moments later he was chased on to the next slope. For ten min- utes they played hide-and-seek; but the hard riding cowboy won, when Soup essayed to cross a fifty foot stretch of open country to gain a mesquite patch. The loop caught Soup in mid-air and brought him down on his neck in a cat-claw bush. The jerk of the rope knocked all the fight out of the hard-faced yegg, who was con- tent to lie there and goggle at the sky. Slim kept the rope tight and waited for Sadie to join him. “What are you goin’ to do with him, Slim?” asked Sadie. ‘Huh! I dunno. Prob’ly turn him over to them folks.” “Did you know it was a holdup, Slim, dear?” asked Sadie. “Shore. Didn’t you knowit? Somebody wired to yore dad at San Rego, tellin’ him that there was a holdup.” Soup Lannigan sat up, staring blankly. Some one had wired about the holdup? His little eyes batted violently. “Get up,” ordered Shm. Soup got up, his arms pinned to his sides. “Vamoose toward the train, hombre.”’ Soup knew better than to argue. It was quite a way back to the train, but Soup led the way, his head hanging with weariness, Adventure while behind him came Slim and Sadie, rid- ing close together. Over the brow of the hill they came—and stopped. There was no train! “Tt has went!”’ exclaimed Slim. ‘Whatcha know about that?” From a mile or so away came the whistle of the freight, as it clattered its way on to Mesquite City. “They didn’t wait for us,’’ complained Slim. “We don’t care, do we?” asked Sadie softly. Slim looked at her and a grin twisted his lips. ‘Yuh see how it was, don’tcha, Sadie?’’ he asked. “It was jist a cinder. The wind jist blowed a cinder back with the smoke and it got in her eye. That’s all it was.” ‘“‘I—I know it, Slimmie. I was to blame. I—I—it looked just like a wink, you see.” “Veah, it did,’ admitted Slim. “But I knowed that it wasn’t, Sadie.”’ “Well, Pm glad we found out,” said Sadie, sighing with relief. ‘“Let’s go home, Slimmie. Ma’s got apple pie for supper.” “What about me?” asked Soup painfully. ““Vou?”’ Slim twitched the rope and the loop fell around the feet of the yegg. ‘“Veah—about me?” Thus Soup anx- lously. “You don’t interest me none,” declared Slim. ‘Step out of that loop and rattle yore hocks out of here; sabe?’’ Soup did. He ran all the way to the track, where he began counting ties toward Mesquite City. He stopped and looked back. Slim and Sadie were heading back toward San Rego, riding very close together. Soup Lannigan dug out a very limp sack of tobacco and a crumpled cigaret paper. “Don’t it beat ?”’? he asked the wide world, as he carefully rolled a smoke. “Don’t it beat a mile? I don’t know what it was all about, but I got a laugh out of that cinder that come back with the smoke. “This road burns oil!”’ CoMmicbool< Wh) (© 5}