Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

MOONING AMONG MOONSHINERS. it bothered me to see such a bright little thing taking her father’s liquor fighting habits so much as a matter of course. I sat there silently wondering if, after all, the prohibition long-hairs didn’t have some- thing on their side besides votes. By and by she spoke up to say: “You try to lick the old man if he’s able to make the landing straight and you're in for one scrap.” ‘Til take the contract to lick him sober, let alone drunk,” I answered. What kind of masculine idiocy it was that made me want to talk and act big in front of this bare-footed woods girl I couldn’t fathom. But the inclination was there; I was more anxious to impress her than I had been any of the home girls after [ got back from the war. Perhaps it was because she was such a scrappy little bunch of nerve herself, with a chip on her shoulder most of the time. “Come on down by the water front, where we can sit quiet and wait for him,” I suggested, leading the way. “You better sleep and get strong, man, if you figger on licking paw,” she says, kind of soft, and I was suspicious she was laugh- ing a little at me to herself. “I will calli you when I hear him comin’.” { had no intention of following her ad- vice, but as we sat on the rickety old steps, after we had scared up a rope with which I proposed to tie up the old man, I did doze off a little. The girl didn’t seem to have anything more to say. I thought she was snoozing a bit herself. Ti. Tue first thing I knew I felt myself shook. When I tried to ask what the rum- pus was about I found a little hand over my mouth and recollected where I was and what I had to do. Somehow, in the nap, my ambition to lick this sight-unseen moonshiner had considerably oozed out. But with that girl there beside me, whisper- ing softly in my ear that her paw was com- ing, I would have thought of quitting as quick as I would of leaving for the rear in the Argonne and I defy anybody to accuse me of that. 667 I could hear oars moving softly in oar- locks and dimly see, out there on the water, heading straight in for the old beer hall landing, a boat. The rickety landing was no place for a fight. I moved out close to the foot of it, where there was good solid ground and hid behind a pine tree. The kid came along behind, bringing our rope with her. The minute that boat pulled in and the only occupant piled out I saw I was in for considerable of a job. He was a great, tow- ering fellow, with shoulders that looked as wide as a Percheron’s hips. I’m free to con- fess if it hadn’t been for that half-child there so close to me I’d have resigned right then. As it was I waited for him to come past. But I did cut out my original heroic in- tention of confronting the gentleman melo- dramatically and demanding his surrender. {nstead, I foully assaulted him with a leap from behind that landed me on his shoulders before he know [ was on earth. That threw him, despite his best efforts. If the Lord is good to me I’ll never have another fight like that one. This guy must have outweighed me forty pounds. All he had to do to squelch my science was to roll over on me occasionally. I’d argue no more about the offensive. Moreover, he’d never heard of the*rules of civilized warfare. But I cured him of a propensity to bite by a few grabs at the long whiskers I found he wore. After that he fought a little fairer, but maybe it was because he felt me weakening. I could feel myself going and didn’t see how he could fail to notice it. What few thinks I had time for told me I’d need a lot of assistance to help me let go of this man-bear. The assistance came just about the time I was wanting it most, when for the first time the big man was definitely on top of me. I didn’t know till afterward, but it took the form of a stiff bump on his noodle, delivered by his affectionate little daughter with a loaded old whisky bottle she had brought along, behind her dress, for emer- gencies such as this. I felt the man crumple on me and had barely strength enough to crawl out from under him. With the girl doing all the thinking and telling me every knot to tie, CORMICLOoOokKks (C@