Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

THE LAUGHING RIDER. ‘unexpectedly turning upon her offspring who was trying to press into the room be- hind her. ‘‘ Why must you poke yourself into the affairs of your betters? Of course, sergeant, I shall treat Mr. Craddock as well as I treated Mr. Willis. I don’t have favorites. “ Now, young man,” again she addressed her son, ‘“ get right outside and finish white- washing that corral. You ought to have another section done before breakfast, and then you’ll have to go over to Redstone for supplies, because Mr. Craddock says he’ll stay with us for a few days.” So, when MacQuillan and Constable Willis took to their horses again, they found Smedley MacKreagh diligently whitewash- ing the fence of the corral. And that is why Billy, warily approaching the brim of the canon on foot that afternoon, saw the danger signal of the gleaming whitewash, turned away from the MacKreagh home- stead and took up his abode in a shack at the mouth of the cafion where he could see all who entered or emerged, and could, in- cidentally, waylay the youthful Smedley as he rode forth on errands for his mother. CHAPTER XXIX. BILLY COUNTERS, ILLY lived at the mouth of the cafon for two days before he called upon the eager services of the son of the Widow MacKreagh. Smedley enjoyed his part immensely, and would have liked to have had something harder to do than invent ex- cuses for riding past the mouth of the cafion. He quickly learned to regard the unfortunate Constable Craddock as a bit- ter enemy, and himself as the heroic spy of a persecuted cause, and this attitude complicated matters for Craddock immeas- urably. \ He never knew what he would find in his bed when he retired, and Smedley, more- over, was given to false alarms. Craddock walked into a tub of water twice in one night, rushing from the house to capture an imaginary Billy; Smedley’s strategy consisting of placing the tub outside the door for the constable’s exit, and inside to 761 meet him coming back. Also, Constable Craddock bruised his shin. . = Constable Craddock now looked on life with decreasing cheerfulness. He became a veritable wet blanket about the house. He moped. On the afternoon of the second day Mrs. MacKreagh spoke to him about his dejected demeanor. “You ought to get out and play with Smedley!” said Mrs. MacKreagh. ‘“ Mr. Argent used to.” But Smedley was not present at the time to be played with, and, anyhow, the idea did not appeal to the constable. Smedley was not present, because with high glee he had learned that Billy was in need of food. So he had taken a bucket and gone down the cafon to “look for berries in the swamp.” And the bucket contained three days’ provisions for one man. Billy did not really live in the shack at the end of the cafion. He merely made it his strategic headquarters. He ate there, but was too wise to sleep there. He preferred to endure the cold winds of the night in a clump of brush above.the shack, where he made a camp and concealed his Concho. From this eminence he could watch all who approached or, if any approached unseen, remain concealed. : On this afternoon he was perched at the edge of his screening thicket, awaiting the arrival of Smedley with the sinews of war, when he observed a lonely man mounted upon a dejected horse, which ambled lazily into the cafon. The rider slouched careless- ly in the saddle and the horse suggested that the rider’s carelessness was justified. Billy watched him as he struck the cafion trail, and observed that for all his apparent nonchalance, the rider had the sharp eye of an old ranger for every detail of the scenery. Billy could detect that before he could see the man’s face, and he drew swift- ly back into the thicket as he saw the rider’s attention dwell upon the shack. “Sees smoke,” Billy informed himself. “* Looks like he knows.” The rider apparently had done precisely that, for, having pulled in his mount, he sat for a moment silently regarding the in- animate building. At that moment young Smedley swung into view, loping down the Comicbooks. co