Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 11, 1925 — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

270 them hallucerations that Tex said you had once before,” growled Buck; but he was stepping briskly toward the door. “ Hum! Looks like him; an’ then agin, it don’t.” Down at the bunk house Skinny Thomp- son stepped out of the door and looked idly around. For a moment he gazed steadily at the distant newcomers and then glanced at the ranch house. Seeing Hopalong and - Buck in the kitchen door, he ambled to- ward them, a grin on his freckled face. ‘“ Here comes yore pet bob-cat, Hoppy,” he called. ‘“ Looks like he’s draggin’ some- thin’ home with him,” “We'll know who it is when it gets a littie closer,” replied Buck. ““ Closer?” repeated Skinny. ‘“‘ What’s th’ matter with yore eyes? Goin’ blind? That’s Mesquite, Mesquite’s cayuse, an’ I’m gam- _ blin’ that th’ other feller is Tom Short.” “When you figger on bustin’ that pie- bald, Skinny?” carelessly asked Hopalong. “Just as soon as my breakfast sets good,” answered Skinny. “JT lost me a breakfast once by bein’ in a hurry to bust a mean cayuse,” he explained. They talked idly while they watched the double riders approach, and it was not long before there remained no question about their identities. _ When Mesquite passed the corral he carelessly raised a hand in salutation, and in a few minutes more pulled up near the kitchen door. The man with him let loose éf the cantle and slid gratefully to the ground, sighing with relief as he arranged his wrists to lie more comfortably in the rope which bound them, and all the time remained sullenly silent, scowling at the lit- tle group. No one paid any attention to him. “ What did you do with Red an’ Lanky?” asked Buck with great interest, as Mes- quite dismounted. ‘‘ Did you tell ’em what I said?” Mesquite smiled. “ Forgot all about it, like I warned you I might. I reckoned they figgered that Shanghai and his friends would think th’ a town was too dangerous, an’ take to th’ = hills to hide out till things got quiet,” he “ They suggested that they take th’ - open res around Big eee an’ that Sa Oe el aad > « —>. . # ~~ —-.. “7. oer at —- — a>. = = = * Ss pa > Se wae ee "y ' be iy 4 a ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. I take th’ town. Said they knowed all that country right well, an’ that I didn’t; an’ that I could learn th’ town a lot quicker than I could learn th’ hills.” He chuckled. ‘“‘ Suited me, plumb center. I wanted to hunt by myself. They rode north an’ I rode west; an’ this is what I grabbed in the dark th’ very first night I struck th’ town.” __ All eyes now turned to the prisoner, who. was uneasily watching Hopalong, the man he had tried to murder. Buck looked at the man with little in- terest. “T got a friend of yourn picketed in an old shack, with Pete Wilson settin’ in front of th’ door,” said the foreman, who also was sheriff of Twin River County. “ We don’t dare take him to town for fear he'll be lynched some dark night. Come over here, so I can take them cuttin’ ropes off yore wrists an’ put on somethin’ that’ll be more comfortable.” Skinny forgot himself and stood erect, and bumped his head against the eaves of the house. He stepped from the wall, took off his hat and punched the crown back to its full height. “Pete is a one-track man,” he observed, wrinkles of amusement playing on his leathery face. ‘ You tell Pete a thing an’ he forgets everythin’ else. Buck told him that there was nine big buckshot in each barrel of that scatter gun, an’ that if he didn’t set right close to th’ door some of ’em would scatter so wide they’d mebby . miss his man when he fired. He is to pull trigger at th’ first suspicious move. “When Pete got th’ hang of Buck’s re- marks he moved up close to th’ door, so he wouldn’t waste no lead at all. Pete thinks a hell of a lot of Hoppy; an’ he feels kinda put out that we wouldn’t let him go off gunnin’ for you an’ th’ rest of yore gang.” He paused a moment to let his remarks sink in, and his voice hardened a little when he continued: ‘ You’re goin’ in that shack. You an’ Eades will be chained together. Unless you want to collect a couple loads of buckshot at about a dozen feet, you'll set damn still. Fur’s I’m cornerned, I shore hope both of you make a break.” :