Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 5, 1928 — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

712 snubbing to a convenient oak tree, The Fox pulled a man from the hole. He grinned in affected camaraderie as he noted the weary, but indomitable smile on the frankly friendly, tanned face of the man before him. _ “Say,” he began in apparent friend- liness, “it’s kind a lucky I happened along, ain’t it?” Now was the time to press the ad- vantage he had gained. He grinned at an audacious thought—it might be barely possible to chum up with this guy, get him to take him along and thus lead him to the buried gold. Stranger things could happen, he reasoned. “How’d you got out if I hadn’t come along just out of bull luck?’ he inquired. “T wouldn’t have got out,” the tall, faintly smiling Westerner answered slowly. “And it wasn’t just luck. Looks more like a miracle to me. And if I ever get the chance to pay yuh back— I was up here for firewood last evenin’ and I fell down this old prospect hole. If it hadn’t been for yuh I’d have added my life to some- body else’s that was lost on the same job—” He halted in slight confusion, re- membering he could not say too much to this stranger. ‘““What I mean is, somebody else would have lost more than my life may be worth.” ‘To cover his embarrass- ment, he stepped forward with out- stretched hand. “My name’s Jack Peebles,” he said. “They call me Smiling Jack sometimes. Reckon that’s because I don’t go around lookin’ like starvation and high taxes all the time.” “ Me, I’m Johnny Pike from—from back East,” The Fox returned. “ Say, Jack, you’re my kind of a guy. I never bust out in a low sob, m’self, if things don’t break right. I—I’d kinda like to travel with a guy— That is— Uh, yeah.” “ Which way was you going?” Jack ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Peebles asked quickly. The thought of a way to repay his rescuer suddenly occurred to him. “If you are foot- loose and not bogged down any, how’d yuh like to go along with me on a little job I got and then go back to town with me?” The thought of possible danger to his plans did not enter his mind. How could this slim young tenderfoot be- come dangerous to a man like himself, Smiling Jack Peebles, whom everybody conceded to be the fastest man on the draw hereabouts? 3 And wouldn’t Alf Lowring and his mother feel it was his duty to take this guy along and pay him handsomely for virtually saving their fortune for them? Which meant a fortune, not only of buried gold, but a valuable gravel mine, unrecorded as yet and therefore open to relocation. “Why, me, I’m just traveling for my health,’ The Fox said laughingly. “I’m footloose all right. What’s on your mind?” “Well, pardner, if you'll go with me over in the Green Mountains a ways and then back to town, it’s in my mind to show yuh how much your comin’ along means to me and—and a couple o’ others. There’s a little mat- ter of, say, five hundred dollars in it for you.” “Aw, gwan, forget it!’ The Fox pretended to scoff. ‘ Yeh don’t owe me nothin’ for dragging yeh up outa—” “We won't argue the question,” Jack Peebles interrupted. “‘ When we get back to Purdy I'll be able to show you why your rescuing me is worth real money.” The Fox, who understood quite well what the rescue meant to Smiling Jack and the two people in Purdy, could have laughed aloud. This was even better than he’d dared hope for. Would he trail along with this guy? Huh? Oh, no! “Well, Pil go yeh a whirl,” he (e(0) NOLOLKS mie (E@