Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 5, 1928 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

A HARD-BOILED TENDERFOOT. Maddelena appeared, carrying sad- die and bridle, and flung them over the rail before climbing up. “ An’ thar’s a—saddle,” marked. Mr. Nutting eyed it with head to one side. ‘‘ Looks more like a cradle to me,” he declared. “ Cradle?’ Maddelena glanced up from the cigarette he was building. “Well, maybe. But don’t you be too shore of it, Nut. Which ain’t sayin’ many a man ain’t been rocked in one of "em or—ain’t fell out. Speakin’ of rockin’ reminds me of when I was a kid. I was real stuck on a sort of toy they called a rockin’ hoss. An’ believe muh, I’ve rid some rockin’ hosses sence. But, bein’ no Prince o’ Wales, I ain’t fell off—much. Mos’ly—” He broke off as Paragonah appeared from around the barn with a horse, at sight of which Mr. Nutting sat up a bit more stiffly on the rail. It was a deep sorrel, with actually creamy mane and tail, pin lined, flaring nostrils, and delicately pricking ears. “Better you an’ Joe go he’p him, Swede,” Bear Paw prompted. Anderson nodded and slid off the rail. Followed by Maddelena, he ap- proached Paragonah and the Sultan. The latter bared his teeth and reared. Paragonah dug in his heels, flipped a turn of his rope about a post, and so anchored the Sultan to the fence. Joe and Anderson advanced. ‘Ten minutes later the horse stood saddled and bri- dled, quivering with outraged resent- ment in body and limb. ° “An’ now, Mistah Nutting, I reckon you kin take yore ridin’ lesson,” Bear Paw announced. “Right-o!’ The Nut nodded and dropped down on the inside of the fence. “Good luck, you danged fool,” Mickey Shawn breathed in his ear. He waved a hand, smiled and walked off across the corral toward the trem- bling horse and the three men. Remained Bear Paw, Nichols, he re- O91 Mickey, Mustang, and Danny Jones on the rail. “Caw! Caw!” remarked the latter. ‘ Here we sit like a lot o’ crows. What part of the carcass do you choose, brothers?” “Shet up, Danny,” Mustang said in his cracking voice. “I tell you it ain’t nuthin’ short o’ murder, puttin’ thet boy up on thet thar hoss.” “You'll tell who?’ Bear Paw de- manded, fixing him with a glance. ‘Anybody what asks me.’ Mustang stood his ground. “ Sultan ain’t no rid- in’ hoss, Bear Paw Rawlins, which I don’t hev ter tell you o’ co’se.” ‘Oh, he knows about what he is, I warned him,” said Mickey Shawn. “You did?” Bear Paw turned to him in truculent fashion. “Yeah.” Mickey nodded. “ An’ while he may be a nut, all right, he ain’t one to lay down, as you may hev noticed youse’f. Ef he gits hurt, him bein’ a friend of the old man’s former partner, I don’t reckon either one of "em’s going to be pleased. En—ef he cain’t ride—”’ “ Well, he shore kin top off,” Bud Nichols interrupted. “ He’s on!” The Nut had reached the quivering horse and his holders. Deftly he had inserted a toe in a stirrup, gathered the reins and swung himself into the sad- dle at the instant Bud had interrupted Shawn. One and all the rail birds fell silent, leaning a little forward as_ they perched. .« Yet nothing happened for a space of time in which one might possibly count ten. Sultan stood through it like a figure of red bronze. Save that he still quivered slightly, he made no other movement, gave no sign of the seethe of resentful rage in his equine heart. Then suddenly his ears went back. And that rage burst from his throat in an actual scream. He rose, up, up, up on his powerful haunches in a rearing, leg lashing lunge, that set him nearly as fully erect as a man, that sagged NOOLKS COMIC (E@)