Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

THE DUKE OF CHIMNEY BUTTE. 357 the East, where they thicken their tongues to the broad @ and call it an education; nothing like that, at all. He went into the details of the great farms manned by the students, the bone-making, as well as the brain-making work of such an institution as the one whose shadows he had lately left. “T ain’t a findin’ any fault with them farmer colleges,” Siwash said. ‘“ I worked for a man in Montanny that sent his boy off to one of ’em, and that feller come back and got to be State vet’nary. I ain’t got nothing ag’in’ a college hat, as far as that goes, neither, but I know ’em when I see ’em—I can spot ’em every time. Would you mind lettin’ us see one of them | ad alls?”’ fe Lambert produced the little impfement, explained its points, and it passed from hand to hand, with comments which would have been worth gold to the general agent. “It’s a-tooth-pick and a tater-peeler put together,” said Siwash, when it came back to his hand. The young fellow with the black, sleek hair, who kept his gun on, reached for it, bent over it in the light, examining it with interest. “ You can trim your toe-nails with it and half-sole your boots,” he said. ‘‘ You can shave with it and saw wood, pull teeth and brand mavericks; you can open a bottle or a bank with it, and you can open the hired gal’s eyes with it in the mornin’. It’s good for the old and the young, for the crippled and the ¢-sane; it ‘ll heat your house and hoe your garden, and put the children to bed at night. And it’s made and sold and distributed by Mr.—Mr.—by the Duke—” Here he bent over it a little closer, turn- ing it in the light to-see what was stamped in the metal beneath the words “ The Duke,” that being the name denoting ex- cellence which the manufacturer had given the tool. “By the “Duke of—the Duke of—is them three links of saursage, Siwash?” Siwash looked at the triangle under the name. “No, that’s Indian writin’; it means a mountain,” he said. ‘Sure, of course, I might ’a’ knowed,”’ the young man said with deep self-scorn. ‘‘ That’s a butte, that’s old Chimney Butte, as plain as smoke. Made and sold and dis- tributed in the Bad Lands by the Duke of Chimney Butte. Duke,” said he solemnly, rising and offering his hand, “‘ I’m proud to know you.” There was no laughter at this; it was not time to laugh yet. They sat looking at the young man, primed and ready for the big laugh, indeed, but holding it in for its mo- ment. As gravely as the cowboy had risen, as solemnly as he held his countenance in mock seriousness, Lambert rose and shook hands with him. ‘“‘ The pleasure is mostly mine,” said he, not a flush of embarrassment or resentment in his face, not a quiver of the eyelid as he looked the other in the face, as if this were some high and mighty occasion, in truth. ‘“‘ And you're all right, duke, you’re sure all right,” the cowboy said, a note of ad- miration in his voice. ‘““T’d bet you money he’s all right,” Si- wash said, and the others echoed it in nods and grins. The cowboy sat down and rolled a ciga- rette, passed his tobacco aeross to Lambert, and they smoked. And no matter if his college hat had been only half as. big as it was, or his shirt ring-streaked and spotted, they would have known the stranger for one of their kind, and accepted him as such. CHAPTER II. WHETSTONE, THE OUTLAW. W HEN Taterleg roused the camp before the east was light, Lambert noted that another man had ridden in. This was a wiry young fellow with a short nose and fiery face, against which his scant eyebrows and lashes were as white as chalk. His presence in the camp seemed to put a restraint on the spirits of the others, some of whom greeted him by the name Jim, others ignoring him entirely. Among these latter was the black-haired man who had given Lambert his title and elevated him to the nobility of the Bad Lands. On the face of it there was'a crow to be picked between them. Jim was belted with a pistol and heeled a COMICEDOO© ‘eo S (C(O) mM