The Argosy, April 1912 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

OOST WALTERS, so named by his R friends because of his proclivity to perch on the corral fence and rumi- nate for hours at a stretch, was in an embar- rassing predicament ; in fact, he was “ plumb scairt,” as he expressed it. And Roost was not a coward by any means. He was as brave a man as ever came out of the West, only, just then, he was somewhat out of his environment. On the range or in the mountains, the mining camp, the corral, and the frontier cow- town, he was quite himself and at his ease, but here, in the waiting-room of the Union Depot, where he could cast his eye around and, within a radius of fifty feet, see more people than were contained in the whole county he had come from, and every one a stranger who looked at him askance, or ignored him altogether—this was enough to make any cow-puncher a little uneasy. Thirty-six hours before, Roost had ar- rived in Kansas City with a car-load of steers belonging to his employer, the owner of the Tumbling Q ranch. These he had duly delivered at the stock-yards, and hav- ing received in payment for the same a cer- tified check for eleven hundred dollars, he had started out to see the sights of the city. His boss had given him a week’s leave-of- absence and Roost had come prepared for a good time by bringing along three hun- dred dollars of his own savings. of te Fam a () 58 » DQ» ee He had intended to remain in Kansas City seven days, but twenty-four hours had been quite enough to convince him that this was no place for an open-air man. After he had narrowly escaped death a dozen times, under the wheels of street-cars and automobiles, been jostled and pushed about by the crowds, guyed by newsboys and hoodlums, he was quite ready and anxious to hit the back trail for the Tumbling Q—and peace. And now, to cap the climax, he had found, on his arrival at the station, that his pocket had been picked of the wallet con- taining his money and his employer’s check, leaving him stranded in a big city without friends or funds. He had discovered this loss when called upon to pay for his ticket back to Cactus City, Arizona. The agent had waited with bored impatience while Roost made a fran- tic search of all his pockets, and when the bewildered Westerner started to explain his predicament he was promptly interrupted with a curt request to move along, and give the other ticket-buyers a chance. It was obvious that the agent was not interested in Roost’s misfortune. And now, sitting there in the waiting-room, his hands plunged deep in his trousers- pockets and his chin on his chest, Roost was reviewing the situation. The one thought that stuck uppermost in his mind was: GomiGcyoo S CO