The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

PO eg ete oe oe ol, ee be, ee ee ee oo pe ee ee ee eS Ce ee Pe ee Sea — OF rs za RN es ee es - | — ee Cn <e 4 oe ast * xy Fi ‘2 ae 9 ~~ tow Se ee wtp se — a p MESQUITE RANCH, was silent from exhaustion. The six spitting cowboys performed with a choruslike unanimity, which was so excruciatingly funny that they began to see it themselves. ‘What's the matter with it?” one demanded. ; The water that had always been a boon to man and beast was so bitter that it seemed as if a barrel of green persimmons might have been ground up and poured into it. “Some uv that gosh-darned Gill bunch has done this hyah!”’ Red ex- claimed. “What ef it’s pizen?” a cowboy cried, going white as he spoke. The enmity toward the Double X- ers, and a very good idea of its being returned in kind by them, made the idea a fearful one to the Mesquiters. The men gaped at each other in scared silence. It seemed an hour before Radford broke the strain. “ Nobody’s devil enough that!’ he protested. “Ye cain’t never tell ’bout them Gill coyotes!’’ Big Red muttered, his at- tention concentrated on how his stom- ach felt. “TI guess the cattle couldn’t have tried it and traveled twelve miles to the ranch if it had been poison,” Rad- ford observed, comforted by his happy thought quite as much as he eased the others. Big Red sprang to his feet. The fear of death removed, his big mus- cles ached to get into action that might result in avenging the treatment his cattle and boys had received. “When you come buttin’ in, young man, I wuz watchin’ fur some one,” he said to Ted, explaining the stormy welcome he had given him. “TI tasted that dang stuff an’ got the spittin’ habit, an’ I heerd somebuddy a comin’ down them rocks. I ain’t seen no- buddy, but they’se somebuddy a hidin’ round, grinnin’ at us!” Red’s words took instant effect. They stirred that especial resentment which every human being feels against to do 763 the enemy who gets a chance to laugh at him. The men turned and peered about among the rocks. The spring was located in a kind of bay of the rocks, so that on three sides of it watchers might hide and observe all that happened down near the water. Big Red snapped his suspenders against his broad breast and spoke in a cautiously lowered tone. “Say, boys, ye jes’ go off like ye wuz leavin’ the spring, then prowl round an’ see whut ye kin find in the rocks. Shoot ef ye want the bunch! ”’ he drawled. “ Kind uv herd in to that big, whitelike rock up yander. I got a feeling them Double X-ers needs a drink bad.” Radford sensed the seriousness un- der the casual words. He felt prickly and warm; it was really a man-hunt on which the boys were going. These cow-men could laugh in one breath and kill in the next. The rights of the range were maintained by the quick response of fist and gun when any one threatened to play crooked. The cowboys scattered as noncha- lantly as-if they put out to find a dent in the rocks or a hollow in the ground where they could sleep agreeably. Ted turned to take his part in the hunt. But he was immediately restrained. “Say, Pretty, ye jes’ stay round hyah to see whut ye kin see,’ Red in- structed. Radford felt the hot blood concen- trate under the band of his collar. He hated the name his good looks had fastened on him when he first came to the ranch. He had never balked a dis- agreeable thing or dodged a hard one. It was too much to be denied this ex- perience, to be told to sit down and keep out of mischief and the others’ way. That was what the command sounded like to him. “Tl be hanged if I will!” he ex- postulated. “Ye won't have to wait to git hung —ef ye don’t!” Big Red replied in- stantly. But Radford was not the kind of a ECORMICLOO@ S (C@)