The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 2 — page 126: what you’re looking at

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

308 small intervening valley depression. ‘“When I settled here twenty year ago there wasn’t a house in sight over there; nothin’ but scrub oak an’ underbrush; a hant fur coyotes, bob-cats, and other var- ments. Great place fur fires in the sum- mer, too. Not much more in the other direction neither. “We was the first settlers around here. Ranched it—live stock an’ grain. Capt’n helped when he got big enough. Why, that air dog saved me the wages of a mighty good ranch hand for years. An’ he never asked fur a raise in pay, an’ he never went on a drunk, an’ he was always on the job, day an’ night, holidays an’ Sundays included. I could trust ’?im with almost any kind of business except signin’ leases an’ renewin’ the mortgage.” We went back to our chairs and my entertainer went on. “Once about this time of year,” he said, ‘‘ we was havin’ our first all day an’ all night rain of the season. Thinkin’ Capt’n ’d be more comfortable inside, we’d had ’im sleep in the house. Two or three hours before daylight the dog got restless an’ woke my ole woman up: He went to the window, sniffed several times, growled a little once, then went back to his sheep- skin. A few minutes later he repeated the performance. When it was mornin’ the storra had cleared, but before sunrise Capt'n scratched at the door an’ asked to be let out. “Pretty soon we heared ’im a-barkin’ around the barn, an’ I went out to see what the matter was, thinkin’ it might be some varmint after the chickens. “ But it wasn’t no varmint. Somethin’ worse. The heavy padlock on the barn had been forced, the door was open, an’ both Dick an’ Jim, the hosses, was gone. To make it worse, the pourin’ rain had washed away every track, so’s not a foot- print of man or beast was left to show the direction taken. “After a hurried breakfast I an’ the boys started out to git the posse together. The outlaws had visited my nearest neigh- bor an’ a wuthless old mare was the only THE ARGOSY. piece of hoss-flesh left ’im. But nobody had taken his three boys an’ they scattered to give the alarm. It was past noon be- fore the posse got together. We picked up the trail as best we could an’ started. “Well, sir, as we rounded a bend a few miles over the ridge we heard the snappy bark of a dog. I knowed it was Capt’n, an’ I wondered where he’d a-been. “ But I soon found out for a-comin’ through the underbrush was Dick an’ Jim, their halters a-hangin’ an’ themselves covered with mud, with Capt’n a-snap- pin’ an’ a-barkin’ at their heels. They’d been tied in some barn or shed, an’ Capt’n had gnawed their ropes loose an’ was a- drivin’ ’em home. ‘An’, sir, Capt’n done more. He led the posse to a shed concealed in the brush where the other stolen hosses were tied, then trailed to a hidden cave three of the | thieves, who was nabbed an’ given their medicine. Now, wasn’t that clever? “Then there was the time I was taken with a stroke. I an’ Cap was alone in the house at the time, the ole woman an’ the kids bein’ down to my brother Tom’s, twenty miles below here. It happened in the middle of the night an’ in the middle of another howlin’ winter rain. Good luck Capt’n was with me again in the house— fur company. | “Well, Capt’n, seein’ me helpless an’ in pain, come to my bed an’ whined an’ fussed over me like a woman. Then a sudden thought seemed to strike him an’ he run to the telephone. The kids had teached Capt’n how to take down the receiver with his teeth an’ bark into the mouthpiece. Ole Doc Cleaver, who lived three miles from here, was a particular friend of ourn, an’ he’d answered Capt’n’s call many a time, the dog a-barkin’ into the mouthpiece, then listenin’ fur the answer with his ear to the receiver a-layin’ on a chair. ‘“* Central was onto the trick an’ always made connection when she heard Capt’n’s call. But this time Capt’n couldn’t git no answer, the storm havin’ blowed the wires down. So off the dog rushed through COMIC OO® (C S (C@