Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

706 ’dobe town and see if he could find Jim _ Barber before he got away.” -“ And when you got over there, some one potted my boss.” “You understand, I wasn’t with him. when he was shot. When we got as far as the Mexican store, he insisted that I remain there until he came back. there about five minutes when I heard two shots and then I ran down toward the old windbreak near Mexican Tony’s corral where Barber generally keeps his horse, and I found Mr. Jaimson unconscious on the sround.” “How come you didn’t get the news to the Palace of Pleasure?” I asked, remem- bering very well that it was Tuey who brought the. report to us. “The Monarch was closer. ‘ there.” “ Looks rather messy, doesn’t it, kid?” “Yes, and I don’t want to mix in on it. I’m just running a newspaper and—” “TI know newspaper persons are very timid about mixing in on other people’s business,” I admitted, “ but this :time you keep your mouth shut like as if you had the lockjaw and Ill eat that funny kind of pie you got there if I don’t give you a real story for that Weekly Squeal of yours.” I went CHAPTER IV. COMPLICATIONS DEVELOP. HEN I got back to Barnitt’s trading store they had enough grub stacked | up for me that it made me think of the days when I used to buy the rations for the chuck wagon for the Williamson out- fit. You .couldn’t have put that load-on a pack mule with a diamond hitch, and yet I managed to get under it and waddle out of the store. Every step I took my legs, the which are considerably bowed out as the result of using them to cling to range horses — what don’t much prefer to be clung to, seemedto give considerably and by the time I got to our adobe I didn’t know for sure whether I was walking on my ankles or the outside of my knees. . If Rube Howell hadn’t given me some- thing to think about, I found more than I had been’ - heart trouble. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, ‘enough when I got back to my mud domi- cile. Tuey met me at the door. The very sight of him made my red mane stand | right up on end. All that saved him from some serious conversation at that moment was the fact that I didn’t want to disturb | my boss, Rip Jaimson, and the additional fact that I knew I was going to be mashed flat as a pancake if I didn’t then and there get out from under: some of those foods — which had been ordered for a sick man. I didn’t back away when Tuey offered to take some of the bundles. . As soon as I could see over the top of the load, I looked toward the cot where my boss. was stretched out. dozen eggs hit the floor, making a sound like an omelet, but I paid no attention to them. There was my boss, Rip Jaimson, the which used to be as shy of a woman as a range horse is of a saddle, his head 1 heard -a resting on a pillow that looked as white and as cool.as the snows on the peak of Frisco Mountain, his eyes closed and an ex- pression on his face that made me think he was dreaming of a straight flush in a ceiling limit game or a million dollars in gold. Beside his cot sat the Princess. With her left hand she was fanning Rip with his sombrero, while her right mand Restent lightly on his forehead. | _ If I had been in my natural element in- stead of being a minion of the law, I would have bet a feed bag full of five dollar gold pieces against a hatful of sand that Rip Jaimson’s case had been complicated by Just for a second or two I stood there and thought how pleasant it would be to be shot through the neck. ‘Then Tuey. returned from the kitchen and I decided that I wouldn’t be shot in.the neck, or any place else, if it meant that that coyote was to be sneaking around the shack while I was convoluting, or whatever it is that you do when you are getting well. I went on into the kitchen, because our biggest and best room seemed mighty crowded when Tuey and I were ‘in it, and by the time I had unloaded the rest of the grub, the Princess joined me and we set av about getting a late breakfast for ourselves and a little something in liquid form for my boss. COmiclboo —_ ©