Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

DAVE CRASSON’S BRONCO. when he’d risen to the full extent of his long hind legs he commenced rocking. It was gruesome,*for we could see Jake Harkness slowly succumbing to the tor- ture. Then down, headforemost went Steamboat and headforemost went Hark- ness to the turf. I tell you, I was relieved. It didn’t look like acting. I glanced at Miss Kate, and she was relieved, too. Every ounce of suspicion went out of us then and there. And in her happiness, Miss Kate just slapped that thoroughbred across the neck and he bolted. Off went her hat, one stirrup flew wild and the brute was running away. Miss Kate didn’t yell. No. She wasn’t that kind of a girl. She stuck to the little English saddle, and she pulled on those reins with all her strength. But it wasn’t enough. The horse had the bit between his teeth, and he was boss. “Yes, sir, and there wasn’t another horse under saddle on the whole place; that is, none except Steamboat. And I guess he was the only one that could have caught the thoroughbred anyway. However, some of the boys beat it for the corral. They had to do something. And I might have gone, too. But as I swung around I saw something that turned my blood cold, and let me say right here and now that I was darned glad to see it. Jake Harkness had leaped toward Steamboat. Snatching up the dangling reins, he went clean to the saddle with- out so much as touching the stirrups. And Steamboat? He just stood rigid until Jake had whispered something in his ear. Then, pivoting, he went after that: runaway like a bolt of Texas lightning. ‘And it sure was exquisite. A half mile up the trail went a cloud of dust which was Miss Kate and her preliminary wed- ding gift. And when Steamboat got under full headway that cloud of dust didn’t seem to be doing much more than just moving. ; Harkness must have put in some slick 10 ARGOSY 497 work, for when the action ceased and the dust drifted clear he had that thor- oughbred on one side of him and Miss Kate on the other,. his arm about her, and Steamboat was trotting back toward us as meek as my old Bess. Harkness was Crasson all right. There wasn’t a man on the place who didn’t know it. But say, you ought to have seen the boys grab his hands when he got down, after handing Miss Kate to me. And you ought to have seen Miss Kate look at him when she’d finally got over the scare. When she spoke we all lis- tened. “¢ Jake,” she said, ‘‘ why did you lie to Pete and me that ‘day by the corral?” “Because I loved you,” he said, and he seemed awful stuck up about it. “You see,” turning to me, “I’d de- cided to go straight when I hopped the freight at Waverly. But later I wanted to be near Steamboat. He was the only friend I’d ever had. I planned to get away with him and go East. Then I met Miss Kate. I couldn’t leave. But I guess it’s all over now. If some of you will come along I'll just jog over and give myself up to Sheriff Hazen.” ‘““No you won’t neither,’’ said I, before I realized that it wasn’t up to me to pro- ounce the sentence. I noticed that the boys all nodded, and Miss Kate grabbed Jake’s right hand and said: “Of course you won’t. Your real name, Jake, is going. to remain a secret with everybody on the Bar D. You can’t go unless you take me.” Well, sir, Jake Harkness is my boss now. The old man just sits around and smokes his pipe, and plays with the two little Harknesses. And when Jake goes into Waverly on Steamboat folks look at him and say: ‘““ Harkness and Dave Crasson are the only men who ever rode that pinto.” And if any of us happen to be trailing along we grin and think of the day Steam- boat made that preliminary wedding gift look like a crippled coyote. comicloool C©