The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

118 tered-to him. Gussie’s got a voice like the low notes on an organ. And her laugh rings as cheerful as the silver in your pocket. Haswell wasn’t only listenin’; he was lookin’. An’ no wonder. Gussie never ap- peared better. Her coppery hair was piled pretty with a loose strand or two ticklin’ her pink ears. Her brown eyes sparkled like sunlight on forest water. Her little hands shuttled like a Frenchwoman’s, for emphasis as she talked. Her cheeks was pink like sunset clouds. She was encased in somethin’ or other that was the goods. She saw me an’ waved her mitt. So as not to be thunk pryin’ I moved on, musin’ on what might be. Gussie had fell for him; fell for a man the first time in her life of twenty years. I could tell that. And I was bettin’, from the absorbed look of the feller, he’d fell for her, too. I felt sorry for the poor girl, trompin’ along by my lonesome. Gussie had come to Cactus City with her father when she was ten. Even then she showed the makin’s of a great woman by holdin’ his besotted head when he’d come home stewed. A year later him and a greaser killed each other in Rawhide Mike’s saloon. So we buried him an’ his boots and sort o’ brung up Augusta Miranda. She’d come up like a flower, aided an’ abetted by the town. She was as sweet as an April breeze an’ as straight as the gaze of her eyes. An’ God help the man who would have harmed her! We was a rough lot in Cactus City, but what we would ’a’ done to a human wolf that tried to hurt her would ’a’ made the old Spanish inquisi- tion look like first aid! I was worried. Sagebrush Jake would hear of this tender entanglement. Then he’d tear the Haswell person’s limbs from their usual consanguinity. Gussie would be waterin’ his grave with her tears. But you can’t grow any flowers in alkali that are worth a damn. Early next mornin’ I heard some news that it would seem would postpone the mas- sacre anyway. Sagebrush had gone broke, an’ had gone back to the mines to earn increment for another joust with joy. I seen Haswell wanderin’ around that THE ARGOSY. day, an’ I got resentful with him. You'd thought he’d showed a whiffle of interest at least, in our affairs, him bein’ a tender- foot from the East, which every one knows ‘¢ about as ively as New Orleans molasses. It was just a usual day; nothin’ to brag about. ‘The stage-coach had been robbed. Two cowboys shot each other up scandal- ous an’ was conveyed tenderly to the hos- pital, which, for mutual convenience, was walled off from the jail. Haswell had seen it all. with the ex- pression of a man who’s playin’ authors and had rather switch to poker with penny limit. Right after the cowboy argument he yawned and went into the hotel for a nap. I sashayed right down to Mangan’s. There’s Gussie, pretty as a picture, an’ she give me the happy hello. I plunged right into my argument. ' ‘“ Gussie,” I says solemn, “old Pete has always been a good friend o’ yours, ain’t he?” ‘““ He sure has,” she ripples. “ But why the crape, Pete? I look well in black, but I hate it.” “It’s about this stranger from back Hast,” I tells her. ‘‘ Where’s he hail from? Who does he do?” ““He hasn’t given me his census,” re- torts the little queen, flushin’ up so I know my bet is right. ‘Come to think of it, I don’t believe I asked him for it. He don’t gay much anyway.” “When your optical nerves is tickled with loveliness,” I reminds her, “ yer over- worked larynx gets a vacation.” ‘‘ Aw, you go on!” she shooes, giving me the mollified grin my compliment has earned, for it’s as true as it is smooth. “But why the inquest, Uncle Pete?” “You an’ him was holdin’ a confab in here last night.” “Yes,” she pursues, flushin’ rosier, “and when I went off duty, we walked to- gether through the sagebrush beyond the city limits, with the howlin’ of adjacent coyotes furnishin’ an obbligato to my prat- tle, while he listened interested to both. What of it?” ~ “ Girl,” I mandates, “ you had better give up that product of civilization while oO Comicbooe S CO