The Blue Book Magazine, April 1922 — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

Lanky Bob either. Her hair is just about as yellow as his whole soul, and I don’t care to hear any more of your talk.” She darted out of the door, and Quong stared after her, puzzled. 3 “| HE words of Quong had roused into active life something that had been struggling within her for some days. The seeds of jealousy had begun to sprout, and poor Mary Gibson with her pale blue eyes and yellow hair was its object. As she thought of Bob and his close proximity to those eyes, Mandy Lee trembled with jeal- ous rage. “Tf he likes a washed-out, slimpsy thing like Mary, he can have her,” she told her- self, with a stab of pain in her heart. Sa’ Jane had triumphed in her drive against Bob, but she did not know how to leave well enough alone. She hammered steadily in an effort to make him seem ob- noxious to Mandy Lee. She picked up every word of gossip, every hint that could be used to blacken his name and repeated it all at home. Bob had left the Double T with Mandy Lee hot with indignation on account of his spree and the consequent humiliation given her. Now her mother’s continued attacks upon him began to make her revolt. For months her mother kept constantly dinging at this campaign of discrediting Bob. Slowly but surely the spirit of Mandy Lee veered from hot indignation to commiseration, then to rebellious opposi- tion. In time, unknown to herself, Sa’ Jane had wrought so strongly against her own desires that she had reconstructed the spirit of Mandy Lee. Now she was a hot and ardent partisan. When Bob had been with the Y Bar Y a number of months, there began to be a great many losses of calves through the country. Cows would be trotting about wild-eyed and bawling, searching every band of cattle for their lost offspring. Weaned calves in the little pasture would disappear mysteriously in the night. The Double T suffered heavily. So did other ranches, but Sa’ Jane chose to ignore this fact. She treated the matter as one confined to the Double T. She caught Kling, Tom and Mandy Lee together. “It’s no more’n I expected,” she began. “If this don’t teach ye a lesson, Tom Travis, ye’re past savin’. Pickin’ hobos out of box-cars an’ tryin’ to make decent punchers out of ’em aint wuth while. Fol- THE BLUE 180 ler yer nose over to the Y Bar Y and string that thar Lanky Bob up to a tree, an’ they wont be no more calves stole.” “Damnation!” said Jack in disgust. “They aint a mite o’ evidence p’intin’ at Bob,” said Tom. ‘‘Hesh up an’ let Bob rest fer a minute, fer gosh sake!” “Yes, hush an’ let them calves be stole till we haint got a calf on the place! Not much! [I haint built that way. I bet ye Bob has some box-canon fenced an’ is hidin’ them calves. Mebbe he had help. I never did trust them Y Bar Y punchers none, nohow, but Bob’s at the bottom of it. He knowed jest whar we-all kep’ them calves.” 3 “Hang it, Sa’ Jane! So did half the county,” said Tom irritably. “Maw, you hush!” said Mandy Lee. “Bob aint no more a calf-rustler than I am. He wouldn’t steal anybody’s calves.” “Highty-tighty, miss! Who hired you to stan’ up fer Hobo Bob, hey? Yer maw wa’n’t born this week, an’ she kin see as fur through a stun as anybody. What do you know about that whisky-guzzlin’ snake? He come yere in a box-car, an’ he done showed hisself to be a soak. If they’s anythin’ I hate, it’s a sot. An’ now you side with ’im ag’in’ yer maw. Shame on ye, Mandy Lee!” Sa’ Jane paused to shed a crocodile tear or two, and Mandy Lee took the oppor- tunity to retire from the group. Sa’ Jane, listening, heard her retreating footsteps and jerked her apron down from her eyes. “Mandy Lee!” she called. ‘‘There’s that pattern Miss Kibbey let me use, an’ I done promised her Id git it back this mawnin’. It’s on my dresser. Take it over to ’er, that’s a good gal, but go round by the south road. Then ye wont hev to meet none o’ them Y Bar Y toughs.” Vie LEE hailed with delight the chance of getting away. She was on her horse and off in short order. Dutifully she took the south road, but she left it after rounding the first corner that hid her from home observation. She rode up Ash Creek, intending to go up the White Rock Draw and over the ridge to the Lazy K house. That would save about a mile of travel. Ash Creek is laid out in loops and turns that would lame a snake to follow. Now, it so happened that this morning Joe Banks had sent Lanky Bob and Missouri Ike up around the ridges above Ash Creek with COMICLMOOKS CO