Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

The Gold Cure ‘“‘The—what?” For a moment the doc- tor did not understand; then he saw light. “Ye villain! My Chlorid o’ Gold!” Boozy nodded delightedly. “Just shot the vein full with your old squirt-gun, Doc. Prettiest Job ye ever see. Kelly thought he had a million, an’ no one could blame him. He had it comin’. Thought nobody could fool him.” “After what I told ye!’ McWhinnie’s voice was stern, but his eyes twinkled. ‘“‘[’m an honest man, an’ ye mak’ me parrty tae ye’er sinfu’ contrivances! Ye auld sot, I’m shamed for ye!”’ “Tt was a lovely job, Doc. If I’d just salted it, Kelly wouldn’ta been fooled at all. But I had Natividad roll down a lot of rocks in front of the tunnel. Looked as if it hadn’t been touched fer years. ‘“‘Then I covered the stones with some o’ that quick-growin’ moss ye showed me, an’ covered the hull thing with spider- webs ie “Wi? what, ye sinnere D’ye mean tae tell me——”’ “Naw, I ain’t any eight-legged insect myself, Doc. I just got a bunch o’ them little sacks that Old Lady Spider lays her eggs in, an’ put ’em among the rocks. When they open, the little cusses come right out an’ begin to spin. It’s pretty to watch ’em, They made those rocks look like sure-nuff old-timers. ‘‘An’ I caught a bunch o’ bats in a net, in another old tunnel, an’ bottled ’em up in the mine. The dirt inside looked old, tov. I got a lot o’ stinkin’ water out of an old pond, an’ dashed it over the rocks an’ gravel, Natividad sold me some rich molinette ore he’d dug out somewheres else, an’ I stuck that all over the heading. Your chlorid went into the old vein, an’ it sure looked rich. Flores an’ I had a real hard time puttin’ them timbers back so they looked natural. But we slimed ’em 113 over an’ dolled ’em up with some more o’ your automatic moss.”’ “H’m! A braw trick!” the doctor mused. “Real honest an’ God-fearin’, I ca’ it. Where did ye get the money tae buy Nativi- dad’s molinette an’ his labor?”’ “Kelly give me two thousand fer showin’ him how to do ye out o’ the mine,” the tramp answered placidly. “‘T’m no sure,” the Scot reflected, “‘that I ocht not tae gie ye in charrge. Ye’re too smooth tae be at larrge, Bill. I wonder could I find Kelly tae gie him back his money?” Boozy jumped up in alarm; but gradually a slow grin spread over his features. ‘““He’s gone,” he said. ‘“Ye’re too late, Doc. Kelly took passage north on a banana .boat this mornin’. So ye don’t have to kid yerself about trimmin’ him.” “Weel, I tell’t him the straight truth,” McWhinnie reflected. ‘I said I was skin- nin’ him. It did look queer, his forcin’ thirty thousand intae my pockets. We'll let it lie. “When all’s said, Boozy, ye did me a guid turrn. Hae anither drink. Some day, ma man, I’ll figure oot a scheme tae rewarrd ye properly. Did ye bring back my bit syringe?” Boozy hauled the hypodermic out of a dirty pocket. McWhinnie set it back on its shelf. For the next two hours his hospi- tality was more lavish than Boozy had ever known it before. It was so lavish that the tramp fell at last into a stupefied slumber. Grinning down at him, the doctor slipped the grimy, tattered sleeve back from the flabby wrist. He took a vial out of his vest pocket. ‘““Ye’ve put me ten thousand tae the guid, Boozy, ma lad,” he chuckled, ‘“‘an’ I’m gaun tae rewarrd ye better than ye know. Here’s for a starrt!”’ He squirted the Gold Cure into Boozy’s arm. The next issue of Adventure will be on the stands September 20th, the one after that on September 30th, in accordance with our readers’ vote to issue Adventure three times a month. NOOK C@