Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

132 Block an him I had it all fixed up with the marshul to arest the uther fellar but the hoss wasnt yourn it was a bawlface pinto so the marshal couldnt arest him without a warant. Block an him rode away on the trail to Farewel. Block tride to find out bout you an Scotty an that drummer told him how you an Scotty had rid back to the Bend. Wel, I knoked the drummer down an stepped on his face an throwed him into the waterin-troff an kiked him three times roun the house. Im lookin out for yore hoss wen I see him III let you noe hopin this fines you like it leeves me Ime feelin purty good now yore frien Dave Sinclair. Dave Sinclair was the landlord of the hotel in Rocket. Loudon re-read the let- ter and swore whole-heartedly. ‘To miss Rufe Cutting by a few hours! Riding a bald-faced pinto, was he? What had he done with Ranger? Loudon went to the bunk-house in a brown study. Scotty alone of the Flying M outfit elect- ed to remain at the ranch the night of the dance. All the others raced into town be- fore sunset. At the ford of the Dogsoldier they met the Seven Lazy Seven boys from beyond the Government Hills. Doubleday greeted Dawson, the Seven Lazy Seven foreman, with a long wolf-howl. Whoop- ing and yelling, the riders squattered across the creek and poured into Paradise Bend, the wild-eyed ponies rocketing like jack- rabbits. IT WAS an expensive evening in XP the Bend. The corrals were full of ponies bearing on their hips the brands of the Two Bar, TVU, Double Dia- mond A, Wagonwheel, and _half-a-dozen other ranches. In the hotel corral where the Flying M outfit unsaddled, Loudon saw horses belonging to the Barred O and the T up-and-down, which ranches were a score of miles southwest of Rocket. The men of the various outfits circulated rapidly from saloon to saloon. By mid- night many would be drunk. But there were several hours before midnight. Loudon and Telescope left their com- rades lining up at the hotel bar and gravi- tated to the Three Card. Here they found Jim Mace and Marshal Dan Smith, who hailed them both with marked cordiality. They drank together, and Jim Mace sug- gested a little game. Telescope’s eyes be- - gan to gleam, and Loudon perceived that his friend was lost to him for that evening. Loudon was in no mood for poker, so the three prevailed upon a gentleman from the Barred O to make a fourth, and retired to Adventure an empty table in the corner of the room. Loudon remained standing at the bar, re- garding the rows of bottles on the shelves and glumly pondering the exigencies of life. ‘Cards no good,” he reflected. ‘‘Dancin’ the same. Nothin’ goes good no more. Even licker don’t taste like it used to. Guess I better have another an’ make sure.” He had another. After a time he felt better, and decided to look in at the dance. From the open windows of the hotel issued sounds of revelry—the shuffle and pound of boot-leather and the inspiring strains of the “Arkansaw Traveler” played by two fid- dlers sitting on a table. Loudon, his hat pulled forward, leaned his chest against a window-sill and peered over the fat shoulders of Mrs. Ragsdale and a freighter’s wife, who were enjoying the festivities with such zest that the chairs they sat in were on the point of collapse. Kate Saltoun and Dorothy Burr were dancing in the same set. Dawson of the Seven Lazy Seven was Kate’s partner, and Pete O’Leary swung Dorothy. Loudon was struck by the fact that Kate was not smiling. Her movements, likewise, lacked a certain springiness which was one of her salient characteristics. ‘Somebody must ’a’ stepped on her toe,”’ decided Loudon. “Bet she don’t dance with Dawson again.” She didn’t. Doubleday, perspiring and painfully conscious of a hard shirt and a forest-fire necktie, was her next partner. Loudon wondered why he had not hitherto perceived the marked resemblance between Doubleday and a fat cow. He found him- self speculating on Kate’s reasons for break- ing her engagement. As he looked at Kate, her extreme beauty, contrasted with that of the other girls in the room, was striking. ‘“‘Kate is certainly a heap good-looker.”’ Mrs. Ragsdale and the freighter’s wife turned sharply and stared open-mouthed at Loudon. Not till then did that young man realize that he had voiced aloud his esti- mate of Kate Saltoun. He fled hurriedly, his skin prickling all over, and dived into the kindly darkness behind the corral. ‘‘Now I have done it!” he mourned bit- terly, squatting on the ground. ‘Those old tongue-wagglers heard me, an’ they’ll tell her. I seen it in their faces. What’ll she think o’ me? Luck! There ain’t no such thing. If all the rocks was tobacco an’ all CoOMmichoooks CO