Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

The Relocation of Montana Creek trick. It’s been well done. The longest claims are on the roughest spots. Where the bank glides level, the stakings keep down nearer the lawful size. And the funny thing about it all is that that rope always shrank for other people and always began to stretch when it struck the territory of some of Casino’s friends.”’ An ominous growl arose from the throng of stakers and they turned on Casino. “String the tarnation thief up!” several yelled. “Come on, then, and string!’ invited Casino belligerently, as, flanked by Ante Baker and Gunboat Kane and backed by nearly a score for whom the rope had stretched, he leered out of the formidable bunch. ‘You don’t happen to remember that the law’s on this creek, do you? Come on, I say, if your memory’s so wilted, and we'll sure give you all the recollection you want and a little reminiscence on the side.” Mouthing angry imprecations at the chal- lenge, the foremost ranks of the crowd surged forward. They collided with Casi- no’s body-guard in an effort to seize Casino himself, and deadlocked there for an instant on the snowy creek bank. Wild shouts and wilder threats flew back and forth through the frosty air, and several blows were struck. Things began to look ugly, and many ax- heads rose in the throng, but into the mélée rushed Captain Constantine, aided by Sark and Bassett, and shouldered the combat- ants a few feet apart. “Now quit it while the quitting’s good,” ordered Constantine. “Quit it, I tell you, _ before I have to lambaste some one over the head with a gun-butt. The Commissioner’s running this side-show and he can run it a thundering lot better than you. Starting rough-house and stringing people up isn’t going to land you anywhere but on the Barracks’ wood-pile!”’ “Yes, boys,’ Bassett urged, “‘take the Captain’s advice and sit tight for a minnit. Casino’s stabbed me deeper ’n anybody, and I ain’t rattlin’ no bear teeth about it. So you jist take a jolt of opiate calm and conserve all your surplus energy till Faw- cett’s unbosomed himself. I think mebbe you'll need all your steam about then. Go ahead, Commissioner, and say what’s what.”’ “You see how it stands,” Fawcett con- tinued in the surly quiet that ensued. “Jess Tolume’s is the only legally held claim on the creek. I’ve surveyed a lot of creeks and 147 seen a lot of muddles in my time, but I never saw a muddle like this one. I’m con- vinced that it was caused by the trickery of Casino. I’m convinced that he stole Bassett’s claim. I’d like to declare his right of location here forfeited and put him on the wood-pile for about twelve months for claim-jumping and unlawful staking, but I haven’t a particle of proof. “TI can’t prove it wasn’t a natural mis- take in the dark and in the excitement. Therefore Casino goes foot-loose and free. There can’t be anything done about him. Yet there can be something done about the creek. There are two ways out of the mud- dle. Here’s one of them: ““A start can be made at the mouth and my true measurements of the base-lines used to give each man a full five-hundred- foot claim. That’ll shift each man in rota- tion a piece up-creek. It won’t affect Jess Tolume’s claim because the fifteen four-: hundred-foot claims below him make just twelve five - hundred - foot ones, and the shift’ll go round him and work on above just the same. How does that plan sound to your” “It isn’t fair, Commissioner,” criticized Sark, speaking for the crowd. ‘‘Down there at the mouth men’ll be getting only part of the ground they originally staked. All the way up they'll be getting less and less. To- ward the head they’ll be maybe a mile or so above the claims they used to own. What’s more, on account of the five-hun- dred-foot length instead of four hundred, there’ll be a lot of men squeezed out at the top with no claims at all. To besure the over-measured ground of Casino’s gang’ll accommodate some of these, but it won’t accommodate all by a thousand-yard shot.” “I know it,” nodded Fawcett. ‘‘You’ve spotted the drawbacks of that plan. So many’ll lose ground altogether and so many’ll be on strange stakings, farther.from the mouth than they were before!’’ “And Eric and me’ll lose our claim alto- gether at that rate of goin’,”’ Tom Bassett protested. “It'll go to the first of the three men shifted up from below the bluff. We’ll git none at all. You’ve failed to git Casino with the goods on him. Thar’s no evidence to prove we staked. We’ll be left out in the frost with the cabin door shut and our feet in a waterhole. Fawcett, surely to north- ern gods, you have some better medicine than that?” CoOMmicboooks CO