Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 154: what you’re looking at

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

780 the whole of Sun-up to gather at the Gold- en Cloud. The scene there at sunrise resembled nothing so much as a round-up: pintos pawing at the adobe, waiting for their mas- ters; boys shouting and gleeful, restrained by anxious mothers; dogs barking vocifer- ously—jackdogs, half-breed shepherd dogs, mongrels with coyote blood: The whole scene now became as festive as it was ex- citing. “That foreman from Hallie Crockett’s ranch always did say he’d tear down the Golden Cloud,” an old stockman remarked, “and damned if he ain’t done it!” ‘““Nonsense!” Jen Parker cried. “ There has been a cyclone. Look at what’s hap- pened to the roof. I seen a cyclone handle a roof just thataway!”’ “ You're right,” a ranchwoman agreed. ‘“ Ain’t no man who could have done that much damage in a single night—no, nor in a month.” But there had been no cyclone, as every” one knew, and the fact remained that the roof of the old place was gone—or rather it had sunk down between the four warped old walls, apparently with the weight of the huge shakes which covered the rotten rafters. Many a home had fallen with it, as evi- denced by the flock of bats that were flut- tering blindly in the sunlight. Two owls had winged their way down into the blue depths of the Bowl Cafon. And in precisely the same manner—with a flutter and blind staring about—two Mexican rustlers, those who had been rash enough to use their knives in the scram- ble with Phil Wyndham and Shank Miller, crawled out from under the débris, mount- ed their horses, and galloped off. Sun-up never heard of them again. Others came out one by one—scrambling through the windows, crawling under the jammed saloon door, wriggling through a large crevice which had opened in the ramshackle facade of the old den. Some were covered with the débris of bats’ nests, with splintered shakes, with sawdust. , Humpy wormed himself through a win- dow and looked about for his horse. If = ae onlookers had not realized the more — ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. serious aspects of that fallen roof, of men coming out with faces battered and bleeéd- ing after the fight, of the possibilities of others in there pinned and helpless, they would have laughed outright at the ap- pearance of the little ragged half-breed crawling out and hobbling to his horse. Instead, they greeted him with a respect- ful silence. He turned his huge face full upon them so that the deep folds and dust filled wrinkles revealed his age; perhaps despite the alertness of movement he was more than eighty. “They have tried to restore the years that the locusts have eaten!” he cackled, his voice breaking in sharply upon the si- lence. “ This house is broken as a reed. It is like the chaff which the wind drives away—puff, puff! like that.” As a parting gesture of contempt, he blew upon the crowd, puffing his chest out like a pigeon. Then, having spat in their direction, he spurred his range fed cayuse, and galloped off into the gulch. He was another character which Sun-up never saw again. Sam Quiggley was the next to come out. The harnessmaker who had served at the Golden Cloud as Hallie’s croupier had made his last exit from the Temple of For- tuna considerably the worse for wear. His torn shirt, swollen jaw, and two blackened eyes showed that he had entered into the spirit of the Golden Cloud’s last hour. “Where is Phil Wyndham?” he cried irately. “ We ain’t going to let him go now. Guilty or not guilty, he ought to be hung.” This reference to the luckless prisoner of that night’s trial brought the attention of Noah Doxey, Tex Ringo and the oth- ers to the fact that Phil had not yet come out of the débris. No one, of course, had seen him go into Hallie’s room, for every man in the saloon had rushed in the other direction with the intention of escaping that falling roof. Phil, meanwhile, had thrown himself into the absorbing climax of love and hate which was to take place in Hallie’s little apartment. rated from the crowd, alone in the little At that very moment, sepa- den which Hallie had used as her office, eo icbook S; ‘com ae - =< < —— Bz < - eS > =<s - S. Ste <= 24 ‘er Se 7 te ee ae ee SS ee en et pata —s ~ 4 _ =" = ~ ae . = ae ————s oer oe rte