Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

(52 and ‘“ Dirty Shirt” Smith. Footsore and with their shoes full of sand, when the sun plunged that night, like a giant red-hot stove-lid behind the grim outlines of Tomb- stone Range, the two grizzled denizens of the desert camped beside an insignificant At dawn they aroused from their slum- bers and when Dirty Shirt cast his eyes «toward the dwarf Joshua tree, on which he had draped his wearing apparel the eve- ning before, he saw Versus—their afore- mentioned burro—steadily chewing on one of his extra socks. With an oath Dirty Shirt sprang from his blankets, stooped over quickly and picked up a small bowlder, his intentions being, in his own words, to: “Knock that damned fool burro’s head off!” Perhaps the reader will wonder what this has to do with the self-assassination of “Angel.” The only reply possible is that under no circumstances was Rome ever built without a foundation. As Dirty Shirt drew back his arm to hurl the chunk of rock at the not unsuspicious head of Versus, his eye caught a glint as the slanting rays of the morning sun flashed on the lump of retribution he held in his hand. Instantly Dirty Shirt’s purpose was arrested. He drew the bowlder close to his face, squinted his brown eyes and peered intently at the stone as he twisted it this way and that to let the sunlight more definitely gleam on its surface. “My Gawd!” he exclaimed, forgetting that Versus was eating his sock. The tone in which Dirty Shirt uttered the words caused Solemn Johnson to sit bolt upright on his bed and say: “My Gawd, what?” “My Gawd, it’s borax!” Dirty Shirt cried. : Closer examination revealed the truth of his conjecture. All that was necessary after that, was for the veteran prospectors to get breakfast, examine the ledge on the brink of the gulch, from which the bowlder had been warped by the incessant sunshine ef the ages, stake out their claims, erect the location monuments and recover the In that way, briefly, the borax mine ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. which afterward made Red Bluff possible and famous was discovered. Its inception was a burro’s desire for a taste of wool. Versus started to eat Dirty Shirt’s sock at daybreak, Monday morning; by the fol- lowing Tuesday the prospector-partners, elated because they had found at last ap- parently the mother-lode of the total borax supply of the universe, were well on their way to Pinnochle to announce the news to the world. Saturday, Dirty Shirt and Solemn passed through Sodamint Canon and emerged at sundown the same evening into the midst of the confusion and bustle of Pinnochle. Sunday morning they gave out the first information of the new borax discovery; Monday at 2 P.M., the Borax Trust made them a flattering offer for the first serializa- tion and book rights, agreed ultimately to bring the borax out on the screen and pay liberal royalties on the dramatic releases. At 2:15 P.M. the same day, Solemn and Dirty Shirt accepted the contract and re- ceived a substantial first payment. Tues- day at dawn they again started for the borax beds. Seven miles out from Pinnochle, Bob Braden overtook and passed Dirty Shirt and Solemn with the foundation stock of Saloon Number One; that day, while they were at lunch at Hellbroth Oasis, Chuck Roden passed them with the faro layout for Saloon Number Four; during the night they were camped at Arsenic Springs and some one passed them with the dance hall attachment of Saloon Number Two; and from then on, their slumbers were more or less disturbed by the rumble of traffic which appeared to be passing them on the nearby desert. On the following Monday, Dirty Shirt. and Solemn arrived again at the scene of the assault by Versus on Dirty Shirt’s sock, and to their astonishment they found the metropolis of Red Bluff, with its two hun- dred and seven probable human souls, al- ready established and doing a splendid busi- ness in all seven saloons, directly across . the gulch from the gigantic studio the Borax Trust had erected in the interval. “ That’s what I call quick work!” Dirty. Shirt remarked, as he prodded Versus with the “ get-up ” stick and they hurried along [es oO EComichooks-co