Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

tween Mesquite and this burg. On foot! All you have to do is to ride out there, one heading south, the other north, the other straight east—and you’ve got him. And to make the whole joke easier, I’ll tell you one - thing more: ‘When the train was stalled out there in the desert, there came ridin’ along, a cow-puncher callin’ himself Pasqual. I told him of the reward and he promised to get a posse together and ride down to meet you gents. What he’ll do will be to chase _the crook right into your mitts! And here’s the happy ending: Ten thousand berries reward.” Thorpe looked at Skeeter’s long, raw- boned, gloomy face. Skeeter cast back the _same expression with which he would cover up a strong poker hand. Jack was obvi- ously figuring out something in the beer- suds on the table. It turned out he was worrying about a complicated dance step which that half breed seyorita over at the Grand Central had shown him the night before. Buck was finishing a drink, and became precipitously himself; boastful, genial, talkative: ‘If you’d gotten me alone, Mr. Detec- tive, everything would have been jake. I'd like to have ten thousand. But here you git these two fool brothers of mine. Three of us—to git one man! Holy cripes! I wouldn’t be such a coward!”’ Jack looked up from his problem in the suds: “‘ Three mounted men after one on foot! It makes me turn red in the ears just blushin’!”’ “This hombre you seen ridin’ in the desert—what’s his name? ‘ Pasqual?’ All right, leave Pasqual do it!’’ Buck said. “ Besides if the man killed somebody in New York, that ain’t our business. We thin out the bad men here in this county— in particular them as rustles cows. Leave Pasqual git him; Pasqual and his posse.”’ “You don’t mean you’re goin’ to refuse me!” the unhappy Thorpe cried, mumbling _piteously between his teeth. He turned to the eldest brother, the lanky and poker- faced Skeeter. ‘‘ Look here, mister, you ain’t goin’ to back down, are you? You ain’t said anything! Will you go after this crook?”’ ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Thorpe, as well as the two other broth- ers, waited expectantly for Skeeter’s answer. It appeared that Skeeter’s decision meant a lot in the minds of Buck and Jack. Without changing the expression on that long expanse of red leather—which was his face—Skeeter nodded slowly. “What and the hell, Skeeter!”’ Buck ex- claimed. ‘“How come, Skeeter?”’ Jack cried dis- gustedly. ‘‘ The hombre’s on foot and this gent here has already siced a rider after him. What-all’s the use of ws ridin’!”’ For the first time the taciturn Skeeter opened his mouth: ‘‘ Where did your man drop off the train at?” Thorpe answered readily: ‘‘ Some ways west of Mesquite, near a valley which they call Goldpan Cafion.” “ That’s the answer,” Skeeter said crypti- cally. “What's the answer?” the two brothers asked. , “We're all three of us ridin’,’’ Skeeter announced quietly. “ All righto, that settles it,” Buck an- swered without any question. ‘“ Another slug of this p’isin, Jo.” ‘“ How come we’re ridin’?”’ Jack the more intractable brother asked. ‘These here New York gunmen gettin’ off the Santa Fe always heads south,” Skeeter explained. ‘‘ This hombre you're after—” he said to Thorpe, “will trail through Goldpan Canon. Our cow-farm is at the mouth of Goldpan Cajon.” Jack Brodell got his brother’s meaning in- stantly. He swore an oath and banged his fist on the table. ‘‘ We’re ridin’!”’ Buck was slower in his mental processes. “ How come?” “Little maw’s at the ranch all alone— ‘cept for some good-for-nothin’ herders and their women-folk,”’ Jack explained. It was Buck’s turn to swear, more volu- bly, more loudly. ‘“ By God, the gun- man’s headin’ straight for her! Come on!”’ Thorpe was still at a loss as to what it was that had brought such an abrupt change in the minds of the brothers. ‘“ Your . mother?” he exclaimed incredulously. “She ain’t our real maw,’’ Jack ex- plained. ‘“ She’s our sister.’ Eomichooks (S@