Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 28, 1928 — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

FIRED AND HIRED. expecting it every jump, but this wasn’t no time to consider possibilities any which way, and I laid on the line ends regardless, and kept the team thump- ing like a pair of jack rabbits for four solid miles, when we came to the turn- off leading to Ma Beam’s ranch. I don’t reckon there was a more sur- prised man in the State than I was when I realized we’d come this far without a breakdown. I pulled up and listened for sounds of pursuit, and there wasn’t a thing to be heard except the wind rustling the chaparral and a ground owl hoot- ing away off somewhere. V. “Do you think theyll chase us?” asked Sadie, opening up for the first time. “TI know damn well they will,” I told her, and then went on to explain about meeting the sheriff and the other two bozos back in Sudden City. “TI put their car out of commission,” I concluded, ‘but that ain’t going to prevent them from paying us a little call if we don’t keep going.” We took the turn-off, and drove on at an easy trot. I kept looking back, watching for auto lights and listening for the thud of hoofs, but everything seemed serene. Sadie was nice enough to keep her mouth shut, and I wasn’t talking none, being occupied with my own thoughts. I’d got myself into a hell of a pickle, I had! I wasn’t worrying much about squaring myself with Doc Lucas and Asa Benton. ‘They were good scouts, and would see my damfoolishness in the right light once I explained it to them, but telling the sheriff how come I yanked the wiring out of his car was going to be a different matter. Lafe was hard-boiled and plumb irritable. I’d draw at least six months if he had his way. We covered five more miles without anything happening, and I was begin- 463 ning to congratulate myself that we was going to make the ranch without a mishap, when all of a sudden the tire on the right front wheel rattled off and the whole wheel promptly col- lapsed ! Well! Now we were up against it! Halfway to Ma Beam’s and stuck as solid as a monkey with its tail froze in the ice! I considered throwing the harness off one of the hawses and riding the rest of the way, but that was going to be a tough proposition. I’d have to put Sadie up behind me, which would be all right for slow traveling, but in case we had to light out, which was darn likely any minute, and me bare- back and no spurs and a tenderfoot girl clawing at my back, fat chance we'd have! We'd get piled the first ten jumps! | I climbed down and laid my ear to the ground, Injun fashion, and lis- tened. Just as I feared, I could hear the steady thud-thud of hoofs away off somewhere, faint but sure. They were coming, all right! We didn’t have no time to monkey around! “T wish I had a gun,” says I, getting up from the ground. And Sadie hands me a big Colt au- tomatic! I near keeled over with sur- prise! “Where'd you get this?” I asked her. “Out of my suitcase,” she informed me. “TI brought it along to shoot my guardian and his nephew, in case I had to.” “Gosh!” thinks I. “This dame’s plumb desperate, all right! That nephew wouldn’t be so damn anxious to get married if he knowed what she was fixing to pet him with!” { looked the gat over. I’m right at home with a .45 Colt, but these new- fangled contraptions always did get my goat. They ain’t got no hammer to thumb nor nothing. “How do you cock this thing?” I asks Sadie. | COPMICGLOOOKS (E@)