Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 28, 1928 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

FIRED AND HIRED. nizing me, pricked up her ears and nickered. Ouick as a flash the big man whirled around, yanking out his gun as he came, and discovered me not six feet behind him. I expected he'd let out a yell that would bring the others back on the jump, but, instead, he grinned and placed his finger on his lips, keep- ing me covered with the gun all the time. “Where’s yore partner?” he whis- pered, stepping up close. I was too as- tonished to answer him. Just stood open-mouthed and stared. I’d expect- ed him to jump all over me. “Come on, come on,” he whispered again, casting an anxious glance back at the posse. “‘ Where’s yore partner? Quick, now! I'll help you get away!” For all of three seconds I couldn’t say a word. Why this big lobo should want to help us get away was beyond me just then, but he evidently meant it, and [ didn’t have much choice but accept the proposition. My glance shifted back to the posse. They Jjhad reached the barranca by now, and finding it empty, were piling down into it. They’d find my tracks in the sandy bottom and trail me around to the buckboard in jig time. There wasn’t a second to lose. ‘““ All right,” I whispered. “ I'll get the girl.” I hustled back to the rocks where I’d hid her and yanked Sadie out from among them. She’d stuck right there like a good little girl. We were back again in a jiffy. The big fellow was hustling from one hawse to the other, yanking off the bridles of all but the ones we were to use. He hung ’em on the horn of his saddle and signaled O. K. ‘This lady can’t ride,” I told him. “You carry her,’ he instructed. “ T'll lead a hawse for her. We'll make a quick run for a couple of miles, and then we can walk. . Anybody can ride a walking hawse.” “ Right-o! Let’s go!’ I whispered 3A 465 back, swinging into the saddle and pulling Sadie up in front of me, suit- case and all. The big guy raises his gun, lets go three quick shots into the air, screech- ing lke a Piute the while, and this stampeded the hawses, of course, and they scattered in every which direction. Then away we went hell bent for Mexico! VI. Tat bunch of bum trailers was as surprised as I figured they’d be. They come boiling out of the barranca like ants when they heard the shots and yelling. It was a good five seconds before they recovered from their sur- prise enough to realize what was com- © ing off, and by then we'd got a good start. They opened up shooting just the same, and for the next hundred vards we traveled the bullets whined around us like a whole family of white head hornets. Then we went around a bend of the road and the shooting stopped. T wasn’t worried about our being followed for a spell. We'd sure throwed a scare into them cayuses, and they’d gone high-tailing off in every direction. It was going to take time to catch them, and even then they wouldn't have any bridles. ‘They could make some hackamores out of their lassos, but all that was going to take time. Jessie hawse was just as glad to see me as l was her, and fair flew over the road, with the big bozo keeping close beside us, leading the extra hawse. Sadie had a strangle hold around my neck with one arm, and was hanging onto her suitcase with the other, and was having a terrible time of it. Well, I never did know any one who could ride the horn on a running hawse with any degree of grace or comfort. After a couple of swift miles we pulled up. I transferred the girl to the empty sad- dle, taking possession of the suitcase. COPMICLOOOKS (EO)