Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 5, 1921 — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

414 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. him go in yore stable. He might stick in there a day——even without water. They’s no tellin’.” He jammed the Winchester into the scabbard under the near fender and swung up. ‘“So-long, Tom,” he said, and was off toward Main Street. ‘As he passed! the Dawson premises Con- nie arose from a dismounted wagon-seat and called to him. He pulled up and took off his hat. “T got somethin’ on my mind, Bill,” she told him, standing beside his stirrups, a worried look in her dark-blue eyes. “Yeah?” Her tanned hand was slowly smoothing down the horse’s mane. ‘‘ Yeah. You might be interested in knowin’ after you and Lottie rode away from Aunt Ella’s I -~I rode to town—-that ‘is, I started to go to town, but I didn’t get there soon’s I expectecl. ‘d ‘4 met Swing Kyler at the Sally’s Creek ford. Swing had quite a lot to say, one thing and another. Accordin’ to him you and Light ancl Smoky are doin’ all the hrand blottin’.”’ “ Savin’ it right out in the open now, huh?” She nodded. ‘ from what I gathered he’s fixin’ to dump you pretty quick and sudden now.” ‘IT expected he would.” “Which don’t matter much now you've started the ball a rollin’.”” She jerked her head in the general direction of the hotel into which Slow Baker had been taken. ‘*T hadda get the jump on him,” he jus- tified himself. ‘“* Only wagon-track out.”’ “You oughta done it long ago. I ain’t through tellin’ about my meetin’ with Swing, though. Fle talkecl quite some, and I got tired finally and cut his chatter short, and he went away. About ten minutes later I thought it might be a good thing to follow Swing. “T did that, and luckily 1 met Tommy Barnes, or Ud ’a’ lost him. Fle’d seen Swing, and put me on the right trail. Poor Tommy! Tle couldn’t imagine why J was ridin’ after Swing. Well, anyway, to cut it short, I trailed Swing to where he met Andy Ball and Butter Nelson at Flat Creek. He had a talk with them and then he went on to the Kettle and sat down on the rim lookin’ over. ‘““T didn’t dare Injun wp too close. All I could do was keep his pony in sight where he’d tied it. After we’d been at the Kettle a while a feller came boilin’ out of the cottonwoods along Risin’ Creek, and roped a cow andl flanked a calf. He’d been ‘busy some time, this second man, with one calf and another, and finally Swine went down and held him up and took his -gun away, ‘They got to talkin’, and before long Swing gave him his gun back, and a little later Swing shot him. Yeah, it struck me as sort of odd, too. ‘After Swing had shot the feller he made up his brandin’ fire, and after ear- markia’ the calf over again—the feller he shot had done it first—he earmarked the cow. Then he branded ’em both, turned ‘em loose, and rode away. ‘“ I made certain he’d gone before I went down into the Kettle. The feller Swing had shot wasn’t dead—only unconscious. No, I didn’t know him. Bullet had grooved his head. Not deep, either. And he wasn’t bleedin’ much, so I didn’t touch him. I knew he’d come to all right, and even if he didn’t it would serve him right.” “Huh?” Lor Miss Dawson tone was vicious. “Yes. The last cow and calf—-the ones Swing branded—were branded Box H Box, and the calf’s ears were cropped and the cow’s grubbed.”’ ‘* Show's the calf was overlooked at the spring roundap,” commented Coryell, “ or it would ’a’ had grubbed ears tuo. An’ it shows the cow was one o’ Lander’s. Grub- bin’ is the only thing that 7] cut out his hole in cach ear. Plain croppin’ does the trick for my earmarks.” “ Right. After that I scouted round for the first calf; the Wounded man branded. [ found it. It was with an L Up-and-Down cow, it was branded Staple Box, and the earmarks were a staple fork in the left and the right cropped.” * Now I know who gerentretnyaeslataree