Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

792 lugger got pinched in the ice. reckon we ken git out?’ “<< Monseer Stebbin’, you not comprend what I tell you. We are in de Hole—de excavation—-de deep profoundness of Syms, dat extends from de pole of de north to de pole of de south through de center of de earth.’ “¢ Barney, did you ever hear: tell o’ this Hole?’ I hollered. “<Vep, I heerd talk about it, but it sounded like a fairy story ter me, an’ I didn’t take no stock in it. We’re in it now an’ the question is how’re we goin’ ter climb out?’ - “The long an’ hon of it was, we was .down about forty miles in the mouth 0 ‘Syms’s Hole, whoever he was? An’ ef -we kept a goin’ we’d come out at-the So’th Pole, ef we lived long enough. We allowed it was too long a trip, so we stopped right " where we was an’ built. two cabins, one fer Andray an’ one fer us an’ went to ranchin’. ‘““ We staid thar about two years an’ was doin’ well. We hed a herd of caribou and a bunch: 0’ musk oxen, some of ’em gentle so we could plow with ’em; besides, Andray caught a couple of them long tailed bear cubs an’ started a. fur farm with ’em, his wife takin’ care of it an’ some silver foxes thet we’d trapped. ‘’ On the range we had about five hundred head o’ caribou an’ eight hundred musk ox, besides a corral full of kangaroos, all gen- tled an’ broke to saddle.” “Josh, what are you talking about? Kangaroos in Greenland!. Why,. kangaroos ain’t known outside of “Australia,” inter- rupted Link Brown. ‘Was you ever up in Greenland, Link?” ‘No, [ never was.’ . Then how d’ye know they’re only found in Australey? Ain’t my repytation fer voracity in reportin’ little known scientific facks enough ter prove thet they is kan- garoos in No’th Central Greenland?” “ But, Josh, how could they have got there? Haven’t you got them mixed up with some other animal that looks like them?” still objected Link. - “They ain’t no other animal on earth thet looks like a kangaroo, an” after hevin’ sailed the Seven Seas, an’ hunted ’em in ~~ ‘How'd ye - ‘ which was kangaroos. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Australey, besides hevin’ et gallons ‘an’ gal- lons o’ canned kangaroo tail soup is it likely I’d make a mistake like thet? Ez fer how they got thar, I ‘dunno, no more’n fedge Stuffembunk, our Congressman, knowed: about how come thet bottle of Old Crow whisky in his coat tail pocket thet fell out an’ busted-on the station platform when he got back from Washington, arter hevin’ - Mebbe they voted fer the Volstead law. jest growed thar, like the caribou an’ musk ox; p’rh’ps a ship with a menagerie aboard - got wrecked on the coast, an’ they swum ashore an’ got over the mountains. Mon- seer Andray sed he reckoned they musta come no’th through the Hole lookin’ fer better grazin’, because the feed at the So’th Pole is mighty poor, except fer seals and penguins.” “Say; Josh, what use did you have -for them kangaroos that was broke to saddle?” came from Jed ‘Styles, ex-aviator on the western front. , ‘We hed to hev ’em to round up our stock on the range; hosses is better fer the | work an’ easier to break an’ ride, but they wasn't any, so we took the best we hed, Sailormen, ve know, always know how -to accommodate them- selves to circumstances.” “T guess that breaking a to ride was some job?” “It sure was, Jed. It was like learnin’ to fly, an’ havin’ yer machine hit the ground every twenty yards or so. I busted broncos one season fer the Wooden Spoon outfit in Montaney, an’ I'll tell the world thet the wuss outlaw I ever straddled there was a tame kitten alongside .of a buck kangaroo standin’ twelve foot high, weighin’ nine hun- dred pounds, more or less,. bein’ mounted fer the first time.” + ‘What sort of saddles. did you use?” “They was special stock saddles thet we made ourselves, with a low horn, high can- tle, double cinches, like Texas saddles, an’ a crupper. Ye see, a kangaroo ain’t built hike a cow pony, so he needs a saddle with a crupper an’ built on a special tree, ter suit his figger. would go over the critter’s head every time he landed from a sixty foot jump while herdin’ caribou an’ musk ox.” CONIC A common stock saddle - JOO CO