Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

710 - “ And you snore like as if you was wind- broke:” That remark made me sit right up on my little cot. There was Tuey, leaning against the sill of the door leading into the kitchen. ever saw on his face. I think the Princess saw that I wasn’t just.exactly happy on finding Tuey in the house, and maybe she realized that. I was going to order him ‘to get out and stay out, because before I could say anything she ‘said: “Tt’s five o’clock. You’ve been asleep six hours. It’s time for me to go home. I’ve fixed up a little supper for you, and it’s all - ready on the table. Mr. Tuey ’ll walk home with me, and 1’ll be over again in the morn- ing in time to fix. up a little something for Mr. Jaimson. If you think you can stand another dose of my cooking I’ll get break- fast for you.” Tuey’s presence made me tongue-tied. If ever there was a time in my life when I ought to have said something worth while, that was it; but all I could say was: “ Thanks, Princess. Rip and I'll be glad to see you.” | She went over to Rip, laid her hand on his forehead, and said: ““’m so glad you have pulled through, and I know you'll be much better in the morning. Good night.” ° Tuey moved toward the outer door. There was something suggesting a snarl on his face. Maybe it was because I didn’t have my boots on and wasn’t just my self, but I was on the verge of putting my hands on Tuey’s neck when the Princess turned to me and held out her hand. _“ Good night, Red,” and then, bending her head just a little so that her lips came near my ear and her silken hair brushed against my cheek, making me feel shivery up and down my spine, she added in a whis- per, “ Be careful in the dark.” I stood in the doorway and watched Tuey and ihe Princess until they were across the sand flat. Then I went to the kitchen to find the woman had dished me up a feed that‘looked like Christmas and Thanksgiving Day had béen combined, and: while I ate roast pork, and mashed pota- On his face was a nasty smile, . the which was the only kind of a smile I. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. toes, and gravy, and dried-apple pie, and coffee, and pickles, and corn fritters, and something that I didn’t know the name of, and then another helping of the same, I wondered just what sort of a game Rip Jaimson and I had busted in on, and where, in the course of human events, that won- derful woman was going to land. , It made me sick to think of her beating the ivories on that old piano in Warren-— ship’s saloon, with every half drunk punch- er and sheep herder feeling that he had a perfect right to crowd about her, lay his hands on her, and— too much for me, because I sure spent a miserable evening in that mud domicile that night. | in-the morning it wouldn’t do to let her find the dishes dirty, so I washed them and stowed them in the box cupboard before I went in to sit with Rip. I sat by his cot and fanned him for-half an hour before he woke up. When the Princess fanned him. he always smiled. When he saw what it was fanning him this time he began to If the Princess was coming. over again Guess that meal was - frown and make signs which I took to mean - that he wanted a pencil and a piece of pa- per. That was something to ask for in our _ mud shack, those being “tools I never had to use when I was wrangling horses. After hunting the house over I found the last end of a misspent lead pencil and a piece of wrapping paper, and as I gave them to Rip I had half a notion that he was going to try his hand at writing poetry. Most of | them do in the early stages. But Rip had something else on his mind. When he handed the paper back to me, by reading some of the letters and guessing at the others, I finally decided that he want- ed to know if I had seen Barber. him I had not. | “Get Barber and bring him in if you have to arrest him,” Rip scrawled on the paper. of his are to Sunset Pass by this time,” I said, “Go and get him,” Rip wrote. I told “¢ But Barber and that Black Opal horse: “Right away?” I asked: and Rip nodded: his head. “No,” I protested. “I’m squatting CO 1NOO S C@