Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

a : ” ame be b8s7 /\,s = ~ tiger, Vi Myey LILLY, 2 Ltt By HAROLD de POLO T was the proud boast of the Triple Star boys that they had the best bunk-house, the best grub, and the best boss, in the whole wide State of Texas. A visitor dropping in during the evening, too, would have agreed, for fun and good fellowship were certainly rampant. To-night, how- ever, you could have cut the gloom with a butter-knife. ‘An’ only yesterday she lets me hold her hand,” Freckles O’Ryan sighed, lugubrious- ly breaking the silence. “ That’s some cheaper’n puttin’ a rig on it,’ put in Ed Manney, the confirmed cynic and woman hater. The other paid no attention, but the rest of the bunch did. The nearest jabbed a spur into his thigh, another deftly flicked a burning cigarette at him, while the prize gun-wielder looked exceedingly vicious and suggestively reached for his hip. For Freckles, as this intimates, was about the most popular hombre on the ranch. “Yes,” he went on, utterly oblivious of any interruption, ‘it wasn’t no more than yesterday that she lets me hold her hand. Stingin’ tarantulas, think of it!” Still deep and sympathetic silence. ‘* An’ boys, I'll tell yuh more,”’ murmured the stricken man hoarsely. “ She ‘even "lowed me to kiss her fingers!” Regardless of the consequence he might suffer, the woman hater could not help snorting. It passed unnoticed, though, $56 COMiicloOoe S ©