The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

RED* HAMBLIN ENTERTAINS. 89 not long to wait. They heard a cry up on the mountain, a long, ascending wail. It was followed by the hollow thunder that a shotgun makes in the gloom. For answer, there was a hooting by a great white owl somewhere down in the creek swamp. The woodsmen kept silent. ‘““ We'll go get him, after a time!” Red grinned. ‘‘ Two—three hours up there 'Il do ’im a lot of good!” | The woodsmen were restless, however, and an hour later they took lanterns and started out to find the man. They spread out on the ridge side, and they whooped and yelled at each other at the top of their voices. Sometimes they stopped to listen; when they listened they heard loud re- sponse to their cries, and they all laughed. D. Cuecy was waiting for them! ‘“‘T bet he won’t forget hisn’s fustest deer hunt!” Red laughed. ‘He'll be that plumb wore out an’ hongry that he’ll never rest till he’s hit the trail fer home—and Old Vroon’ll send us a Thanksgivin’ dinner of thanks on his part, riddin’ him of that kind of a bug!” “Took out the darned fool don’t shoot any of you!” Foreman Bigger warned. ‘Find out where he is, and watch him! Probably he’s crazy, now!”’: They hunted along the ridge back and called down into the gap from a safe dis- tance. ‘“‘Hey-y! You there?” Red roared. ‘You bet!” a shrill voice replied. “I can see your light—right down this way!”’ “He don’t seem scairt up much,” Red turned to Bigger with disappointment. “Got a fire, too! See it! The son of a gun!” Sure enough, D. Cuecy had built a little fire between a rock anda log, the sparks of which they could see flying up. They roared down the slope, talking, laughing and shouting for the hunter not to shoot. ‘What luck ’d you boys have?” D. Cuecy demanded the first thing. ‘‘ See any deer or bears, or anything?” “Only a few shots at ’em, here and there,” Red admitted. ‘I suppose you got a few?” “You bet!” D. Cuecy exclaimed. But game’s awful thick around these woods! Why, seems like there must be hundreds of deer and bears around— right over there. Come on, I’ll show you!” Twenty yards away, lying sprawled in the gap runway was a two-hundred-pound buck, and then, part way up the side of the gap, opposite, D. Cuecy showed them two bears, an old mother and her yearling cub. “Two got away!” the hunter exclaimed. “My! If only I’d had a repeater! I couldn’t shoot but two, and the others ran so fast—I’d been awful hungry, but I killed a rabbit and a partridge, and I ate them, and wasn’t it lucky I had one of those woods salt-cellars in my pocket? I’m going to take these right home to-morrow and then I’m coming back to hunt around here a month. I got some friends ’ll be just wild to come! I just must tell Mr. Vroon how awful good you’ve been to me! And say, boys, I must do something for you, letting me have the best place to sit, the way you did! Ill make it right, I certainly shall!” . “I guess we’d better cut some poles to pack them—them games in,” Red turned to the speechless loggers. ‘I just knowed that feller ’d plug ’em. When’d the bears come along?” “Just after I shot the rabbit for supper. I shot twice at the rabbit and then the bears came running—” “They smelled the blood—fresh blood!” Red explained. D. Cuecy Pelyon talked to midnight, telling the boys what he had done and how he had done it. In the morning he saw his game loaded on the tote wagon on its way to the railroad. He departed with the wagon, but he left his luggage behind, ex- cept one suit case. He announced that he was going to return immediately. He was going to bring his friends, he said, and they ’d all enjoy it so much, among such good fellows! “ Bring ’em on!” Foreman Bigger cried grinning. ‘ We kin stand it, if you can!” Out in the chopping the boys wondered how many of them would be mistaken for deer, when the chappies were all there. No one could tell. Foreman Bigger announced that every man would have to wear a red shirt for safety’s sake. comicbooks CO