Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

O92 Let’s give it fair play Leave the dogs and the fox finish it.”’ “That’s sportsmanship,” agreed Reuben and the other hunter. S. Ferdinand flung his gun in the corner savagely. He growled something inarticu- late under his breath. “Get up on the Silver Knob Mountain,” instructed Reuben, “‘ and you'll see the fin- ish of the chase. for his hole under the big rocks.” The hunters, minus their guns, hastened out. S. Ferdinand remained behind sulkily. He wouldn’t go out in the snow to only hear the dogs barking. He wasn’t big enough for that, so he sat by the fire and growled at such hunting. Under a blue sky with the northern wind . sweeping through the trees that. contained an icy tang, the hunters scrambled toward the high mountaintop. MHalf-way up the rocky slope, they stopped to regain their breath. Through the swaying trees they only heard one dog’s bark and it was Patches. Reuben listened. His face took on an understanding expression. S. Ferdi- nand’s Zip had left the trail. It was the most natural thing for her to do. She had likely been driving with Patches because she was lost and therefore when the - fox had turned homeward had come back into the country that she knew, she had in all probability turned toward the camp. Reuben understood the ways of young dogs. He felt that she was now seeking her master, and as S. Ferdinand had not joined the party, but sulked in camp, Reuben did not follow the hunters to the top of Silver Knob Mountain, but turned and retraced his steps back to the camp. At the edge of the little clearing he waited and presently he was rewarded by seeing Zip crawling along the beaten snow-path on her foot- sore feet. She limped badly. Up to the door she crawled and scratched upon it with a weak paw. A loud, angry voice came from the inside. ‘The next min- ute S. Ferdinand appeared. Instead of showing the solicitude of the true hunter he pulled the door shut and stood listening with his foot raised to kick the noble dog that had made a glorious chase. Reuben, from his hiding-place, surmised that S. Fer- The fox will be making ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. dinand was straining his ears to catch a bark from Patches. It came echoingly. After hearing that Patches was still chas- ing, S. Ferdinand slammed the door and returned almost immediately with his shot- gun. Clicking the chain on the whimper- ing Zip’s neck, he dragged her toward the thicket in which Reuben was hiding. A deep guily was right below the Golden Arrow Camp, and into it S. Ferdinand was taking his wonderful Zip. Reuben’s cheeks burned with anger. He surmised that S. Ferdinand was going to shoot her and hide the body in the deep ravine. Then he could say that his dog had been in the chase to the last, and was lost. S. Ferdinand raised his gun on the whim- pering dog. His finger was touching the trigger when a crunching. of footsteps sounded in the snow behind him and before he could fire the shot into the helpless Zip, Reuben’s powerful arms caught him and whirled him, head first, into the deep gully. ‘You're dirty!” cried Reuben. ‘ The dirtiest sportsman that I’ve ever seen in the woods, but I’m going to make you clean. Yes, sir! As white as snow.” With a strength that.S. Ferdinand could not resist, Reuben flung him back into the drift again and then he began scrubbing S. Ferdinand. He chucked S. Ferdinand’s face into the snow, rolled him in it, turned him over and applied more snow to his- person until S. Ferdinand looked fs a real snow-man. Duane Hempfield was the first to hear the sounds that came from the deep gully when the hunters. returned from seeing the finish of the chase. A strange sight was before them, and then they understood when they heard Reuben muttering: ‘ You’re dirty, snow ‘Il make you white!’ S. Ferdinand choked on a handful of snow. ‘Are you clean?” asked Reuben, pois- ing another handful close to his mouth. “Yes, yes,” cried S. Ferdinand Stokes tearfully. The hunters drew away, smiling gleefully. ‘“ Guess S. Ferdinand’s got what he’s been looking for,” commented Duane Hempfield, “and here’s hoping that his snow-bath will make him a better sportsman.” GEomichooks (E(9)