Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 21, 1922 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

THE BLOOD-CALL. surrendered to the sand dunes and the coyotes. Its shacks were left because of the prohibitive expense of transportation. Its signs still evoked memories of the old gambling hells and dance halls. Last Chance Saloon,” ‘ Hell’s Hinges,” and ‘‘ The Paradise Red-Eye Parlor” were names which the sun and wind and sand had not quite effaced. Approximately a quarter of a century after the last inhabitant had left Lava, the town suddenly underwent a miraculous though sinister “ resurrection.” Near by, toward the Rio Grande, was the stock- shipping station called Mule City, where Jim Quade had arrived from the East. This town still flourished, and for years it festered with the gathering of all the worst elements of the cattle country. Gamblers, thieves, card-sharps, gun-molls, _ street- walkers, and saloon men came to prey on the cattle people. Cow-punchers, after their season of ab- stinence and long driving on the ranges, came here, roaring with their wealth. But Mule City had a municipal revolution. It lay down certain very stringent laws con- cerning gambling, drinking, and gun- fighting. It also threw out its bad ele- ment, bag and baggage. This bad element did not scatter, as the reformers had hoped. It stuck together and emigrated en masse to the deserted town of Lava. To the west of Mule City was Smoo Tau- rog’s country, and Smoo Taurog was be- ginning to be acclaimed as the unchallenged boss, the maker and breaker of sheriffs, the protector of ranchers who did his bidding, and the destroyer of sheepmen. The old deserted town of Lava stood in the heart of his territory, its shacks going to waste, overrun by gophers and centipedes and rat- tlers. The element which had been cast out of Mule City—the saloon men, card- sharps, and thieves thriving at the edge of civilization—came to Lava in an enthusi- astic body. They resuscitated the faro banks and the saloons; they established themselves in the rooming-houses ane the ghostly old dance-halls. Lava was not incorporated, and it was not put on the map. It might have been considered a suburb of Mule City if it had “ The ol not been thirty miles away. Some people referred to it as Jackass City, because it was in reality only a small portion of Mule City. Others referred to it as Little Hell, because there was no good element in Lava. There was no school or church or prison or court-house. There was no sheriff or mayor or judge. ‘True, the sheriff of the county spent a lot of his time in Lava—but he was there merely as a personal guest of the lead- ing citizen, Smoo Taurog. On the main street of Lava was a huge, garishly painted and brilliantly lighted shack called- the Dead Cow Saloon. To enter this den it was necessary to pass through a long buffet which opened upon a dance-hall. Booths, like boxes at a theater, surrounded the hall and were raised about three feet above the level of the dance- floor. On the edge of the floor were placed the drinking tables and chairs, and in the recesses of the four corners were the gaming-tables. ; On the night of the raiding of the Tumbling L and the defeat of Smoo Tau- rog’s men the Dead Cow Saloon was crowded. Its proprietor was one of Tau- rog’s henchmen, and his gaming palace, bar, and dance-hall served as the head- quarters of Taurog when the latter visited his “capital.” A good slice of Lava’s population congregated at the dance-hall when they heard that a punitive expedition had been sent against the Tumbling L Ranch. Smoo Taurog himself, according to his plan, had returned to the Dead Cow Sa- loon to establish an alibi for himself. In- asmuch as he had decreed that his raid should completely demolish the Tumbling L and all its inhabitants, including women and children, he considered it of prime importance to publish his absence and thus show himself to the populace of Lava that afternoon and evening. Taurog even ordered a big dinner, in- viting the proprietor of the Dead Cow Sa- loon, a favorite bartender, a croupier from the gambling-rooms, and four of the cabaret girls. It was a private affair, and the guests were very intimately acquainted with Smoo Taurog’s methods. He even weht so far as to announce to them that comicloool C©