Johnny Nelson: How a one-time pupil of Hopalong Cassidy of the famous Bar-20 ranch in the Pecos Valley performed an act of knight-errantry and what came of itMulford, Clarence Edward
General
Johnny Nelson: How a one-time pupil of Hopalong Cassidy of the famous Bar-20 ranch in the Pecos Valley performed an act of knight-errantry and what came of it
Mulford, Clarence Edward
Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Western stories
The following morning was a quiet one in Gunsight and a stranger
entering the town would have thought an epidemic of sleeping sickness
had raided it, for yawns would have met him wherever he turned, and
quite some headaches, the owners of which were short of temper and
ugly in words. Dave dozed in his chair and his countenance was not
a smiling one. He opened his eyes from time to time and fell asleep
again with a scowl. Ben Dailey petulantly cursed everything his clumsy
fingers bungled, and it can be said that clumsiness was not the normal
condition of those digits. Art Fanning, whose hired man could run the
routine affairs of the hotel as well without him, turned and tossed
on his bed, finally getting up and poking his head out into the hall.
Thinking he heard a noise in Nelson's room, he went to the door and
hammered on it.
"House afire?" demanded Johnny, sleepily.
"No; but my head is," growled Fanning. "What you say about a bucket of
roarin' strong coffee for us sinners?"
"I say yo're shoutin'. Comin' in?"
"Naw; I got to put on some clothes--an' find some socks; these here
are roundin' my heels an' climbin' up my laigs. I'm shore hard on
socks," he growled. Leaning over the stairs he let out a bellow, "Hey,
_George_!"
"I'll swear he heard you," said Johnny. "Mebby th' Bar H did, too. I
never saw nobody go under so quick from liquor as Big Tom an' Squint."
"Hey, _George_!" yelled Fanning. "Oh, they was well ribbed before they
hit town. Where th'----"
"What you want?" asked a voice from below.
"What you think I want!" retorted Fanning. "Yore gran'mother's aunt?
You brew us a quart of coffee apiece, and brew it _my_ way. I been bit
by a snake."
"_I_ don't want none of that paint," objected George, surprised.
"Who said you did?" snapped Fanning. "Who cares what _you_ want? Nelson
an' I'll handle that. Jump lively or I'll shoot down th' stairs."
"Shoot, if you wants. They don't belong to me. You can shoot down
th' house, if you wants!" George slammed the door with vim. "'Bit by
a snake!' Bet it was a hydrophoby skunk. I'll brew him some coffee
that'll stunt his growth, blast him!"
After breakfast, during which his companion found fault three times
with everything in sight, Johnny wandered around and dropped in to see
Jerry Poole, the harness-maker. Jerry's mouth tasted of burnt leather
and alum from his night's indiscretions and he was so unendurably ugly
that his visitor, twiddling his fingers at him, dodged a chunk of wax
and departed, going into Dailey's.
"Hello, yoreself!" growled Dailey. He fumbled a ball of cord, dropped
it, and kicked it through a window. "Now look what you done!" he yelled.
Johnny wheeled, slammed the door, and wandered to the Palace. Peering
in, he assayed a test of Dave's hospitality.
"How do you feel?" he asked, loudly. "You was goin' too fast with th'
juniper."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account