Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team RANSON'S FOLLY And Others By Richard Harding Davis Illustrations By Frederic Remington, Walter Appleton Clark, Howard Chandler Christy, E.M. Ashe & F. Dorr Steele (illustrations not available in this file) CONTENTS RANSOM'S FOLLY Illustrated by Frederic Remington. THE BAR SINISTER Illustrated by E.M. Ashe. A DERELICT Illustrated by Walter Appleton Clark. LA LETTRE D'AMOUR Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy. IN THE FOG Illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steele. Illustrations: “Throw up your hands,” he commanded. Ranson faced the door, spinning the revolver around his fourth finger. “I suppose I'm the ugliest bull-dog in America”. “Miss Dorothy snatches me up and kisses me between the ears.” “We've got a great story! We want a clear wire.” He played to the empty chair. The men around the table turned and glanced toward the gentleman in front of the fireplace. “What was the object of your plot?” RANSON'S FOLLY I The junior officers of Fort Crockett had organized a mess at the post-trader's. “And a mess it certainly is,” said Lieutenant Ranson. The dining-table stood between hogsheads of molasses and a blazing log-fire, the counter of the store was their buffet, a pool-table with a cloth, blotted like a map of the Great Lakes, their sideboard, and Indian Pete acted as butler. But none of these things counted against the great fact that each evening Mary Cahill, the daughter of the post-trader, presided over the evening meal, and turned it into a banquet. From her high chair behind the counter, with the cash-register on her one side and the weighing-scales on the other, she gave her little Senate laws, and smiled upon each and all with the kind impartiality of a comrade. At least, at one time she had been impartial. But of late she smiled upon all save Lieutenant Ranson. When he talked, she now looked at the blazing log-fire, and her cheeks glowed and her eyes seemed to reflect the lifting flame.