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MOTOR STORIE
| THRILLING ADVENTURE MOTOR FICTION
NEW YORK, June 5, 1909,
- TERMS TO MOTOR STORIES MAIL SUBSCRIBERS. ” :
(Postage Free.) ° :
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STREET & SMITH, Publishers,
79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.
Ormowp G. Smrtu,
Georce C, Sure, | Proprietors
‘The Chicken-hearted Tenderfoot.
“Yah! Call yourself a cowpuncher? And you can’t even
rope a yearling colt, let alone do anything-else! Take my
tip, kid, and get back East by the quickest route; we don’t
want the like of you in Montana, There’s too many good
men round to make us have to keep you, doing nothing for
your board. Get off the ranch!” The foreman of the Cup
and Spur Ranch, never a man to spare the feelings of those
t under him, this’ time surpassed hiinself in expressing his-
“contempt for the youngster who had earned-his displeasure.
\ The object of his scorn, a fresh-looking lad of some eighteen
years of age, returned the foreman’s irate and withering
j glance with one full of resentment, but entirely. devoid of |
) fear. °
i ““T told you I’d never worked on the ranges before,” he
‘} said angrily, “and you took me on under: that’ knowledge.
' I never said I could rope a colt, and now I’ve found out I
t can’t—yet. Do you expect a man to do everything for a
| miserable fifteen dollars a month? Oh, all right; I'll get off
the place, and be mighty glad to do so, too!” The ‘forenian
had made a threatening gesture, as though he meant to teach
this stripling that his reputation as the bully of the district
was not unfounded. a
“So I’ve got the bounce, ch?” muttered Ted Macbain to
-his horse, as he slowly rode away from the scene, “Well,
perhaps the foreman’s right, and I’m no-good on a ranch,
Guess I’ll have.to get back to the old farmt in Minnesota.
Just at present town’s the place for me to make.” And he
headed for Elk Creek, some twenty miles away.
“Wish I hadn’t made such a fool of myself with that rope,
just the same,” he told himself. “How the mischief-do they
make the beastly thing go where they want.it?” He unslung
,his lariat as he spoke to himself, and, ‘shaking its coils
loose, swung the noose wide above his head, fixing his eye
on the stump of a tree. he was passing.. His horse was
straveling at a brisk canter, but he measured the distance
With his eye, and let the rope go on its way. It fell fair
MOTOR STORIES. oo -t wy
.. there, Téd did not feel any anxicty on its behalf.
«maining ten miles would have to be walked.
1
. ‘Ilow to Send Money—By post-office or express money order,
was set there.
29
. J
and true over the stump, but he forgot to pull the horse i in.
The result was that he felt a great jerk at his saddle, and
the horse, shying, threw him violently to the ground: .. He
was half stunned by his fall, and he did not open his eyes
until a dim speck on the horizon was all that could be scen
of the animal he had been bestriding.
To catch the brute, looked impossible, but as it was. head-
ing for the.town, ‘and as it was likely it would be caught.
He had time to think things over for the next two or three
hours, To be candid, he had not been an absolute success in
Montana, the land where daredevil horsemanship and an
utter disregard for human life are the main essentials. He
The re-
would have been far better off to have stayed at home in.
* Minnesota, where his father was a prosperous farmer. But
the confinement of that life jarred on him to such an extent
that he felt himself compelled to strike out for fresh scenes,
A passionate love for horses caused him to go to the horse: /
ranching State, where he thought ‘he Would’ be” ‘able to
hig ‘passion full satisfaction.
He found that to treat horses kindly on the ranges, where
the animals, for ‘the most part, had never looked on man
as anything but.a.cruel enemy, did not serve to win ‘their
love. He could not, bring himself to administer the brutal
treatment he saw other cowboys deliver, and was not afraid
of expressing his displeasure at their methods. This carned,
for him:the sobriquet of “the chicken-hearted tenderfoot,”
which name became a byword on the plains. His most ve-
hement denunciations of their behavior only served to create
mirth among the others.
Ranch—the fifth ranch in six months.on which Ted had
tried his fortunes—was loudest of all in his expressions of
contempt, giving the youngster, the most objectionable jobs to.
‘perform out of pure malice. When he was told to throw a
year-old colt that had quite won the young fellow’s heart,
as all colts did, he had had so little heart for the task that
the scene which opens this story was the result.
“Guess ranching isn’t in my line,” he told himself, as he.
trudged along the‘ prairie under the blazing, withering sun
of an exceptionally hot August. It’s all right to raise colts
by hand, but to knock ’em about as they do here goes for
me too strongly.”
It was very hot, as he s soon began to discover, - -as the
miles slowly passed under his feet. He grew thirsty; the
-alkali dust, resultant of a three weeks’ drought, parched
his throat until he decided that water was the only thing in
his life he needed at that moment. There was no stream
The foreman,of the Cup and Spur __
Oh, what a disiliusionment !
,
at hand. The only habitation near was a shack. He made. -
for this, and as he came closer he saw a well and bucket.
As is the custom, he did not trouble to: inquire whether he
might be allowed to partake of the well’s contents, but Ict
down the bucket, and drew himself a quantity of the cheer-
ful, refreshing fluid, and drank his fill.
' \He poured the remainder of the pailful on the ground.
Ass he did so something glittered at his feet, something that
was not water. He stooped and picked it up. It was an
American ten-dollar gold piece.
Perhaps it was.-none-~of his business, and perhaps “he”
should have been content to take the coin to the house and
leave it there, so that the owner would see it.
slight jerk as he hauled up the bucket, and his curiosity was
aroused. He glanced down the well; he saw that a ladder
He climbed down until he was close to the
But some-
thing recurred to him; he remembered that he had felt a