The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1920-04-23
THE TARANTULA
COMPLETE NOVELETTE, By John Nelson Cole, Jr.

ruptcy, the genuine cowboy is getting
tc be as scarce as an American bison
And if the truth were told, when o.
Henry began to write stories about
cowboys he hadn't been west of Phila-
delphia, and one of Buffalo Bills best
punchers was born near Seventeenth
street and Third avenue, Manhattan.
AS to bison, it is generally known
that you can go into the Bronx Park
ZOO almost any Sunday afternoon and
count all the bison in captivity, with
the exception of few in Yellowstone
and one or two obstinate bulls in the
Canadian wilds that still refuse to
die.
Alkali Richards was genuine, all the
way from the brim of his eight-ounce
Stetson to the steel points of his clot-
ted spurs.
He was genuine, and more than that.
be was cowboy.
He'd been over every foot of ground
in Colonel Everett's foxty-mile range;
there wasn't a prairie dog hole that
he couldn't locate in the dark and
every long-horn in the herd knew the
swish of Alkali's lariat.
A lot of tenderfeet have an idea
that when a steer gets his mind made
up and his head down he's as hard
to stop as runaway locomotive. But
Alkali Richards knew how to stop
steer in any mood.
When one got absent-minded and
broke out for scrimmage at the rate
Of thirty miles an hour he was thrown
for a loss on the first down with the
lariat around his left hind leg, or both
hind legs, or hind leg and fore
leg; in fact, around any combination
Of legs that Alkali fancied at the mo-
nent to select.
So when Alkali Richards announced
to the company on the brass rail at
Happy Patty's refreshment emporium
that he was going to South America
to help build railroad, Joe Hackett,
Alkali's side partner, set his glass OF
tbree-star Mulligan the bar I'M
touched, and every steer on the range
gave sigh or relief.
mo use talking, gents" said Alkal1,
I'm going in the railroad business for
keeps. There amt a future to this
ccw-punching game, and, besides, I've
got personal reasons for pullin' up
stakes that / amt mentioning in this
crowd"
"But what's the use," protested Joe,
"of burying yourself in South Amer
lea? There's railroads in this country,
amt there? You can't speak enough
South American to go In bar and
a.order a drink"
I'm through with that rum stuff,
Joe. I'm making a new start. If
was going to South America to get
drunk I'd stay here and jag up with
the bunch"
This was the sum of Alkali's expla-
nation, and when the time came for
the final hand-shake Joe Hackett lost
a friend and Texas lost cowboy,
whose gun work made the tent per
formers who break glass balls in the
air with bullets look like twenty cents
and a thin dime.
From this you would infer that
when Alkali's six-shooter came out OF
the holster there wasn't going to be
any argument.
A RATHER at thirty PAGES always got
It in both eyes, $50 as not to spoil his
hide" and there were buck jack rab-
bits in the neighborhood carrying bull
let holes in their left ear as mark
of affection from Alkali.
The Porto Velho branch of the
Trans-Paraguayan railroad runs sixty
miles from Candeleria to the interior,
through swampy region Of luxuriant
forest lying some five hundred miles
from the mouth Of the Amazon.
1t was built chiefly to transport the
rubber crop from the immense forests
Of the jungle, which had formerly been
brought in on the shoulders Of black
men.
A quarter of mile ahead of the
last spiked rail a squad Of workmen
described on the railway company's
ledger as Squad 80, were slowly eat
ing their way through the tangle of
tropical timber and underground.
AIkali Richards was section hand No.
Is under Foreman A. Decker.
Once a month the squad crawled
back sixty miles to Candeleria on the
little work train and spent their wages
and their souls in two days of need
less drinking and gambling.
There were Seven white women
within a radius of hundred miles
Of squad 49, One of these was the
wife of Chief Engineer James Dargan,
the second was his daughter, Virginia.
The other five were 'lady friends"
Of the more prosperous engineers, who,
through various expenditures of elo-
quence and cash, had persuaded them
that the United States navy did not
offer the sole means of travel and ex-
perience.
Miss Virginia Dargan represented
the personal reasons" for Alkalfs
presence on the section gang, which
proves again that Alkali was genuine.
And it takes something more than
eenuineness to induce a man to leave