The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ramblin' Kid, by Earl Wayland Bowman

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Title: The Ramblin' Kid

Author: Earl Wayland Bowman

Posting Date: December 22, 2009 [EBook #10374]
Release Date: December 3, 2003

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE RAMBLIN' KID

BY EARL WAYLAND BOWMAN

FRONTISPIECE BY W.H.D. KOERNER

1920

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I A NIGHT LETTER

II A BLUFF CALLED

III WHICH ONE'S WHICH

IV THE UNUSED PLATE

V A DUEL OF ENDURANCE

VI YOU'RE A BRUTE

VII THE GREEDY SANDS

VIII QUICK WITH A VENGEANCE

IX OLD HECK'S STRATEGY

X FIXING FIXERS

XI A DANCE AND A RIDE

XII YOU'LL GET YOUR WISH

XIII THE ELITE AMUSEMENT PARLOR

XIV THE GRAND PARADE

XV MOCHA AND JAVA

XVI THE SWEEPSTAKES

XVII OLD HECK GOES TO TOWN

XVIII A SHAME TO WASTE IT

XIX THE GREEK GETS HIS

XX MOSTLY SKINNY

XXI A GIRL LIKE YOU

THE RAMBLIN' KID

CHAPTER I

A NIGHT LETTER

Sand and gravel slithered and slid under the heels of Old Pie Face as
Skinny Rawlins whirled the broncho into the open space in front of the
low-built, sprawling, adobe ranch house of the Quarter Circle KT and
reined the pinto to a sudden stop. Skinny had been to Eagle Butte and
with other things brought back the mail. It was hot, late June, the time
between cutting the first crop of alfalfa and gathering, from the open
range, the beef steers ready for the summer market. Regardless of the
heat Skinny had ridden hard and his horse was a lather of sweat. A
number of cowboys lounged, indolently, in the shade of the bunk-house,
smoking cigarettes and contentedly enjoying the hour of rest after the
noon-day dinner. Another, lean-built, slender, boyish in appearance and
with strangely black, inscrutable eyes, stepped from around the corner
of the house as Skinny jerked Old Pie Face to a standstill.

"Where's Old Heck?" Skinny asked excitedly. "I brought the mail--here,
take it to him!"

The other, known on the Kiowa and the range of western Texas and Mexico
only as "the Ram