u
peruse the pages of Old Man Curry's book, you will find Charlie Van
Loan at his very best. When one says that it means you will follow a
trail blazed by one of the most masterly short story writers we ever
had. Better yet, he writes about real people and they do real
believable things. You are not asked to stretch your imagination or
endeavor to form an excuse for the happening as portrayed. You will
find it all logical and you will be able to follow the old man and
the biblically named horses from track to track and from adventure to
adventure, until you finally lay the book aside and tell yourself
what a bully time you had reading it and how humorous and human and
wholly entertaining every page of it was.

And to all this I might perhaps add something of my regard for the
Charlie Van Loan I knew and how we foregathered and enjoyed the old
days when we were brother carpenters on a western newspaper, and how
out of the close association of many years I formed an affectionate
regard for him and realized how thoughtful and kindly and big in
heart and brain he really was. But in life he was not the kind that
sought or cared for adulation or fulsome expression of regard either
spoken or written. So I had better hark back to the narratives of Old
Man Curry and his connections, bidding you enjoy them to the limit,
and assuring you that they need no eulogy from me or any one else.
They speak for themselves.

CONTENTS

PAGE
LEVELLING WITH ELISHA 13

PLAYING EVEN FOR OBADIAH 45

BY A HAIR 68

THE LAST CHANCE 99

SANGUINARY JEREMIAH 128

ELIPHAZ, LATE FAIRFAX 150

THE REDEMPTION HANDICAP 175

A MORNING WORKOUT 198

EGYPTIAN CORN 223

THE MODERN JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON 247

OLD MAN CURRY

LEVELLING WITH ELISHA

The Bald-faced Kid shivered as he roosted on the paddock fence, for
the dawn was raw and cold and his overcoat was hanging in the back
room of a pawnbroker's establishment