



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,