Adventure Magazine Cover, December 10, 1922 — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~~ et “What?” the boy’s voice rose to a hoarse scream. ‘You dirty crooks. Gonna put me off with fifty dollars, are you?” His voice cracked as he poured out a stream of filthy abuse, heaping indecency on indecency, quivering and white with rage. The brothers listened in indifferent silence fora moment. Then Bud cut it short with a swift back-hand smash in the mouth. “Learn ye,” he said as Lafe dizzily spat out a mouthful of blood. “Keep your face shut. I don’t want to hear another yip out of you.” “Now you listen to me,” he continued. “We're out of likker, and you’re goin’ to town for a gallon. You can get it from Bob Hames. Here’s the money, and if you’re gone more than two hours, or if they’s a drop of it drunk before you get back, [ll work on you right. Un’stand?”’ Cowed and sullen, the boy took the money ‘and stumbled out of the door. os Once free of his brothers he broke down completely and leaned against a tree, his frame racked and shaken with dry, convul- sive sobs of pure rage. “The dirty dogs,” he gasped at length. “Always beatin’ on me and—and——”’ Another paroxysm shook him as he stum- bled off down the path, sobbing out inco- herent blasphemies, weak and sick from the deadly hate which consumed him. “T’d like to kill ’em,” he screamed. “I’d like to see em dyin’ and tromp their faces in. I'd like—I’d like— And by , 1 will.” He stopped short, curiously calm in the grip of a sudden resolution. “T’ll do it, too,” he muttered. ‘“‘Get them _~ two skunks dead to rights, I will. And get the whole seven thousand for myself,” he added, almost as an afterthought. It was well within the two hours when he reached the shanty above the grave of Ah ___ Kow’s father. Bud met him at,the door, his thin lips twisted in a sneer, and dis- : possessed him of the jug. “Got back quick enough this time, didn’t _~ you,” was his greeting. ‘‘Guess maybe that ____ jolt in the jaw learned you somethin’.” _. _He lifted’the jug and smelled the contents ___ suspiciously. , “Hames must be gettin’ careless,’ he remarked. ‘That don’t smell like as good __ likker as he generally makes. Well, here ‘goes, anyhow.” “Kinda raw,” he commented after a long pull, “but it’s got the old kick just the same. ee Hey, Joe, see how it hits you.” ‘ ‘“‘Are you gonna give me my split of that seven thousand?”’ asked the boy desperately as Joe took the jug. “Are you, I say?” Bud grinned evilly. “Forget it, kid,” he answered, a cheerful glow at the pit of his stomach. ‘“‘What’d you do with that much money?” Lafe made no answer. He sat sullenly in the corner as the other two drew up chairs to the table. Only he watched them, steadily—curiously. For two hours the jug passed back and forth between them. In quick succession they became flushed and talkative, maudlin and finally sodden drunk, while the boy watched them, fascinated. ; Then all at once Joe rose to his feet with a strangled cry, his face purple, his hands clawing at his throat. ‘“Whazz’ matter,” questioned Bud dully. “Somethin’ gotcha?” But Joe was beyond speech. Still clawing at his shirt collar, he toppled writhing to the floor. “See. whazz’matter Joe, Lafe,” Bud ordered. ‘Can’ see ver’ good m’self.” Then Lafe rose to his feet, appalled, yet savage in his triumph. “You bet you can’t see,” he raved. ‘And that stuff you been drinkin’s pretty near straight wood alcohol. Wood alcohol, do you get me? And I put it in myself. You ain’t never gonna see again. You’re gonna * die right here, you and him both. And when you’re layin’ on the floor I’m gonna kick your faces in,” he ended with a scream of hysterical laughter. Struggling against the stupor and blind- ness that were overcoming him, Bud felt the words beat into his numbed mind. For an instant their import recalled his fast disappearing faculties: Groping blindly, he lurched toward the bed, and his fingers closed around the butt of the automatic pistol which lay there. “C’n see some -yet,” he grunted as he pulled the trigger for the sixth time and watched Lafe slide to the floor in a grotesque. sprawl of arms and legs. Three days later Ah Kow, rising at dawn, packed his basket with the roast pork, the dried duck and the gilt paper money his wrinkled old face bathed in a smile of con- $ tentment.* Unpleasant episodes, he re- flected, come and go. There remain al- ask the observances due the undying ead. o~<.. 7 =a a pa . — i ~- > = ~~, + ~ — =~ a * " eS ee