Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

fr COLD “ You'll do nothing of the kind,” he com- manded, low. « But—” “No. Remain quiet and listen.” Her eyes flew up to his at this extraordi- nary course, so injurious to his own inter- ests. She was anxious to press to the front and declare his innocence in the affair of . éverything but defending his life from an assassin. She could not understand why he also was not eager to spring forward, why he restrained her. Then she. saw the implacable hatred on his face. A thrill quivered through her body. The feeling she had at that instant was One of being on the point of seeing behind the cur- tain of a mystery, of making a discovery -so sinister that she would gasp. Her very finger almost rested upon it. Why were Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Burk- hardt talking as they were? innuendo to make it seem her companion might have been guilty of a crime? Could it be— Her blood slowly congealed to ice at the horror of where her reasoning led. Could it be they were the enemies he meant! Such a thing was too dreadful, too ab- surd. They, the respected leaders of the community could never put a pistol in the dead wretch’s hand to slay this man beside her. Mr. Sorenson! The father of Ed, whom— She stared blankly at her ring. Yet the cattleman’s heavy, smooth words continued to assail her ears steadily. She grasped their import once more. : “For the story is too thin. No man could hit another man across the street in the dark as this engineer claims, not only once but twice put a bullet where it would kill. Probably the dead man had some- thing on this Weir, and the latter knew it. It’s not impossible he found the fellow in his path, drew. and murdered him at once, quickly put a hole in his own hat and then carried the body across the way, running back to Martinez’s office. The thing could have been done in a minute. Martinez himself wouldn’t have seen how it was worked. I’m not saying that was exactly how it was done, or that this Weir did actually murder him, but — investigate, Madden, investigate.” Trying by STEEL. 379 Steele Weir felt an angry tug at his sleeve. He looked around and beheld Janet Hosmer’s eyes distended with incredulity. “Come away, come away,” she whis- pered. ‘I should never have believed it if I hadn’t heard with my own ears!”’ Keeping close to the line of buildings, they skirted the crowd, still unnoticed, and left it behind. She walked with quick, nervous steps; her hand yet unconsciously grasped his coat sleeve. All the way to her house, which they found dark, since a messenger had called the doctor to the court-house and the Mexican servant girl also was gone, she said nothing. “Come up on the veranda; I want to talk,” she announced when he opened the gate. ““Wouldn’t it be best if you took your mind off the whole thing, by a book or something else? I'll go.” “ As if I could take my mind off! There are matters in this I must know. You may wonder when I say it, Mr. Weir, but this happening concerns me more than you dream.” Her dark, glowing gaze brooded on him with a sort of intense determination. Then she went on, “It—it involves my whole future as well as your own, though in a different way. So come inside;-if you please.” Weir in silence accompanied her upon the dark, broad, vine-clad porch. In the half-gloom he found chairs for them. “Tm going to the point -at.once,” she declared. ‘“ Why did Mr. Sorenson talk in such a fashion?” And he could feel her bending forward as if hanging on his an- swer. “That’s the one thing I can’t discuss,” said he. “T must know, I must know.” “ And unhappily I must refuse.” “Oh, Mr. Weir, if you could but un- derstand what this involves for me, you wouldn’t hesitate! I was shocked at the shooting, but I saw its necessity on your part; you're not one to run from a foe, a cowardly foe least of all. But what I heard there in the street horrified me. I couldn’t believe it; I can scarcely credit my ears yet. Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Burkhardt were not near when you were attacked; they comniclooolkks.conn