Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

446 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. steps. He hasn’t been around these parts since. That’s one of the good things about the Whisperer. No robber but himself does much flourishing while he’s around. There’s some say the only ones he picks on is the other crooks. Others say differ- ent. I don’t know. Well, a couple of days later Lew Lauriston does a fade-away. He didn’t even stop to tell us whether the Whisperer had paid him a visit or not, but we just took it for granted. “Tf you want to try your hand, Pat, why, it ain’t hard to find Eagles, and in Eagles it ain’t hard to find Goggles.” But the arrows of this sarcasm flew harm- - less over the head of Patricia, for she had fallen into a brown study. Certainly it is not easy to understand Patricia, for I sup- pose that she never really understood her- self. I have never known two people, of all who knew her intimately, who could agree about the main points in her charac- ter, and I have always attributed the mis- understanding to the fact that she was so unfemininely serious-minded. Really there was nothing masculine about her except a desire te prove herself of some significance in the world, and because she was so pretty she was confronted with an endless struggle to make the world accept her as something more than a mere ornament. Sometimes the very desperation, of her efforts to do strong things in a strong way made her as stern and hard as any man, and for this reason quite a few misjudged her—in fact, she misjudged herself. To me there was always something plaintive in the quest of Patricia for herself. At the moment when Ugly Joe ceased speaking, for instance, Patricia was really not thinking of the avenging of Mortimer Lauriston’s death. She was merely working out a way in which she could prove to Ugly Joe that there was in her a profound difference from that of his talkative wife. Surely here was a man-sized problem—the apprehension and bringing to justice of a murderer whom even the rough-handed dwellers in the mountain-desert dared not touch. She said at length: ‘‘/Has it ever occurred to you, Cousin Joe, that the killer of Morti- mer Lauriston was really not your man | Goggles at all, but the Whisperer?” Ugly Joe chuckled. ‘Has it taken you all this thinkmg to get that far? Sure, it’s occurred to me, and to everybody else. If you ever seen Goggles you’d be sure of it. I’ve seen him handle a gun in a shooting-gaMery. Say, Pat, he couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a rock. And there ain’t enough heart in that skinny body of his to hurt a swallow. We all seen that as soon as the Whisperer got mixed up in the case. Mort was fast with his guns and he shot straight. It must of took a man about as good as the Whisperer to beat him on the draw and drill him as clean as that after he’d had a chance to work his shooting-irons.”’ “The real criminal, then,’’ mused Patri- cia, “is the Whisperer.” And she shivered a little, but went on: “The other man, this Goggles, is evidently just a harmless little cur. I suppose the Whisperer. uses him to collect information and then robs the people Goggles pomts out to him.” ‘I s’pose so,” nodded Ugly Joe, who was fast losing interest in the conversation. “And yet you allow Goggles to wander about at liberty! I can’t understand you people, Cousin Joe!” “ You would, Pat, if you’d ever had any dealings with the Whisperer. Maybe he’s using Goggles and maybe he isn’t. We've never had any proof of that. All we know is that he’s Goggles’s friend, and as long as that’s the case there ain’t anybody around here with the courage to mix up with Goggles. You can lay to fhat.” ‘“ T know,” said Patricia, in the same mus- ing voice, “ this Whisperer is a dangerous fellow, but he has his weak point. And I’m going to get him through that weakness!” ‘““ What weakness?” asked Ugly Joe, wak- ening to a new intcrest in the case. ‘Goggles! The Whisperer may be an outlaw, but he’s a man. This Goggles is merely a cowardly little sneak who hides in the terror of the name of the Whisperer. That’s why he had the courage to face Mortimer Lauriston. He knew that he could send his man-killer after my cousin. But I’m going to set a trap for the Whis- perer, bait it with Goggles, and catch your man for you.” - EOHMIGOIOOKSHEO a