Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

THE WHISPERER. ‘‘ Going to do which?” gasped Ugly Joe. ‘ Wait!” murmured Patricia, and smiled - into the contented distance. CHAPTER IV. A PLAN FOR TRAPPING. HE said after a while: ‘“ Cousin Joe, S I want you to hire me the four best fighters and straightest shooters you can get. I want four honest men who will— 29 “Wait a minute, Pat,” answered the other, ‘I can find you four first-class gun- men and I can find you, maybe, four_first- class, honest men: but I’ll be—excuse me— if I can get four honest gunmen. They don’t come that way. That ain’t their brand. It’s this way, Patty: Lots of men can shoot straight at anything but another man. It takes something more than a marksman to shoot down a man; it takes a natural killer, and a natural killer ain’t often honest.” Patricia sat stiffly erect in her place, but She said firmly: “‘ Then if I have to get a gang of cutthroats—well, the end justifies the means! Get me the gunmen, Cousin Joe, and Ill ask no questions about their - honesty. Can you get me four men who won't be afraid to fight with the Whis- _ perer?”’ Ugly Joe meditated. : : He said: “ I see there ain’t any use trying to persuade you, Pat. Just like Martha. I can get you four gunmen who’d do any murder for a price. There’s Chic Wood. He climbed a tree with a shotgun over at Tomanac and shot a man for fifty dollars. But he’d maybe want fifty thousand for killing the Whisperer. I could get some more like Chic. D’you want to work with men like him, Pat?” “ The end,” said Patricia, ‘ justifies the means. Yes, I want any four men—as long as they are dangerous. ” “ Then I guess I can get ’em. None of the crooks have any special liking for the Whisperer. He’s run most of them out of range of Eagles. All you'll have to do is to pay the price. Can you do that?” “ Anything you think they’re worth.” 447 “‘ And after you get ’em,” said Ugly Joe, ‘‘T s’pose you're going to ride through the hills with your posse hunting for the Whis- perer?”’ ~““Not at all. I’m going to stay right at your house, Cousin Joe, and wait for the Whisperer to come to me.”’ “ Pat,” said Joe solemnly, “if you was a man, I’d say you’d been drinking. Wait for the Whisperer to come to you?” “He will,” answered Patricia. ‘ Will you have the four men at the house to- morrow?” Ugly Joe made no reply, but sighed heav- ily as he rolled another cigarette. He had heard about this type of Eastern woman, as aggressive as a man, but he hardly knew what to make of her now that she sat at — his side. A Westerner i 1S singularly helpless in the presence of a woman. He is accus- tomed to making his way through a purely physical prowess. Against the peculiar strength of a woman which is fleshly and yet not of the flesh, he has nothing to pit. So Ugly Joe felt very much like a tongue- tied boy, unable to recite his lesson to the pretty school ma’am. If he resented the calm appropriation of his. house as the trap which was to catch the Whisperer, he felt a counterbalancing excitement which more than made up. He had shot mountain- lions in his time, but this would be a rarer Sport. They reached the ranch-house. It was formed of great dobe walls from three to four feet in thickness—utterly impervious to the heat of summer or the winds and cold of winter. rambled out in a roomy square around a hexagonal patio in the center. The exterior of that house, dirty-brown, with the deep- Set windows gaping like, mouths, was quite in keeping with the exterior of Ugly Joe and with the sweep of rough hills and sordid plain on either side in prospect; but the patio within was the special provi- dence of Ugly Joe. Water, for the internal or external appli- cation of which the proprietor had little use, was here lavished upon flowers. There were many kinds, and exceedingly bright colors, blended with all the skill with which a Navajo Indian weaves scarlets and yel- A one-storied structure, it. GOR GDOO (COL