Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

"DESERT Mase turned to the efopder Noah Doxey, who had been watching with obvious suspicion this peculiar exhibition of city life. Fred looked up at the glum, sour face; a bent man with thin, colorless hair and venomous little eyes. _“T regret to see, Mr. Doxey,” the sales- man said pompously, “that the town has passed into a new life. Who is to blame?” “T am!” Noah Doxey snapped out, “ And you aren’t ashamed?” ““ Ashamed, hell!” Doxey put his thumbs _ in_his vest. Although not past fifty. the backs of his hands shone with that scaly, dry sheen on the skin of very old men. “Ym proud. I’m prouder of what I’ve been able to do in keeping peace in this country than of anything else in my life. As you know, I own practically this whole town. In a manner of ee it's like. I was its keeper.” “You own the town, Mr. paar: but do you own the minds of its citizens? Can you own the thoughts of these stock men here who used to be renegades, gunmen, gamblers? I might suggest, respectfully of course, that you can’t own what think. 33 Mr. Doxey, biting off the end of his teothpick and spitting thoughtfully, re- marked: ‘“ I ain’t so sure.”’ Hayden fell to carving his broiled chick- en, a duty which he ees with much ~ ceremony. _ “Look here,” Noah Fasc went on. “You remember Sun-up five years ago. I take it that was the first time you was here —selling freckle lotions to the dance gals at the Golden Cloud Saloon? ” “} remember it well,” Hayden said. “Arizona could boast of something then. Can I forget Six-Gun Patterson? Can I for- get the kick of jackass brandy? - Can I for- get Frisco Lou? Those were blossoms in the desert! =H Fire and brimstone Doxey shot back. : for corralling all them thieves, hussies and gunmen and shippin’ ’em out 0 the coun- try! Blossoms, aye! Fire and brimstone!” _ “Fire and brimstone have their merits. Volcanoes are responsible for a good deal "of = a nas sears ‘SeenEEy What : ou have VOICES. low has 2 maich: toathed to. it there'll | be. -2n— you mean!” _ “ And you can thank me_ 803 done, Mr. Dinars. in suppressing tae town — is like putting a cement dam—like the one up at Salt River—on a volcano! 7 Fred Hayden was evidently pleased with — his elaborate but somewhat inaccurate fig- _ ure of speech. He raised his voice: “ But — you can’t keep it corked UB: No man can put a lid on a crater! ” = “ They can’t, eh?” little Noah Doxey laughed, rubbing his chin with his. thick -turtle-shell thumbnail. “ Well that’s what = done!” _ “Well and — good,” Hayden agreed. “Now get my point: I’ve read that when — a volcano is pent up, it’s worse than one that smokes. All the heat and fire and — energy gather fury and suddenly, bingo! _ the place blows up; a town’s wiped out, hu- — man beings are scattered to bits, the earth shakes for a around. You’ve pent up — ires—t the steam—that Simmered: off “ Do you think the cesires aecese They’re gathering. In the old days the hates — didn’t last. There was a little love affair, a - little jealousy, a game of cards, a knife, a they _ gunshot or = and the town drifted along ——— Doxey, what power hae is in a hate Sz Bee lasts—in a desire to kill that’s suppressed, or for that matter—in a passionate levet” “ It’s law and erder any WO: adr. ‘Drum _ nier. ” : 2 me “TJ grant you “that: is the most aes political figure in this county, Mr. Doxey, you are to be congratulated. But when this — osion t “IL be: heard Phoenix and 2S What the ae will be I. don’t know. “Maybe the town will wake up to its = rights and go on a spree. Wow! That: : x = be some sight! An orgy! Ab chanal! again—and- <= ‘Winkler at aad Dy an ed As Mia as Bien yi tid Dit eaten y at aks +i hy Mf OS SL aN en) iu ‘Ub etsy) 6 | ao = —— .— —— + . = SS = a = = =< - —— o— a “Tt MW onever be so long as I’m eee = - There'll be no drinkin’ in this county! Tve | ‘got the law—the marshal and the sheriff on my side now. This town stays peaceable!” ““ Maybe it won’t be drink.” =< “What else can it De? ae iahoor os —— Eom