Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 103: what you’re looking at

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

LAWN <—Z a) Flood By THEODORE GOODRIDGE ROBERTS Author of ‘‘ Where All Trails End,’’ ‘‘ Sea Change,’’ etc. CHAPTER IX. THE PROFESSIONAL VANITY OF GABE LOON. ABE LOON, who as an assistant ( : game warden had for years been the understudy and shadow of Paul Sni- der before that great man’s retirement and death, was a pure bred Maliseet. He had been a widower for a long time, and his . children had grown up and scattered long ago. He had worked with Snider for close upon sixteen years, and upon that famous game protector’s retirement from active em- ployment, owing to ill-health brought on by all manner of woodland hardships, he too had retired from the service of the govern- ment. Unable to break a habit of sixteen years’ growth and practice, Gabe had followed Snider to town and remained near him un- til that habit was broken by death. Then he had returned to the wilderness, to those wide tracts of it over which he and his friend had exercised the authority of the Crown for the protection of beasts and birds and fishes so successfully and long. But he had returned unofficially. He possessed simple tastes and a retiring disposition, and he had saved enough money while working for the government to keep him in food and tobacco for the rest of his life—with the help of his gun. He slipped back to the wilderness like a shadow, and, although several men had felt relief at his departure, no man was aware of his return. He was without ambition, but his old pro- fessional vanity remained with him. This vanity was not only of his own past as a game warden, but also of the professional fame of the great Snider, and this vanity had once received a hurt from which it had not vet recovered. This story began in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for April 5. 573 Eomichook