Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 112: what you’re looking at

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

582 some fathers would warm yer hide with a ‘stick! A soft bed an’ a full belly for you, hey?—like them cussed Kesters who stole ye away from me! Wall, ye’d be thar this very minute, only yer wonderful Mr. Kes- ter, yer great ’dopted pa, was too mean to loan me a few dollars.” He crawled, grumbling and _ swearing, from his blankets and over to the fallen fire, now no more than charred butts and ash filmed embers, and blew the ashes away and the embers to a red glow. With scraps of bark and dry twigs he coaxed a yellow flame into being. He fed the flame with larger stuff, still grumbling and cursing; and ina minute the fire was humming and tossing sparks into the icy air. He crawled back to his blankets. ‘“ Don’t blame me if ye’re cold,” he said. ** T didn’t carry ’e off for choice, God knows! All I want is me rights—the rights of a father; an’ if I ain’t give ’em peaceful, then T gotter fight for ’em. No man can rob me of my son, an’ then treat me worse’n a dog, without he pays me for it!) Pay! Not him! He don’t care what happens to ’e, lad, or he’d of give me a few dollars when I asked ’im.” “ He will—catch you,” sobbed the child. “T heard what—that woman whispered— about Archie and Joe—chasing you. And my father is—chasing you, too—I know.” “Damn them! I’d take ye back to them if I thought they’d pay me for it. But they wouldn’t. They’d put me into jail, that’s what they’d do.” “No, they wouldn’t—not if you take me back! TH ask them not to. I'll ask daddy to give you money and let you go—and he will do it. Please take me back! Please!” “Why would he pay, if once I took ye back? No, I gotter think up some better way nor that!”’ Some of the heat of the fire reached the lean-to shelter of boughs; and in a minute or two the child dozed back to his broken dreams. The man threw on more fuel, reaching forward from where he sat in his blankets. He filled and lit his pipe, gave ear to the dreary moanings and sloshings of the icy wind through the forest, cursed his luck and tried to think of a way out of his troubles. * = = ee es 3 > ae oe? oe ee po Pe, . - > r . ee DS ge OF Mn, rae ate a ae ie em — — Poe SS ee eee a ee ee ae “ss ARGOSY-ALLST: RY WEEKLY, Here was winter right on top of him, be- yond a doubt; and here was a helpless child on his hands and another mouth to feed; and here was a new crime against him and a new chase at his heels. And why? He wasn’t a dollar the better for it yet—ex- cept for a new rifle, which he didn’t much need—and not likely to be. The chances were that things would be worse with him before they were better. He had been a fool to grab the kid! He should have hung around Lob’s Point and told his story to the people. They would have believed him after a while, and pitied him in the course of time; and then he could have threatened Kester with the law. The law! Hell! He had forgotten about Kester’s sinister and significant remarks concerning an old squaw and an ax and a little leather pouch on a silver chain. The devil! How had Kester hit on that? What had he seen? What did he know? He decided that the law could not pos- sibly be of any use to him in this matter— the devil take it! What else then? He needed money; he needed to get rid of the child; and he realized the necessity of doing both these things before he was caught. He hadn’t much fear of Archie McKim and Joe Newsam, knowing what he did about what had happened to their canoe and dunnage, but he suspected that Silas Kester was just the sort of pigheaded fellow who would send a dozen parties after him. What then? The child must be sent back. He must employ an agent in the matter— some one whom he could trust to bring him back most of the money obtained from Kester. Why hadn’t he thought of this before? Effie could have managed it. Why hadn’t he sent the boy back with her? Well, he had not thought of it in time, that was all. His nerves were not as they should be, and she had come up on him so suddenly and scared him with her talk of McKim and Joe Newsam. He would have to find some one else to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for him—to take the boy away and bring the money back to him. Woodhall did not move camp next day. He strengthened the lean-to of boughs, kept the fire going strong—knowing that McKim (COMMIE NCYOLKS (S@) . 2 “ - - SS a! SS ee ae, aS a ~~, ae — oe a _" Aft oe