Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

LI { “> S By HARRY ADLER A NOVELETTE—COMPLETE IN THIS ISSUE CHAPTER I. PARSONS VS. KURTZ. EM PARSONS, cow-puncher, was at J peace—with himself and with the world. He and his horse, Suds, had arrived in Sky City the evening before and had stayed over for a day or two of rest before pro- ceeding into North Park, where a job with the Bar-Circle-X outfit awaited him. In his pocket reposed forty-five dollars. He possessed neither a debt nor a care in the world. Wherefore, as has been stated, Jem Parsons’s soul was at peace. 656 His clothes carefully brushed, his boots brilliantly polished, he leaned with folded arms against the wall, watching with enjoy- ment the scene of gayety before him. The annual ball of the Pioneer Fire Company was in progress. An incurable awkward- ness when in the proximity of the feminine sex had taught Jem back in the earliest days of his youth that dancing was not his » most felicitous accomplishment; but the the sight of gyrating, gliding couples always pleased him and a basic savage strain within him responded to the blaring rhythm of the music. 1A (S@) GCOMmIGDOOKs