Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

JEREMIAH PARSONS—HE-MAN. Jem’s spirits soared to lofty pinnacles. He was free and he was armed—doubly so, with gun and club. “T’ve got the world by the tail!” he chortled, and started down the slope toward the Blue Buttes camp. CHAPTER VIII. THE BANDITS’ COUNCIL. AT the edge of the camp Jem halted for a little reflection as to the course to ‘pursue. He could skirt the camp and strike the trail beyond, and then make for Sky City. There he could get Judge Law- ton to gather a few reliable citizens, get a car, and come back to the spot where he had left Herb Hoskins. And his adventure would then be at an end. That was one course. But that made no provision for vengeance on Kurtz for the insult of that tweaked nose. Wherefore the plan was promptly discarded. Jem surveyed the camp speculatively. Just where was he likely to find Kurtz? Apparently it was quite late. All was quiet and dark. No lights shone in the camp— Yes, one cabin, down at the far end, still showed a light. Jim sped along the road. The cabin stood alone, some little distance from the edge of the camp proper. As he approached, the sound of voices came to his ears. He crept stealthily to the window and peered within. Six or seven men were seat- ed around a table—rough, villainous indi- viduals, all of them. One of them was Kurtz and one—Sheriff Harry Goss! “Well, well,” Jem ruminated. ‘ Looks like I’ve run into something again. So that is who my friend up on the hillside was this morning!” The room was a bare cabin, as unused, apparently, as that in which he had been imprisoned, since the only furniture con- sisted of the table and the chairs that the men were occupying. This room, though, being along the main road, had an electric light bulb dangling from the center of the ceiling. The floor was warped and the door, standine partly open, was wedged against the lifted floor boards. aw 671 A heated discussion seemed to be in progress. “There’s no use talking, Kurtz,” Goss was saying. ‘I’ve been trying to make you see it, and you’ve got to cut some of this rough stuff out. The town is beginning to get pretty sore, and there’s going to be a bust up sooner or later.” “Sky City?” Kurtz sneered. “ Don’t worry, Harry—they’ll never work up spunk enough to do anything. They’ll sputter a “bit, maybe; but that’s all.” ‘Don’t you fool yourself,” Goss warned. ‘““'There’s a limit, and they’ve pretty near reached it.” “Just the same, we’ve got to do it,” Kurtz insisted. ‘“ We’ve got to keep ’em cowed and spiritless. If we ever let them get up any spirit. at all, they’re likely to turn it in another direction, and that won’t be so good for us.” ‘“ Maybe so,” Goss grumbled. ‘“ Just the same, I’m afraid you’re carrying it too far. Besides, you ain’t going to be able to hold your own crowd that way all the time. It’s all right for our little bunch here—we know what we’re doing, and why—and we are getting ours out of it. But how about the rest of your men who ain’t in on this™ part of the game and who don’t know what is really back of it?” Kurtz laughed. : “Don’t worry about them. That’s why I pick ’em that way. They’re just natural hell raisers—that’s the only kind I hire— hard-boiled devils that have got to be rais- ing hell in order to be feeling just right. Let ’em go ahead and keep the town prop- erly tamed—and we can do our stuff on the side.” There was a short pause. “* Well,” Goss said, “‘ I guess there’s noth- ing more we can do to-night with this cocky stranger. I’ve already told ’em in town that he’s skipped out, so you can dig out of him in the morning what he’s done with Herb and then settle with him to suit your- self.” An evil snarl crossed his face. “ Go as far as you like—you won’t make me mad!” A harsh, ominous laugh came from the other men’s throats. “Seeing as we're all here,” Goss contin- = CoOnmnicoooK<s (S@) S