Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

244 demanded Captain Reyes. “TI tell you it was an affair of honor!” “Ha, ha!” laughed Pierre Vigney bitter- ly. “ If there was any honor in the affair Pedro Valdez would not be involved in it. I saw how it all began; I saw how Valdez insulted our lovely Margot. When George knocked him down he should have killed him outright—that would have been just!” Pierre Vigney nodded his gray head mournfully like a philosopher who has seen a lifetime of suffering, then added: “ Such fis life! The wicked man, the aggressor, tri- umphs! The just man is slain! Life is like that.” The seconds turned to go. “ We’ve done our duty,” said Lieutenant Rico. ‘“ It was very painful. Will you tell his sister that? Tell her she has our sympathy—from the heart.” And he placed his hand on his chest with a theatrical gesture. Pierre Vigney set out on his errand. It was the most painful journey in his long and unhappy life, the few short blocks that he had to walk before reaching Tina’s apartment. His feet seemed to cling to the sidewalk as if they were held down by chains, : Laboriously he climbed the stairs to her room and tapped feebly on the door. Tina opened it, pale and haggard, and at the sight of the wretched face and bowed shoulders of her friend she knew all that he had to say. _ “YVouve come about George?” she whispered through dry lips from which all the blood had fled. The old man nodded mournfully, and the tears rolled down his withered cheeks. Tina clutched her breast with both hands. “Ts he badly hurt?” she stammered. ““ Killed!” With a despairing moan the girl dropped as if a bullet had struck her. The old man was forced to lift her and stagger painfully under the inert body. When he laid her on the bed, Pierre Vigney was horrified. Her face was so ghastly, her breathing so spasmodic! It appeared that she was dying before his eyes. -at the sad occurrence. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Frantically he hunted for brandy to force down her throat, for cold water to bathe her forehead, and finally he ran out to find a doctor. When, after a long search, he did suc- ceed in bringing a physician to the apart- ment, it looked as if help had come too late. The girl lay there like a corpse. The doctor worked over her «with restoratives, but his efforts only caused her to open her eyes feebly like a dying woman. They sent for Gian’ Bori and his wife, who declared that she would sit at the girl’s bedside until she was cured. But even her care was not enough. It was necessary to find a trained nurse as well, and for days and weeks the girl’s life hung in the bal- ance. “Tt is nothing unusual,” declared the physician, “‘ for a girl with a high strung, nervous temperament to be prostrated by such a shock as the news of her brother’s death.” While Tina’s life hung in the balance Gian’ Bori and his wife did not leave the apartment. They directed Pierre Vigney to arrange for the burial of their murdered son. But the old man returned from an inter- view with Valdez’s secretary, and brought the word that the body had been given a Christian burial. | The politician himself was not to be found. The bullet in his arm had con- fined him to his bed. But the secretary had been courteous and expressed regret His employer, so he said, was remorseful at the outcome of the duel, and had paid the priest and the undertaker. Pierre Vigney had even visited the ceme- tery and seen the fresh grave. It was a high-handed proceeding. Gian’ Bori stormed and raged at this fresh out- rage. But what could he do? The boy was dead! Perhaps, after all, Valdez had meant well in having him buried. He could only show his grief by ordering a handsome monument to be placed over the new grave. And he spent all the af- fection that he felt for George in devoting himself to Tina’s recovers (C@) Ghooksicom