Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

-- -VINGO’S LADY SERPENT. those dull, jarring “‘ plumps,”’ and the next they knew, Bud Larson was stretched out on his back, hugging his stomach and gasp- ing for air. That one little wallop did it! Knocked the wind completely out of him! Then Ed sat down and looked at Chris- tine. And, as if it was her last fight before leaving the world for good, she wriggled through the sand an inch at a time, put her head in Ed’s lap and fell sound asleep! Ed was the first of the two warriors to catch his wind, and when he could stand up he lifted the sleeping beauty and gently tucked her into the flivver. He and Billy Smeed had come down from Daytona in Doc Lafferty’s launch, and he told Billy to return the launch and to wait for him at Bill Goldenberg’s garage in Daytona, where they had parked the quarry car. Well, Christine and her brave rescuer pulled out and started down the beach for Daytona just as Bud Larson sat up. He soon saw what was going on and he called upon God Almighty and a number of lesser deities to prevent what was little short of downright cruelty; but the deities evidently weren’t listening in on his wavelength, for, as he staggered to his feet, the renovated flivver gave a snort and away it went in a cloud of smoke! It is a long ten-mile stroll from Mos- quito Inlet to Daytona Beach, and it is to be supposed that Don Juan arrived there eventually. Some time later, at all events, he moved on to greener pastures and was heard of no more. He.was, as my Mexican friends would say, one tough hombre. How Ed Randolph tooled that flivver all the way into Daytona in the condition he was in speaks volumes, I have always thought, for the die hard quality that so many of these Michigan lads seem to pos- sess. By the time he reached the pier, both eyes were so swollen he could hardly see out of them. His face was caked with blood, and blook oozed from a dozen gashes. His gums were bleeding from the loosened teeth and his nose was one terrific throb. He pulled up under an arc light on the bridge as they were crossing the Halifax into Daytona and woke Christine up. She took one look at him and screamed. Then she began babbling—telling him all about we AY it and laughing and crying in a sort of hys- teria. The sleep had worked off some of the effects of the gin, and what was left in her system just made her feel hilariously _ excited. And Ed knew that it would never. do to take her home in this condition. So he parked the car and took her for a walk up and down the river front; up Mag- nolia to Ridgewood and down Ridgewood toward New Smyrna. Then she sobered up enough to realize how poor Ed was suffer- ing and insisted that he have proper medical attention. So they dropped in on Doc Laf- ferty and Ed had his nose set and his face washed and they each had a cup of good strong coffee. Then they went to the ga- rage, expecting to find Billy Smeed waiting for them in the quarry flivver to drive them back to Vingo. But Billy Smeed had grown tired of waiting and had gone on back to the quarry. How were they going to get home? Ed didn’t have any money, and he knew Jim was devoid of cash, so he couldn’t hire a taxi. Christine knew what would happen to her if she drove up at this hour of the night with a twenty-dollar taxi bill, especially after the way her dad had been warning her | about Bud Larson. They went back to where Ed had parked the flivver, but it was gone. Bud Larson had found it with the instincts of a hom- ing pigeon. 3 I suppose a modern young flapper and her sweety wouldn’t have been the least bothered by this predicament; but Christine and Ed came from old-fashioned stock, and they knew just what Vingo would say—and think. It was long past midnight by this time, and Ed’s nose and teeth were hurting so that he could hardly stand it, and Chris- tine was paying for her intemperance with a splitting headache. Finally she sat down on a curbstone and cried. This happened at the corner of Orange and Beach at two o’clock in the morning; all Daytona was sound asleep, and Christine just knew that she was disgraced forever, Starting out with one man at eight o’clock in the evening and landing back home with another the next day! : Then Ed hit upon an idea. They would go down to the depot and wait for Thirty- oO scomicbooks (EC)