Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 7, 1928 — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

202 of the house, slamming the front door after her. As she mounted her horse she glanced along the side of the house and saw a tall figure standing outside of the window of the room which she had just left so hurriedly. When she rode away there came faintly to her ears the sound of some one whistling loudly, musically. She uttered a sob that was half of relief as she galloped madly onward through the night. CHAPTER VI. CIRCLING FESTIVAL, ARLY the next morning Solitaire Stevens rode thoughtfully in the direction of the Cross Bar J Ranch. He felt that the previous night had been one of the most eventful that he had ever spent. It had been a sudden hunch upon his part which had caused him to ride back to the Circle T after he had over- heard the conversation between Blocky MacGill and Jake Willis as he listened outside the sheriff’s office. Knowing from what the two men had said that Major Marsh had been a friend of Helen Shaw’s, the whistling waddy had become certain that the dead man was the first person that the girl would seek once she had outdis- tanced the sheriff. At the same time Solitaire had re- membered the croaking whisper, the crawling figure, and the white-faced man that he had seen at the Circle z; and had begun to fear for the girl’s safety if she visited the place. Now he considered that his return had been fortunate in more ways than one. He had arrived at the ranch house quite some time before the girl had appeared, and he judged that she had come by a roundabout way 1n or- der to try and put Hagen and Blake off the track. At any rate, Stevens had overheard most of the conversation which had ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. taken place within the room before the girl had appeared. He knew that Lomond’s suave statements that the two-gun stranger must have murdered, the major, and the suggestion that the hunchback had seen him do it was part of a plan to put him in jeopardy. He had only remained at the win- dow covering Lomond, the hunchback, and Lagrew until he was sure that the girl had made her escape, and then he too had made a dash for it. He had reached the little gray, which he had once again hidden in a clump of trees some distance from the ranch house, without mishap, and had finally camped for the night in the shadowy shelter of a ravine some dis- tance back along the trail which led to Festival. Now he was mentally going over the details of the whole adventure. In thinking the matter over he was very glad now that none of those with whom he had interfered had seen his face, save Blocky MacGill, and he doubted that the latter would connect the quiet puncher whom he had seen at the bar of the Full-House with the man who had held up the two officers of the law, even though Hagen and Blake had probably told the big man what had occurred by now. What Solitaire wanted to know now Was just what connection had Lomond with Blocky MacGill and the latter’s henchmen? He was halfway inclined to believe that Lomond might be the illusive Chief who ruled the district, but of this he could not of course be sure. Jake Willis had stated that the Chief was away; if such was the case, then Lomond was not the man. However, there was something about the lawyer that made the whistling waddy realize that the man was the only one that he had seen or heard about so far that appeared to possess the brains required to cast his hidden and sinister rule over the surrounding country, as the Chief was said to do. COMIC OOOKS (C@