The Argosy, January 1906 — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

THE OUTCAST. 311 his name to be remembered gratefully by many people. His entire fortune, aside rote certain small amounts named in a codicil, was to be devoted to the building and en- dowment of a county hospital. By this act the testator had made it improbable that his nephew would try to break the will; he would have the weight of public opinion as well as all the ‘legal resources of the county author- ities against him. Burress listened with dulled compre- hension to the reading; it did not inter- est him in the least. Even the item in the codicil instructing Higby, as the dead man’s administrator, to pay the debts incurred by the doctor during his college course fell upon his unappre- ciative ears as though it all referred to some stranger. Aside from the funeral and the minor ealls of his profession, he had devoted the twenty-four hours which elapsed since his appearance at the postponed eoroner’s inquest to attendance on Seymour Lloyd. The latter had no im- mediate family, and all his-kin lived at a distance. He was as much alone in the world as Burress himself. Nathan Landgrave, his partner in the Blue Front Grocery, was the only person aside from the doctor and Leshe who felt any peculiar interest in his condi- tion. Nathan was a plodding, calculat- ing man, for whom Lloyd had worked so many years that Nathan had agreed to a partnership and a division of the profits of the business rather than suf- fer the loss of his assistance. Being scrupulously honest, Burress knew that the storekeeper would look out for Lloyd’s pecuniary interests; but the senior partner in the grocery firm could not be depended upon for any- thing else. Indeed, everybody seemed uncannily willing to step aside and allow the entire burden of Lloyd’s treat- ment and nursing to fall upon the doctor’s shoulders. ° The strange malady which had stricken Lloyd fairly frightened those neighbors who saw him. Leslie, despite the opposition raised by her parents, who were bound by the usual chains of propriety, was the only person who was really anxious to assist Burress, and Lloyd had awakened to his present ex- istence with an unaccountable objection to a feminine nurse. To see the young man, who soon looked much like his usual self, lying, unable to speak, as helpless in most things as as puling infant, recognizing none of those who came to see him—these strange conditions struck the visitors as utterly inexplicable. Its effect on Nathan Land- grave will serve as a sample of the gen- eral attitude of the community. “I swow I can’t sense it’s him!” ejaculated the storekeeper, pushing both his old fur cap and his spectacles back from his bald forehead, while he stared down into the face of the afflicted man. “Tt don’t look like Lloyd, ’ceptin’ that it’s his face. Never seen that ex- pression in it before—blank’s an idjjit, Dr. Burress! Poor See! Poor See! Aw him as cheerful and chipper as a erig t’other mornin’ when he started out ter find you. | “By the way, doc, ye didn’t happen ter meet up with him at all that morn- in’, did ye?” “No,” replied Burress, with averted face. Nathan turned from the sick man and whispered the next question, his wrinkled countenance revealin’ much worriment of mind: “Did he have his gun with him, doc? I ean’t find it nowher’s erbout th’ place, an’ I’ve hunted high an’ low. Warn’t you *n’ him goin’ gunnit’?” It had come—the first query pointing the way to the end. Burress had felt that suspicion would raise its head, and that deeper inquiry would be made into the murder whether Lloyd recovered or not. His expectation was only being ful- filled sooner than he had thought. But his mind.was prepared for it. On his knees at the spot where he had fired the fatal shot, Ramon Burress had sworn to prove equal to whatever trial fate prepared for him. He turned now and looked Nathan calmly im the eye. “Why, no,” he said; “we made no particular arrangement for going hunt- ing. I gave up hope of See’s coming up and went for a tramp before he got here. We did not meet.” 3 moO = AR AAS i 7 We ah art ‘ a 4h shi Hy i mi LAIST aaa cu Shea ip ihe Dit STP te Del ty hd Coe wea Oe Dl : ing De VA feats Stee OR Sip MEG a So UE al tenead M2 AIC CRIM Ae LP AOUN CIS. VANIER Sey LT Se Fro Eas ty So Ast Aah . | yA f } avy HER DD A iV +i Ly { Eats 4 ee kak Dik & eI ve Tafa! . j ay i eR (a, Py | J TEE whe, Ate hg BAe, PER Ve at i BULA Ih wri RT Sixty ca Mattie ' 4 eM pat ed yD 4 Ws Mi) AAT es LA vow Xe tuts 4 SUNN CRU Eh Lat hang be » Ve ; ¥ er Nn ant NY vee (ihe ee | KS) k ar, Se ees hew i, ; Ne i AY, Us , MaPise) Ay. NOs Ais! « he | A : (a Fi oh 4 iy thw bata i. ¥ _*> vit ras he Wien vt Wiss MLicate : ; \ Viral te XW in Ty A a 4 Lt Wy aay i Vs rN te one RATER Wher M ees Meee beg 7 ae Sie 4 U y PMMA any may A! ‘pat ; 7 ey aves PES ete es be i y ‘ py Races WAN NPR hth Ponto ee ly Ve 1 et MALAY wD p Anis Ree ikade fo ROMERO ea As . AYU wane y t ‘ f } AGTH ES a i 4 tL tod GoM, , {4 Bede ,*. Cae A Oey ae [het CR AEE ALR OBER IIES SO) OCICS Ce a Ma Pe (NY a Dt ie hk CAD Fay, we ih AA Nig Z > ee S a) comicbook: