The Argosy, January 1907 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

WHEN SUSPICION STRUCK HARD. that you killed him,’ Sherwood an- nounced, facing him squarely. ‘Great God! I should hope that you didn’t! But—is it possible that any one else does?” : ‘““More people than you have any idea of, Bert!” ‘“Why—I—I can’t believe that it’s possible!’’ White and staring, Radford gripped the sheriff's knee. ‘“ Why— why ev ‘“This Bandmann came in here last night,” the sheriff pursued softly. “ He walks to the fountain there and takes a drink. He gets sick—and dies. Under him they find his pen and a note prac- tically accusing you of poisoning him. That’s pretty straight in itself, isn’t 1 3 “Tt’s fact, of course,” said Radford hotly, ‘but the man was in pain— crazy—he didn’t know what he wrote, and & “Wait. This morning Donaldson performed the autopsy and found a heap of this here cyanide of potash, or what- ever it was. That was something a man wouldn’t be likely to carry around with him—but you could get it in any drug- store in the country. Boy, do you blame people if they sort of think = “But it’s rot—tommyrot—absolute infernal rot!” the druggist said wildly. “Why under the sun should I want to kill a man I never saw in all my life before? I tell you it’s crazy. There would be no more sign of a motive for my wanting to murder him than 3 ‘“ Hold on, Bert. Donaldson seems to have taken a blamed keen interest in this thing. The county prosecutor was at the inquest this morning, and I understand that they’ve been doing considerable wir- ing around the country to-day. Ferns is a pretty energetic prosecutor, you know, and he has ways of unearthing things.” ‘But there isn’t anything to unearth here!” "They've found out that you owe two or three of the biggest drug-houses in the country some whopping big bills.” “I always do at this time of the month! J-——’ “And they have also ascertained that you stand in pretty close with the big people. More than that, they’ve made 245 certain that this Bandmann was just about ready to get busy exposing a lot of big drug people. There’s—there’s some sort of motive.” ‘And is it the supposition,” gasped Radford, “that I’m in the pay of the supposed Drug Trust, and that I was simply waiting to have this man run in —and then murder him?” “ Well, if it ain’t exactly that, Bert, it’s something sim#ar. Ferns—Ferns said that—well, that it looked as if you saw your chance to get solider than rock with the big drug people and— and took it!” Radford’s jaw dropped. ‘The bottles —the scales—the stained-glass panels— the lights—everything seemed to swim around him, before him, over him. His brain could hardly grasp the horror just then. It was all too crazy, too ut- terly overdrawn for credence by a sane man. Ferns was indeed an energetic pursuer of the criminal; his faculty for shaping theories—and his deadly power of prov- ing correct even the most outrageously improbable of them—had given him a reputation. If he chose to think that Radford, wholly innocent, had done the deed, there was no telling where it would end But it couldn’t be—it simply cowldn’t be! Radford couldn’t be hearing cor- rectly; Sherwood must be mad! The druggist strove hard to collect his thoughts, and in a measure he was successful; for suddenly he saw that an infinity of things might depend upon his keeping his head at this juncture. He licked his lips and spoke with some dif- ficulty : 7 ‘ Sherwood—that fellow who came in here with Bandmann——” The sheriff looked up keenly. ‘““T won’t deny that I’d like to have ~ a talk with him myself, Bert,” he said. “Still, Ferns says that while he’d like very much to have him for a witness, he doesn’t attach much importance to him. Hexsays that doubtless he was merely what he seemed—a chance arc- quaintance of the car. He may be right.” ‘But what has become of him?” “That’s a point I raised myself. It didn’t feeze Ferns much. He offered (C@) MIC OOS (E@)