The Argosy, Vol. 61, No. 4 — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

THE IMPOSTOR. hand. We are all of us apt to be more or less appalled when ushered unan- nounced into the presence of the Great Mystery. ‘Dead, by gosh!” repeated Hart; then added slowly, with narrowing eyes: ‘“And who now is the owner of the Gladys B.?” He plunged his hands into his pockets, and stood looking down at the dead man, his face a riddle of conflicting emotions. So still he was in the reverie into which he had fallen that a chipmunk hopped in at the open door of the cabin and, squatting on the step, gazed at him fearlessly with its bright, beady eyes. Then, his strong, bearded face dark- ening, he roused up with a sudden ges- ture of decision, and the chipmunk whisked away into the bushes. Hart followed it to the door, and gazed warily up and down the trail. Not a soul in sight, and, as he well knew, there was little likelihood of any one coming that way for the next hour or more. Nevertheless, he was evidently in- clined to waste no time in what he had determined to do. ‘Turning back into the cabin, he commenced a hurried, but none the less thorough, investigation of its contents. The rickety chest of drawers, with its meager array of clothing, was fully gone over, the closet and the shelf behind the door ransacked, and he even dived under the bed to explore there. | But, whatever it was he sought, his search was evidently unavailing; for at each successive place he tried his frown of disappointment grew more pronounced, and he tumbled the things back with less ceremony. At last, conquering the natural repug- nance which had hitherto held him back, he approached the bed itself. His hand, feeling carefully under the pillow and along the mattress, brought forth no re- turn; but when he nerved himself to touch the corpse, he had not gone far before something crackled like paper: under his eager fingers. With a low cry of satisfaction, he thrust a hand into the old man’s bosom, -and drew forth a thin, carefully tied packet of documents. Hastily he undid the string and glanced them over. They were all records of 607 mining claims and copies of leases, or such like memoranda ‘of the dead man’s rather extensive business transactions. Hart straightened up, a flash of tri- umph in his eye. “Not a thing,” he whispered thrill- ingly, “not a thing to interfere, or cause a question to be raised. It will be like getting money from home.” From the shelf behind the door he procured a pen and bottle of ink; then, spreading out the folded documents upon the shaky table, he spent a good half hour in carefully tracing and copying upon a sheet of paper the old man’s cramped and uneven signature. Havinz at last succeeded to his liking, he wrote rapidly for a few moments on a fresh sheet, and to it appended the imitation he had been practising, adding below his own name as a witness. The task was just completed when he was startled by the sound of a footstep outside the door. MHastily brushing the papers together, he thrust them into the bosom of his flannel shirt, not noticing in his confusion that the teiltale sheet upon which he had been conducting his experiments slipped from among the rest and fluttered away under the bed. At sight of the intruder, however, he drew a breath of quick relief and smiled contemptuously at his own guilty panic. It was only an Indian squaw, who paused, stolid and indifferent, in the door- way, her lusterless black hair bound in two long, heavy braids on either side of her submissively bowed head. “Ah, Wunna,” exclaimed Hart, stri-— ving to speak naturally, “I am glad you have come. Uncle Billy here has just died, and I must go down to the camp to tell the boys. You wait here until some of us come back.” : He chucked her a coin as he spoke, and with a grunt of assent she came in- side and squatted down upon the floor. Hart lingered for a moment to cast one last glance about the cabin, picked up the pen and ink to replace them on the shelf, but, on second thought, decided to let them remain where they were; then, with an impatient gesture, he strode from the place and hurried off down the trail. The watcher left behind continued to sit silent, wrapped apparently in apathy EO OO (©