The Argosy, April 1912 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

THE ARGOSY APRIL, Vol. LXIX Cy Albert Payson “Teckane 1912. No. 1 Clinton a ee PLvreg, xd (COMPLETE IN THIS ISSUE.) CHAPTER I. I FALL IN WITH TROUBLE. GLOWERED on him with a look that | has often been imposed upon more warlike men than he, but he withstood my glare, and replied to it with something very like a grin. : “Master Gordon Clyde,” quoth he, “the tale you have told me savors overmuch of the stage play for truth. Wherefore I made bold to laugh. And your scowl rebukes me right properly. Yet I meant no offense.” — “No?” IT snarled. “In other words, you call me liar and then vow you meant no ill. England may have changed much since I left it for the Italian wars, but I have not changed. So I beseech you to lead the way to the nearest bit of ground that will afford elbow room for sword-play.” “Ts this a challenge?” he scoffed. “Tis the sequel among all men of honor when lie hath been passed,” retorted I. Again he laughed, lounging back on the ale-house settle and looking up at me in un- feigned amusement. 1A ‘Heigho!” he said. “Here be I, Sir Geoffrey Whitson, privy councilor to His Most Christian Majesty King James, and on my way to be lord chancellor of all England. And here be you, Gordon Clyde, down-at-heels soldier of fortune, defying me to mortal combat. I have all to lose and naught to gain. You have naught to lose and the rope to gain for breaking the king’s edict against dueling. The fight you press upon me is no fair one. ’Tis as though I staked a gold guinea against a chipped penny.” “You will not fight me?” I asked. ‘“T assuredly will not,” he yawned, ma- king as though to rise. ‘One moment!” I begged him humbly. “T arrived but to-day in London, penniless. The clothes I stand in, my sword, and my honor are all I own on earth. I had thought I was richer. I—” “Tf the gift of a handful of guineas—” began Whitson in lazy contempt, as he reached for his purse; but I stayed him with a gesture. “J had thought I was richer by one GOMIIGIOO S CO