The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

MESQUITE RANCH, He rushed into the storehouse with the sheriff and Watson at his heels, and Gill, closely followed by another man, just behind. “ Did they git it?’ Red shouted. “ Not on your life!’’ Ted caroled. He looked beyond Watson and Gill and saw Silsby. His spirits mounted. His friends were with him; and it would go hard if they did not serve him. He knew the enmity between the Double X and the Mesquite was enough in itself to stir up a fight which could as likely as not end in his re- lease. The sheriff was acting with Gill, which would make him a relished victim to the Mesquite men. But something stronger than Ted’s strong right, something more power- ful than Big Red’s awful fist, some- thing that shoots more surely than even Silsby’s ready gun, came silently into the storehouse that the men en- tered so noisily, The sheriff went quickly to a point on the wall, and light flooded the room from half a dozen electric bulbs. Wat- son, preserving the ait of calm which had been slightly broken in his inter- view with Ted, turned to see that the door was closed against an effort of the prisoner to escape. The light shone on Ward Silsby as he pulled his hat off. Radford, the sheriff, Big Red saw Watson’s hand fly to his gun. Before any of them could speak it was out. But Silsby was scarcely a fraction of a second slower. The two men glared with intent to kill fairly leaping from every line of them to the minds of the others. Rad- ford and Red knew that, in the moment which was to follow, one or both of them would measure his length on the storehouse floor, The sheriff knew it. But a kind of paralysis possessed them all which could not be overcome. It seemed an hour that Silsby and Watson gazed along their gun-barrels at each other. Then the guns spoke. The detonation startled the watch- 837 ers from their inertia. They saw Ward Silsby, straight, untouched, glaring like a figure of fate. Watson was lying on the floor. Before they could reach the fallen man Silsby took one stride. He bent over Watson. The white light from the electrics revealed the fact that Watson still lived. He opened his eyes and looked into the eyes of the owner of the Mesquite with terror. “Til git to kill ye, after all, Nick Bullen!” Silsby cried, his voice high and dry and hideous with its menace. He pressed the gun against the breast of the man he had called Bullen. Rad- ford reached them just as the man shot made an effort to fling himself away from the gun, He seized Silsby’s wrist in a grip that all his strength of muscle and will made powerful. He dragged the gun away from its threatening position. “Let up!” Silsby thundered. “I told ye whut Nick Bullen done to me! It’s my turn now!” The ranchman went wild. Radford called Red. Together they dragged him away from Bullen. Radford went back when the deputy took his place holding Silsby. When he reached the side of the man who had proved to be Nick Bullen he saw that it was just about over for him. Bullen whispered something. bent low to hear, Tucile—tell Lucile I—” Radford snatched the felt hat from Bullen’s head. His hand went toward the black beard, but he paused. In the eyes, clearly seen for the first time, he found certainty. “ T—I didn’t mean to kill Watson,” he whispered in intervals of the gur- eling of his own blood in which he was being drowned. “‘He got out of prison. He came to—to—hound me. He showed me—money in his—belt. He’d borrowed it—and he was going to tell how—how Id got him convicted for murder—and how Id stolen the Cochinino. I couldn’t have—Lucile know. I drove him out—at the point - Connicbools He (E@)