The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 195: what you’re looking at

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

Complete F Novelette \ Pa ee ay p FROLICSOME wind was stir- A ring up spirals of white dust out of Grapevine Flat and sweeping them toward the far-off east- ern barricade of blue hills. Low on the northern horizon a cloud snuggled against a peak. It was a tiny smudge, seemingly no larger than a biscuit and innocent of mien. From time to time it shifted, swinging like a pendulum, the sport of counter currents of air. Peggy Gilbert had watched that black speck for an hour. Wise in the lore of the desert, its presence at that particular point of the sky-line caused her no end of uneasiness. For the twentieth time she pulled up the team of mules and studied the omen closely. Then she popped the blacksnake savagely into the animals’ flanks, swung them sharply out of their course, and steered straight for the broken range three miles to the west. Across the roadless region the high spring~ wagon jolted and swayed, plunging into hollows and out again. It was desperate driving, and the 12 A esert 897 ot man stretched upon the _ bedding groaned often and protested in vain. Again and again he tried bracing against the sideboards as a means of sparing himself the merciless hustling. But his strength was unequal to the task. He was slung about violently, tossing and bumping in his narrow quarters with every list and lunge of the speeding wagon. “No, no! Peggy, I can’t stand it! Please, Peggy, Peggy!” He chattered the appeal many times before she heard. “You shut up, will yer?” she flared over her shoulder. ** Yer lucky you’re alive, Pete Gilbert.. [ oughter dump you out, that’s what I oughter do. You're no good. A boozer and a cow- ard, that’s what y’are! Lettin’ a little shrimp like Jim Miles beat yer up, and me, yer wife, knocks the stuffin’s outer him after. You big calf!. If yer wasn't sick 'd— Anyway, you cooked yer goose with me, I can tell yer!” To emphasize her words she swung the whip with renewed vigor, and the lagging brutes galloped on again. For a while nothing was said. The man gave up. He drooped visibly, his COPMICLOOOKS (C@)