The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 2 — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

SOUTHWEST OF THE LAW. ‘Eve! You are coming, aren’t you? You aren’t sick, are you, dear?” “Hear him?” whispered the Indian, the merciless savage. Evelyn Reade felt with her finger until the sharp point of the dagger stung through the khaki of her waist. She stepped toward the doctor. ‘“ Yes—yes,”’ she forced tlhe words from her lips—‘‘ Yes, I hear him. I am ready.” He did that which she had thought he would. He sprang toward her, unable to wait for a betrothal kiss. An instant later he dropped back with a grunt that the girl would hear in nightmares for the rest of her life. She had struck too high. He was fum-. bling feebly for the pistol in his belt. The blood was gushing from severed ar- teries under his arm. It soiled her hands sickeningly as she snatched his pistol from him. ‘She point- ed the weapon into his face. To pull the trigger might easily seem a coup-de-grdace to put him out of his misery. Yet she could not bring herself to do it. ‘“ Shoot!”’ he bade her feebly. Some- thing of the old, sane, decent light seemed to come back into his face with the let- ting of his blood. “ Shoot! I deserve it. Oh, Dios—what have I done?” ‘“ Eve!” came her father’s voice once more. She flung the pistol to the floor. Pin- hon had left his key in the door, turning it behind him after he had entered. A handkerchief on which she wiped the blood from her hands was dropped behind as she rushed to her father’s aid. And it seemed that all her terrible ex- perience and the awful deed she had done was gone for naught. The watchman stood before her, between her and her | father. In his hand was another pistol like the one she had foolishly discarded. ‘“ Back!” he commanded. “ Back!” He came toward her menacingly. In- stinctively she shrank before him. In another second he would have discovered what she had done to the man he ac- knowledged as his boss. 4 ARGOSY 241 “Eve!” She thanked Heaven even in that moment that her father could hardly hear a word or sound of what’ was hap- pening. ‘Yes, father, I’m coming,” she called. But her voice was thick and weak. And the bulky man before her, a full- blooded negro from the coast, pressed her further back. ‘“Coming!’’ She wondered when. It seemed that she must be too late. ‘Let her pass!” It was the voice of Pinhon. The man hardly recognized it. He pressed still further. If he had but heard before he had opportunity to see! She was silent, hoping that Pinhon would summon strength to speak again. The burly black man shoved her to the door, back through it— And the silence was broken. The sound that came wrung a shriek of snap- ping nerves from the girl’s lips. The face of the man before her turned an ashy gray. Clear and sharp in the damp air came the long-drawn toot of the company steamer’s whistle. CHAPTER XVI. MIGHT. Rk. HAGGINS, it appears, was not quite capable of being the absolute- ly perfect company’s man. His heart aflame with desire for a speedy marriage, he had done things which were not so un- mistakably for the best interests of all concerned, as were the most of his moves. He had developed a restored faith in Phillips’s ability to handle the men as he handled them. Knowing Evelyn Reade’s quick accuracy with a pistol, believing that the boat was well stocked with gaso- line for an emergency, perhaps not any too anxious about what effect movement might have on her father, he had gone off when real caution would have prompted more delay. The result was inward uneasiness, al- most from the time he left the plant. By COMMICOOOKS (C@