Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

WHAT GOD DESTROYS. pursuing his fitful search amid lonely for- ests and waters, camping by promising ranges that presented, to all his searchings, a gray sneer. With the arrival of the second spring he was away again, alone as before. The ‘big strike ” had become an obsession with him. The world owed him his haul; he would have it, one way or another. June was well advanced when, one glori- ous evening, as the veil of the dusk was settling down over a scene of grandeur, and the shadows of mighty trees mirrored a still lake, Con Bagley was preparing his supper by the camp-fire upon the shore. Suddenly he looked up and listened. For days he had not seen a human being, not even an Indian. Yet it was unmis- takable, the deepening dip of a paddle around a bend. A canoe swept into view. The occupant saw him and swung his prow his way. Soon, slowly, laboriously, a figure got out of the grounded canoe, and advanced to- ward him in the twilight, which was not deep enough yet to obscure an. apparition that was startling. Con Bagley stared at the hunched, meager figure of the gray man. His hair pulled at the scalp and his flesh bristled. The face that stared at him was terrible. It was scarred almost beyond human semblance. One side of the face showed a depression, as if it had been caved in. A hazel eye blinked at Bagley; there was an odd, fixed something in the stare of the other. In an instant he realized that it was made of glass. The twisted mouth lifted at one side, in a smile like the grimace of a dog. The dazzling flash between the withered lips told of artificial teeth. The chin was held low, as if there were a permanent stiffening of the neck. And Bagley had noticed, as he approached him, that he walked with jerky steps, as if the muscular freedom of. his legs were permanently impaired. “You're Con Bagley, ain’t your” The voice was high and rasping, telling of wheezy lung power. The gray man was breathing heavily with his exertions in the canoe. ‘ Yes,’”’ rumbled Bagley sullenly, relieved 125 at hearing the voice of the uncanny visitor. Like most woodsmen, he was superstitious. ‘Who the hell are you?” Came a rasping chuckle; somehow it tinged Bagley’s blood anew with chill fore- boding. ‘] ain’t any one you ever expected. I’m Henry Meigs.” “Henry Meigs?” repeated Bagley, cring-. ing. Perhaps—perhaps there had been somebody who had something on him. “Yes. An’ I’ve been trailin’ you for months. I heard you was on a prospectin’ trip. I’ve come to be your partner.” “What are you talkin’ about?” de- manded Bagley. “ I don’t want no partner! What—who—” ‘“ Don’t want no partner, eh?” replied the gray.man, with a grisly laugh. “I guess not! Whether you was plannin’ to make a steal, an’ let George do it, or prospectin’ for honest gold. No, I guess you don’t want no partner; but you’re goin’ to have!” ‘“‘ You—you—.” spluttered Bagley. He could have killed the fragile hulk before him with a blow, and no one would have been the wiser in these solitudes. But somehow he did not launch it. The single, good eye twinkled cunningly; the glass optic glittered strangely in the gathering dusk. ‘“‘ Henry Meigs,” announced the stranger, “is the man who caught your partner, Herb Mason, robbin’ the safe of that Alberta Development Company. Henry Meigs is the man who you didn’t know about, that insisted on Mason bringin’ him along up to Furney to meet you. Henry Meigs was the ¢/ird man in that deal. You didn’t know it, Bagley, but that haul was goin’ to be split three ways.” Bagley, staring, reeled back. He shud- dered; his evil mouth gaped in amaze. “Gets ye, eh?” chuckled the gray man. ‘You see, Mason was drunk most of the way east; drunk an’ conscience-struck. Wa’n’t he a damn fool to have a conscience? An’ I guess he must have blabbed every- thing he ever heard. Yah, Bagley, the things I know about you! An’ most of all, about the Alberta robbery!” He stumped toward the fire. The deepea- ing of evening brought the northern chill. GOMIIGIOO SS (CO