Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

WHAT GOD In a dramatic moment he uttered to the exultant Bagley an unexpected warning: ‘“‘ Look here, Bagley, I know what you’re thinkin’. Get off that stuff, an’ get off it quick!”’ ‘““What—what—” stammered Bagley, but again in his eyes came the look of fear. “You're figurin’ on leavin’ me dead up ~ here, with some cock-an’-bull story of an accident,”’ chuckled the gray man. ‘“ An’ get down an’ record this claim yourself, an’ sell it for a fancy price an’ get the whole caboodle of coin. It ‘ll be snapped up quick—there ain’t been such a haul in years. “But you won’t do it. You'll forget it quick.” : Bagley took a threatening step forward. ‘“‘What’s to prevent me?” he demanded in an ugly tone. “Tf I ain’t back in Furney, safe and sound, by snowfall, you’re as good as dead!’’ drawled the other. “I’ve got things fixed.”’ The lurking fear returned to Bagley’s eyes. His ensuing solitude, that his partner should return safe and sound, southward, was ludicrous—and grim. They returned as swiftly as possible to frontier civilization. The claim was re- corded. They spent the winter in interest- ing capital from Toronto and New York. With the next spring break-up they piloted some financiers and experts up into that district, that white men’s feet had not trod till their own had explored it. After that negotiations hung fire only for a few days over the point of what the com- pany would pay for the claim. They wanted to pay sixty thousand dollars. The gray partner, upon whom Con Bagley had to depend, as the bald head held a far sharper and better versed brain than that which lay under his own red poll, insisted upon seventy-five thousand dollars. He won his point. . Bagley, who had been at his partner’s elbow during the negotiations, until he had grown uneasy through recognizing in one of the experts a man he feared might re- member him in an episode of ten years before, and “ have something on him,’’ sat up-stairs in his room in a Toronto hotel DESTROYS. 127 and watched for his partner to emerge from an opposite bank. He had already signed such papers as had been presented to him. Hungrily, suspiciously he watched. His lifelong dream was all but realized. That the money came honestly did not matter. However, his gaze was suspicious. His room was only one floor up. Meigs would have to emerge from the bank upon the street. Maimed, and of halting gait as he was, he was of unescapable personality. If he tried to make a getaway, Bagley, hurry- ing to the street, would have him caught before he had gone a block. He breathed a sigh of relief. Meigs was coming out of the bank door, a spruce but horrible figure. He was leering at the group of capitalists, shaking their hands in parting, He crossed the street slowly, painfully to the hotel. At the window above crouched Bagley, grinning, rubbing his hands. If not the whole of it, at least the half, thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars, was his! “* Certified checks, huh? mine?”’ * You ain’t got any, Bagley. Here’s just one certified check for seventy-five thou- sand dollars, payable to the order of—” He paused. His trembling, hazel eye, and the staring orb of glass rested on Con Bagley’s whitening, brutish. face. Slowly, in his high, rasping voice, he finished his sentence. “Payable to the order of The Alberta Forest and Development Company, of Laidlaw, Alberta!” While Bagley stood transfixed, glaring, he pursued his amazing explanation. “IT buffaloed you all through, Bagley. The claim was filed jointly; you was right there; I had to give you that much. But I figured on you bein’ a damn fool after- ward, which you was. In those papers you signed was one givin’ over your half to me, ‘for a dollar an’ valuable considerations.’ You’re out. Here’s the dollar, apply it on yer room rent.” He flung a bill upon the table. — ‘‘ About the Alberta company,” he added, ‘“‘T’m representin’ ’em.” Well, where’s CONMUC NOOLK CO