Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

LUCK. 9 It’s red silk, like the hair of- Irene. Seein’ you, boy, it ain’t so hard to die. Look up! So; Pierre, my son! Are you scared of me, boy?” “Tm not afraid.” ‘Not with them eyes you ain’t. Now that you’re here, pay the coyotes and let em go off to gnaw the bones.” He dragged out a small canvas bag from beneath the blankets and gestured toward the two lurkers in the corner. ‘“* Take it, and be damned to you!” A dirty, yellow hand seized the bag; there was a chortle of exultation, and the two scurried out of the room. “Three weeks they’ve watched an’ waited for me to go out, Pierre. Three weeks they’ve waited an’ sneaked up to my bed an’ sneaked away agin; seein’ my eyes open.”’ Looking into their fierce fever brightness, Pierre understood why they had quailed. For the man, though wrecked beyond hope of living, was terrible still. The thick, gray stubble on his face could not hide alto- gether the hard lines of mouth and jaw, and on the wasted arm the hand was gro- tesquely huge. It was horror that widened the eyes of Pierre as he looked at Martin Ryder; it was a grim happiness that made his lips almost smile. ‘““'You’ve taken holy orders, lad?” ¢¢ No.”’ ‘“‘ But the black dress?” “Tm only a _ novice. vows.”’ ‘“And you don’t hate me—you hold no grudge against me for the sake of your mother, Pierre?”’” He took the heavy hand. ‘Are you not my father? And my mother was happy with you. For her sake I love you.”’ ‘The good Father Victor. to me.” | “IT came of my own will. He would not have let me go.” ‘““ He—he would have kept my flesh and blood away from me?” ‘Do not reproach him. He would have kept me from a sin.” | ‘Sin? By God, boy, no matter what I’ve done, is it sin for my son to come to me? What sin?” I’ve sworn no He sent you ‘ The sin of murder!”’ “Hal? ‘“T have come to find McGurk.” CHAPTER IV. THE CORNER PLOT. |e some old father-bear watching his cub bare teeth against a stalking lynx, half proud and half fearful of such courage, so the dying cattleman looked at his son. Excitement set a high and dangerous color in his cheek. His eyes were too bright. ‘“‘ Pierre—brave boy! Look at me. I ain’t no imitation-man, even now, but I ain’t a ghost of what I was. There wasn’t no man [ wouldn’t of met fair and square with bare hands or with a gun. Maybe my hands was big, but they were fast on the draw. I’ve lived all my life with iron on the hip, and my six-gun has seven notches. “But McGurk downed me fair and square. There wasn’t no murder. I was out for his hide, and he knew it. I done the provokin’, an’ he jest done the finishin’, that was all. It hurts me a lot to say it, but he’s a better man than I was. A kid like you, why, he’d jest eat you, Pierre.” Pierre le Rouge smiled again. He felt a stern and aching pride to be the son of this man. : “So that’s settled,’ went on Martin Ryder, ‘‘ an’ a damned good thing it is. Son, you didn’t come none ‘too soon. I’m goin’ out fast. There ain’t enough light left in me so’s I can see my own way. Here’s all I ask: When I die touch my eyelids soft an’ draw ’em shut—I’ve seen the look in a dead man’s eyes. Close ’em, and I know Ill go to sleep an’ have good dreams. And down in the middle of Morgantown is the buryin’-ground. I’ve ridden past it a thousand times an’ watched a corner plot, where the grass grows quicker than.it does anywheres else in the cemetery. Pierre, I’d die plumb easy if I knew I was goin’ to sleep the rest of time in that place.” “Tt shall be done.” ‘But that corner plot, it would cost a pile, son. And I’ve no money. I gave what I had to them wolf-eyed boys, Bill an’ Bert. Money was what they wanted, comicloool CO