Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

16 on the brink ef @ prectpice or a cat to re- gain its feet after a fall. After the voice ef Dan there was a sway through the room, a pulse of stlence, and then three hands shot for their hips—Pierre, Diaz, and Hurley. No stop-watch could have caught the differing lengths of time which each re- quired for the draw. The muzzle of Hur- ley’s revolver was not clear of the holster— thé gun of Diaz was nearly at the level when Pierre’s weapon exploded at his hip. The bullet cut through the wrist of Hur- ley. Never again would that slender, sup- ple hand fty over the cards, doing things other than they seemed. He made no effort to escape from the next bullet, but stood lookmg down at his broken wrist; horror for the moment gave him a dignity oddly out of place with his usual appearance. He alone in all the room was moveless. The crowd, undecided for an instant, broke for the doors at the first shot; Pierre te Rouge, pitched to the floor as Diaz leaped forward, the revolver in either hand spit- ting lead and fire. It was no bultet that downed Pterre but his own cunning. He broke his fall with an outstretched left hand, while the bullets of Diaz pumped into the void space which his body had filled a moment before. Lying there at ease, he leveled the re- volver, grinming with the mirthless lust of battle, and fired over the top of the table. Fhe guns dropped from the hands of huge Diaz. He caught at his throat and stag- gered back the full length of the room, crashing against the wall. When he pitched forward on his face he was dead before he struck the floor. Pierre, now Red Pierre, indeed, rose and ran to the fatten man, and, looking at the bulk of the giant, he wondered with a cold heart. He knew before he slipped his hand over the breast of Diaz that this was death. Then he rose again and watched the still fingers which seemed to be gripping at the boards. These he saw, and nothing else, and all he heard was the rattling of the wind of winter, wrenching at some loose shingle on the roof, and he knew that he was alone in the world, for he had put out a life. THE ARGOSY. He found a strange weight pullmg dewn his right hand, and started when he saw the revolver. He replaced it in the holster automatically, and in so doing touched the barrel and found it warm. Then fear came to Pierre, the first real fear of his life. He jerked his head high and looked about him. The room was ut- terly empty. He tiptoed to the door and found even the long bar deserted, littered with tall bottles and overturned gtasses. The cold in his heart increased. A moment before he had been hand in-hand with all the mirth in that place. Now the men whose laughter he had re- peated with smiles, the men against whose sleeves his elbow had touched, were further away from him than they had been when all the snow-covered miles from’ Morgan- ‘town to the school of Father Victor had laid between them. They were men who might lose themselves in any crowd, but he was set apart with a brand, even as Hurley and Diaz had been set apart that eventful evening. He had killed a man. That fact blotted out the world. He drew his gun again and stole down the length of the bar. Once he stopped and poised the weapon before he realized that the white, fierce face that squinted at him was his own reflection ina mirror. Outside the door the free wind caught at his face, and he blessed it ir his heart, as if it -had been the touch of the hand of a friend. Beyond the long, dark, silent street the moon rose and passed up through the safe, dark spaces of the sky. He must move quickly now. The pur- suit was not yet organized, but it would . begin in a space of minutes. From the group of hatf a dozen horses which stood before the saloon he selected the best—a tall, raw-boned nag with an ugly head. Into the saddle he swung, wondering faint- ly that the theft of a horse mattered so httle to him. His was the greatest sin. All other thmgs mattered nothing. Down the long street he galloped. The sharp echoes flew out at him from every unlighted house, but not a human being was in sight. So he swung out onto the long road which wound up through the GOMIIG OOO SS (CO