Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

LUCK. the same gait, only more uncertainly than ever, close and closer. There was something familiar now about the fellow’s size, and something in the turn of his head. Sud- denly she rode out, crying: ‘“ Wilbur!” He swerved, saw the white horse, threw up his hands high above his head, and went backward, reeling, with a hoarse scream which Jacqueline would never forget. She galloped to him and swung to the ground. “It’s me—Jack. D’you hear?” He would not lower those arms, and his eyes stared wildly at her. On his forehead the blood had caked over a cut; his shirt was torn to rags, and the hair matted wildly over his eyes. She caught his hands and pulled them down. “ It’s not McGurk! Don’t you hear me? It’s Jack!” He reached out, like a blind man who has to see by the sense of touch, and stroked her face. ‘“ Jack!” he whispered at last. God!”’ ‘““What’s happened?” McGurk—”’ A violent palsy shook him, and he could not go on. “| know—I understand. He took .your guns and left you to wander in this hell! Damn him! I wish—” She stopped. ‘““ How long since you’ve eaten?” -Yearet”’ “We'll eat—McGurk’s food!”’ But she had to assist him up the slope to the trees, and there she left him propped against a trunk, his arms fallen weakly at his sides, while she built the fire and cooked the food. Afterward she could hardly eat, watching him devour what she placed be- fore him; and it thrilled all the woman in her to a strange warmth to take care of the long-rider. Then, except for the disfigured face and the bloodshot eyes, he was him- self. ‘Up there? What happened?” He pointed up the valley. ‘“ The girl and Pierre. They’re together.” “She found him?” oe Yes.”’ He bowed his head and sighed. “ Thank (The oLT “And the horse, Jack?” He said it with awe. ‘“T took the horse from McGurk.” ra You! ”) ; She nodded. After all, it was not alto- gether a lie. “You killed McGurk?” She said coolly: ‘I let him go the way he let you, Dick. He’s on foot in the moun- tains without a horse or a gun.” “Tt isn’t possible!” ‘““'There’s the horse for proof.” He looked at her as if she were something more than human. ‘Our Jack—did this?” ‘We've got to start on. Dick?” ‘“ A thousand miles now.” Yet he staggered when he tried to rise, and she made him climb up to the saddle. The white horse walked on, and she kept her place close at the stirrup of the rider. He would have stopped and dismounted for her a hundred times, but she made him keep his place. ‘““What’s ahead of us, Jack? last of the gang?” “The last of Boone’s gang. _ We are.” “The old life over again?” ‘What else?” ‘Yes; what else?” “Are you afraid, Dick?”’ ‘Not with you for a pal. Seven was too many; with two we can rule the range.” ‘Partners, Dick?” How could he tell that her voice was gone so gentle because she was seeing in her mind’s eye another face than his? He leaned toward her, thrilling. “Why not something more than partners, after a while, Jack?” She smiled strangely up to him. “Because of this, Dick.” And fumbling at her throat, she showed him the glittering metal of the cross; an instinct made him swerve the horse away from her. ‘The cross goes on, but what of you, Jacke?” ‘““ God knows,” she said, “‘ not I!”’ And a long silence fell between them. End.) Can you walk, Were the Gomichbooks (EO) ie