Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

SEVEN-LEAGUE LIZZIE. low. might have a gun, but it was the last resort. He approached the door, found it unlocked, pushed it open and entered. _ There was no one there. A lonesomer place than that cabin, with its cold, dead ashes on the hearth, dirty plates and cups on the table, discarded clothing lying about the room, and a gen- erally forsaken air, would be hard to imag- ine. But Munro had little time to think of these things. Nothing could make him more frightened, lonesome, and miserable than he was. The telephone instrument was fastened to a board, and the board nailed to the wall. Munro approached it, hesitated a moment, then took hold of the handle timidly, and turned it with fear and trembling. It failed to ring! The telephone was as dead-as old Lizzie. Again and again Munro turned the little crank. He took down the receiver and put it to his ear. He yelled into the transmit- ter imploringly, then listened, but the only sound he heard was the wind whistling around that cabin. Tears started in his eyes. He was help~ less to do a service for his friend and bene- factor. As he stood muttering prayers, curses and supplications into the transmit- ter, his voice suddenly choked and stopped. It was growing quite dark in the room. He peered out of the open door into the gather- ing gloom, and turned back to the tele- phone. A few minutes later he stumbled from the cabin, and took his way back to where he had left his old tin terror, lying in a comatose state. Hard luck was camping on his_trail. The wind was rising, and the old mackin- tosh furnished scant protection. The boy stumbled on in the gathering darkness, his head bent to the storm. Some guiding in- stinct, or supernatural agency, kept him from going astray in the darkness, and after a long while he came out in the road near his flivver. He had made the best fight he could, and dead though it was, the old car would be some company in his misery. If. THE night operator at Twin Hills was in bad humor. She had been trying for 7 ARGOSY 257 half an hour to raise the night shift at Salton. The high wind was interfering with the lines. The operator was saying some very uncomplimentary things about the Salton service, when a voiee came faint- ly over the line: “Hello! Twin Hills? Tell Mr. Volney Kinch Bedloe’s outfit is going to rob the bank to-night.” ‘“Who’s that talking? Get off the wire!” snapped the operator. “Qh, for God’s sake, tell Mr. Volney quick, Miss Ella!” came the faint voice again. 3 -“* Well, who is talking?” ‘Why, it’s—” but the line was out. The wire trouble was very simple. Kinch Bedloe, who intended to travel in a general westerly direction when his business at Twin Hills was finished, had cut the wire at the instant when the first two words of the reply were spoken. Failing to cut that wire a little sooner was a grievous er- ror on the part of Mr. Bedloe. Munro fished his mail bags out of the thicket and put them back in the car. Then he crawled in, and tried to get out of the wind. He was half frozen, hungry, and thoroughly miserable. He had tried to do his friend a favor and had failed. Old Lizzie was his only real intimate on earth, and, though she was apparently cold in death, Munro cuddled to the lifeless car- cass, and tried to find comfort, though it was too cold to sleep. ° Some time after midnight, the boy started from a frozen stupor. A car was coming from toward Salton. out into the middle of the road, and the lights of the oncoming machine picked him up as it came to a stop. ‘“‘ Hello, podner! In trouble?” asked the driver. “Yes,” replied Munro, through his chat- tering teeth. “Well, you ain’t Sot nothin’ on me. I never been over this road before, and I don’t know where I’m at. They told me He jumped | it was forty mile from D Bar to Hale’s. © That’s the place where I want to go, but it seems to me like I’ve come forty mile already.” “You’re on the right road, and just half- ECORNICGLOOOKS Col