Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

302 “Well, Jim?” he asked softly. “Did-you see those three cutthroats come in a while ago?” Dayton asked. “Yes, and we sent the others on their way when they came out. They said Jen- sen was furious.” “Jensen was furious at them, but he wasn’t furious at the last three. My God, Jerry, I never heard a man talk the way one of them men did! Talk about ice! He’s colder than the North Pole. If you cut his heart out, he wouldn’t bleed a drop. And he has got Jensen scared. ‘They’re out to rob the pay car to-mor- row night. Jensen had therm brought here from some place to pull the job for him. Jensen has lost his nerve. Too much whisky. Too much hate of you, Jerry, and a wildness about your girl, a sudden mad- ness that has gripped him. “Jensen has got somebody who will come to his place at dusk to-morrow and tell him where the pay car has laid over. Then they will set out for there at once with fast horses. If they can catch a train some piace beyond here they will do it. If they can’t they will drive all the way, changing horses here and there. They figure any time between midnight and dawn will be all right. 3 “Jensen begun to lay down the law to these fellows and tell them what was what. But the leader of them, that cold, hard man, broke in. ‘“““T’m runnin’ the thing,’ he says, ‘ I'll tell the men just what to do.’ “* Ain’t it my job?’ says Jensen. “Your job?’ the man sneers. ‘ Why, you haven’t got the nerve to pull off the robbery of a penny bank in a dark woods at midnight. I’m the boss. If you think I ain’t-—’ “He stopped there and I couldn’t see what he done. But I can imagine that he stuck a gun under Jensen’s nose. There was a minute of silence and then Jensen says in a shaky voice: ‘“* Of course you’re the boss. You know more about these things than I do.’ ‘“““And,’ says the man, ‘we will share and share alike.’ ‘Half to you and half to me,’ Jensen. says THE ARGOSY. says the ““*A quarter to each of us,’ man. “There was silence again. Then Jensen sighed: “All right.’ “They have got robbery down to a fine point, these fellows,” Dayton went on. “They plan to rob the pay car and then they plan to rob Jensen. I bet he never gets a cent of the money if they should get into the car.” “They may get into thie car,” Jerry said. ‘ But they won’t get away with the money. You'll have a gang on hand to-morrow night, Jim?” “TI will that,” Dayton said. ‘ The word is to come to Tchuan: and he is to set out alone. He'll pick up these fellows some- where along the way and then they’!l make their plans about getting over to wherever the car it. What’ll you want to do, Jerry?” “We'd better find out where the car is ourselves,” Jerry said, ‘and make sure about getting a train over there. We want to be ready for them.”’ ‘ All right. [ll have the men on hand,” Dayton said. ‘We'll leave Curry and Bartholomew to watch Mamie?” “Yes,” Jerry assented. ‘“ We'll have to take care of her till this thing is over.” “Then you'll be marryin’ her,” Dayton hinted. “God knows,” Jerry said. out of here.” Meantime the three robbers had gone up- town to a saloon where they could lie low. They knew the proprietor and he knew them. They were safe till they saw fit to “ Let’s get stir abroad. They sat in an upper room with a bottle of whisky on a table between them. They did not speak till they had taken several drinks apiece. Then the marble-faced man said: | “T hope this snow keeps up. When ‘we get what we want out of this Swede, we’ll crack him over the head and toss him out into the snow in the dark. I don’t know as many would mourn him. A quarter to him, he agrees, after demandin’ a half. Pah!” He poured and drank again. Jensen, too, had plunged through the ECORMICGLOO© S (C@