Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 3 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

A MAN TO. ‘““ We'll fool ’em proper,” he lipped rather than uttered. The companion doors were closed, but they opened noiselessly. The stairs were carpeted with corrugated rubber that muf- fled all sound. Two men sat at the cabin table, leaning forward, hands and forearms outstretched, fingering something. One Rainey recognized as the captain, Simms— a heavy, square-built man, gray-haired, clean-shaven, his flesh tanned, yet some- how unhealthy, as if the bronze was close to tarnishing. There were deep puffs under the gray, tired eyes. The other was younger, tall, nervously active, with dark eyes and a dark mustache and beard, the latter trimmed to a Van- dyke. Between them was a long, slim sack of leather, a miner’s poke. It was half full of something that stuffed its lower ex- tremity solid, without doubt the same sub- stance that glistened in the mouth of the sack and the palms of the two men—gold— coarse dust of gold! Rainey felt himself thrust to one side as the blind man straddled across the bottom of the companionway, towering in the cabin while he thrust his stick with a thump on the floor and thundered, in a bellow that seemed to fill the place and come tumbling back in deafening echo: “ Karluk ahoy!” - The face of Captain Simms paled, the tan turned to a sickly gray, and his jaw dropped. Rainey saw fear come into his eyes. His companion did not stir a»muscle except for the quick shift of his glance, but went on sitting at the table, the gold in one palm, the fingers of his other hand resting on the grains. the “Jim + Lund!” gasped captain hoarsely: ~ “TPhat’s me, you skulking sculpin! Thought I was bear meat by this, didn’t ye, blast your rotten soul to hell! But I’m back, Bill Simms. Back, an’ this time you don’t slip me!” Jim Lund’s face was purple red with rage, great veins standing out upon it so swollen that it seemed they must surely burst and discharge their congested con- tents. Out of the purpling flesh his scarlet hair curled in diabolical effect. His teeth 323 gleamed through his beard, strong, yellow, far apart. He looked, Rainey thought, like a blind Berserker, restrained only by his affliction. “You left me blind on the floe, Bill Simms!” he roared. . “ Blind, in a drivin’ blizzard with the ice breakin’ up! If I didn’t have use for yore carcass I’d twist yore head from yore scaly body like I’d pull up a carrot.” Lund’s fingers opened and closed con- vulsively. Before Rainey the vision of the threatened crime rose clear. “TY looked for you, Jim,” pleaded the captain, and to Rainey his words lacked conviction. “I didn’t know you were blind. blizzard broke loose.” Lund answered with an roar. ““ And there’s others present, Jim. I can explain it to you when we’re by ourselves. When you’re a mite calmer, Jim.” Lund banged his stick down on the table with a smashing blow that made the man with the Vandyke beard, still-silent, keenly observant, draw back his arm with a catlike swiftness that only just evaded the stroke. The heavy wood landed fairly on the filled half of the poke and caused some of the gold to leap out of the mouth. “What’s that I hit?” asked Lund. “Soft, like a rat.” felt for the poke, and found it, lifted it, hefted it, his forehead puckered with deep seams, discovered the open end, poured out some of the colors on one palm, and used that for a mortar, grinding at the grains with his finger for a pestle, still weighing the stuff with a slight up-and-down move- ment of his hand. He nodded as he slipped the poke into a side pocket, and the cabin grew very silent. Lund’s face was grimly terrible. Rainey could have gone when the blind man HIS MATE. inarticulate He lunged forward, I heard you shout just before the - reached for the gold and left the ladder © clear. He had meant to at the first op- portunity, but now he was held fascinated by what was about to happen, and Lund stepped back across the companionway again. “So,” said Lund, his deep voice muffled by some swift restraint. ‘“‘ You found it. GCoOmichdoo <S (C@