Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 3 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

rOSsSsroa A SEQUEL TO “LUCK” rf John Frederick WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED Author ef “Luek,”’ “fhe Hammer,” ete. Ey VAN DYCK was a whimsical gunman with a smiling eye and a deadly right hand. If he hated anything he despised greasers, who usually furnished him with sufficient enter- tainment to vary the monotony of his existence in the town of Guadalupe. But when Don Porfirio Onate became sheriff Dix hit the trail, for the reason that he had inconsiderately caused the demise of three bravoes sent by Onate to kil him in revenge for an insult. » So in due time Van Dyck came to Double Bend, and to the dance-hall of Jerry Conklin. There he met Jack, or Jacqueline, am Amazon of rare appeal, but about whom there was raised a wall of superstition. The cross she wore spelled death for all who sought her friendship, while bringing good fortune to its wearer. Jack was the daughter of Boone, dead chieftain of an eutlaw band broken up by McGurk, a “ killer ’—one surviving member of the gang, however, having survived and gone East. And the wonder of it was: Jack had tamed McGurk! But Dix was stubborn—a perverse impulse prompted him to seek her acquaintance, and after he had killed a Mexican trailer of Onate’s, thus for the time breaking the dread spell of the talisman—together with Jack he sought refuge im the desert. There, Jack said, they were safe from pursuit by Sheriff Glasgow, of Double Bend. Then, cold to all men, Jack received Dix’s advances with anger. Finally, to his suggestion that they travel northward together, she said suddenly: ‘Van Dyck, are you talking to me as man to man, or as man to woman?” He hesitated; then he said: “Tf it’s man to man, you'll go with me, Jack?” “ Right ! And the truth came to his lips. more than she who listened. Tell me straight, Van Dyck.” CHAPTER VIII. PLAIN TRAILS. T’S man to woman, Jack!” A pause came. Now that he had spoken his mind swirled as he examined the appalling truth. “1 kind of thought so,” said the girl, “Tm sorry.” And he answered: sorry, Jack.” ‘“T was hoping,” she said wearily, we could be pals.” “So was I,” he said faintly. She stood up. ‘I’m going to turn in.’ “Tl sit here by the fire a while.” “Better not. You'll have a pile of rid- ing to do to-merrow.”’ ‘But I got a pile of thinking to-do right now.” “ All right. Good-night, Van Dyck.” “So’m I. Damned “ that lt came and formed itself in words, surprising the speaker Her hand went out to him. He shook it gravely, with a reverent touch, and after- ward, with a vacant eye watched her prepa- rations for the night. They were quickly made, and almost at once she lay wrapped in her blanket with her boots under her head. He bowed his forehead against his hands and pondered the situation gloomily. He was trying to retrace the course of the rough banter which had led him, at last, to this strange exposé of his own emotions. Then vague conjecture filled his mind, of what she would do, and of how she would act toward him in the morning. He was in the position, m a way, of one who has striven to take the fort by storm, and being repulsed he must content himself with la- boriously laying siege to the place and waiting for days and weeks and even months to tell. These thoughts in turn grew dim in his mind. A pain in his back suddenly recalled him. This story began in The Argosy for January 31. 384 Go OOK (C@)