Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 3 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

388 saying, he balanced his stubby feet on the edge of his desk and smiled again benefi- ciently upon his visitor. “T have called,” went on Senor Onate, “to find out how the election promises, and to learn what I may do.” He was never quite sure of his English, -and the result was that he always spoke it with a painful grammatical correctness. “Everything!” exploded the governor, “You can do everything, Onate. I came into office by the flicker of an eyelash, and i’m liable to go out again by a lot bigger “margin. Some of the boys don’t like my policies. They claim that I’m too partial to the Mexicans.”’ Here he winked broadly, the whole side of his face wrinkling with his mirth. * And of course that’s nonsense, Onate!” ** Ah,” murmured Senor Onate, “ natur- ally it is nonsense. You will smile, sir, to know that in my district the Mexicans think you hold a prejudice against them.” The governor still smiled, but in a sick- ly fashion. “ But you, Onate, will round them out of such foolishness?” “1?” said Onate, and he waved his pudgy arms. “ I do what I can, but when ten thou- sand tongues start wagging I cannot stop them all—not without great trouble.” The governor knew the symptoms. He waited for the request which he knew was coming, and guessed at its size by the length of the prelude—and infallible token. The picture of the big house with the white veranda grew dim in his mind’s eye. “However,” went on Onate smoothly, “TI do what I can. I talk here; I talk there. But at my heart, ah, senor, my heart is troubled with doubts.” “The hell it is!” exploded the governor, rolling half out of his chair. But he gripped the arms of it and con- trolled himself with a mighty effort. “T’m sorry to hear it, Onate. Let’s have the reason.” ! As for Senor Onate, he was rolling every second of the situation under his tongue, like a seasoned gourmand. 3 “T wrote not many days ago asking the governor for a thing—for so little a thing— it was merely to scratch with a pen on paper THE ARGOSY. —so! But there came back a note of few words that said: ‘I will not do it.’ I was much grieved. I am still troubled.” “I refused you?” queried the governor, in real astonishment. ‘‘ What was it about? The matter’s out of my mind.” ‘““It was the matter of a man’s life,” said Onate. Owing to the natural color of his skin he could not turn red, but he did achieve a gruesome purple. His next words snapped out with a little harsh purr after each one. It was like the warning of the rattler before it strikes. “The Senor Van Dyck—the swine—the pig—the dog who murdered my brother— my brother Vicente!” The violence of his emotions set him wheezing, and he felt back in his chair with heaving chest and closed eyes. In the moment during which he could see without being seen the face fo the governor hard- ened into sardonic contempt. He smoothed it to a look of serious concern when one of Onate’s small eyes squinted open again. “About that matter,” he said, “I re- member now. But your enemies advised you to send the letter to me. It would have been to your harm if I had done what you asked.” “To my harm? To mine?” cried Onate, so surprised that he forgot both anger and grief, “ Exactly,” explained the governor, ‘““ When I got your letter asking that Van Dyck be outlawed by proclamation I looked into the thing. This is what I found: Van Dyck is a big, husky fellow who has run about getting into mischief all his life. But there’s nothing venomous about him, and though he’s killed several men he’s always acted in self-defense. I can’t have a man like that outlawed, Onate.”’ “And my brother,” said Onate, with ominous quiet, “is he not to be avenged?” The heat which had been accumulating for some time in the governor broke out in a noisy surge. “Your brother,” he said fiercely, “ got two hired murderers and attacked Dix Van Dyck from behind. Van Dyck tore a shelf down from the wall of the saloon, brained two of the men, and strangled your brother VOOKS MUNG (C@ (C@