Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

LITTLE DARK. SHIPS. _. Chard was standing six feet away from the table. a lashed steer at the cold eyed commission- er, seated on the biscuit box. A weary, scoffing smile split the dry mask of mud about his boyish lips. “ You’re funnier than the old mummy in the court whe threw me among the convicts at Poison River—for life, Mr. Commis- sioner! like out on those swamps!” — Lester flinched and twisted the papers under his elbow. “ I’ve asked you a ques- tion,” he said sternly. “ The swamp and the black gangs at Poison River are still there—if you don’t answer!” — Chard quaked to his reef-scarred heels. For an instant his brain reeled in the blind vertigo that catches men before they die. The white. moisture of his agony crawled through the caked mud slits under his eyes. “Phere was a reason why EF shot Mike Conlon, Mr. Commissioner!” he faltered and stopped. _ “Tt -was never given at your trial. What ‘was the reason?” Lester’s face had become as pitiless as the mask of a savage. He was civilization’s last gesture In that abode of crime and cunning. He was there to sift, punish or redress the bitter wrongs of native = a hie man alike. Chard’s eyes became alive with sudden understanding. This man was not like the others—the gang of courthouse wolves who had mocked and jeered at his silence, a si- lence forced upon him by the vicious mind- ed old judge who had sought to. drag a young girl’s name into a story that reeked of crime! And in a court packed with the scum of the ports, yellow men and black, all agog for the name of the white girl for whom Chard had fired his fatal shot! Chard’s voice sounded clear in the silence. Behind his stiff, erect figure, the sun stooped -Hke a huge blood drop to the rim of the sea. “The reason I shot Conlon was for the reason that men shoot iron lizards and the snakes over there!” away to the mud bank, “I was a super- carge on board -Conlon’s- schooner, White ‘Witch. It was my second trip and last. -- I found that Conlon was owned body and He looked up with the jerk of You know what the black gang is” ‘His hands gestured Saas by a slaver named Van Galt, in 1 Son- 2 golo. “Van Galt owns a dozen dives nd gambling houses in Songolo and Macassar. He keeps scores of girls in his orchestras a and saloons. It looks respectable until you — see a list of his agencies that end in the — cinnabar boats and the slave hells of — = Malay! ‘Vm just a man like you, Mr. Commis- sioner. I didn’t spend my employer’s time fussing around the old wops and divides = who used to fill Van Galt’s dives. But I — jibbed at the cinnabar boats—manned eS French convicts from Noumea—and the — = = bleached sepulchres Van Galt made of the men and women who fell into- his black © holds. “Well, the White Witch lay off Putak, one night, in October. Conlon asked me to ZS = go ashore and wait orders for cargo. Only — a week before I had picked up a letter from = It was full of in- = structions for the carrying off of a white —_ Van Galt to Conlon. girl from Putak, and two others from Port = Moresby.” ~The commissioner r put nis band to. his —— as though a blood eee tad ee ee his heart.. He did not speak. Chard” con-— = tinued: “Conlon had friends everywhere; in the - = courthouses, in the customs, and among the — native police. tickling. And in a beach town like Putak, ten pounds will get a man or woman tied by. the feet! “Now, I knew = name of the girl i in Putak, Mr. Commissioner. Her father’ = store had its back fence on the beach. Never mind who she is. She’d never. ar of Van Galt or Conlon, or me or a score of other damned loafers ready to link her = name with blackbirders and slave agents. Van Galt’s money— did the * = ae -“ Therefore, Mr. Commissioner, I bring = you to that back fence that ran down to the _ = = = beach. Instead of joining the boys in Raff- erty’s whisky shop, I burrowed into ea= sand and waited for Conlon to come ight up to the fence. He came with the Bet old blanket on his arm, in case the yOURE = lady might start sereaming._ The schooner’s - dingy stood ready to pick him up, once he. was: clear of the house with the girl. ——= ‘comicboo Sx << —-