Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

MINIONS OF THE LAW, “T haven’t any proof to substantiate my statements,” Rube protested. “It would just be my word against some one else’s.” “ But, look here, Rube, you come into Glynn's place and ask Rip to step outside with you. He steps, and the two of you walk away in the dark toward ’debe town and the next thing we know, ‘some one has drilled Rip Jaimson through the neck. That looks bad for you, young fellow, bad enough to warrant me putting you in the hoosegow. In a case like this no one is above suspicion, myself inclusive. Rip’s laid out for six weeks and it’s up to me to round up the centipedes who turned this trick.” “Tf I tell you what I told Rip, will you keep it to yourself?” | “Tm not in the habit of spilling con- ' fidential information.”’ “ Well, last night, about a half hour be- fore I found- Rip at Glynn’s place, I was standing by that big post in front of Cris- well’s corral’ and three men came round - the corner from the direction of Warren- ‘ ship’s house. One of them was talking in a low tone, but you could tell that he was pretty sore about something. Near as I could make out he was accusing one of the trio of neglecting to do his part in some undertaking, because of a skirt. He said something about the pay for the railroad construction gang having arrived in Hol- brook a week ago, and as near as I could make out he said: ‘ Instead of keepin’ us posted you’ve been in here lickin’ up hard liquor and shinin’ up to this here woman.’ ”’ “One of them a tall fellow?” J inter- rupted. “Yes, Mr. Bronson—” “ Just drop that mister, it makes me ner- vous like as if you were going to present a bill, er something!” ‘When they passed between me and the light in the Palace of Pleasure, I saw that one of them was unusually tall and one of them was a very small fellow and the third one, who was walking between the other two, was—”’ The young fellow stopped and looked at me as if he didn’t know whether I was just bluffing or held the cards. ‘“ Maybe,” I said by way of helping him along, ‘‘ the third fellow was Tuey.” 5A 705 “T was going to say, Mr.—er—Red, that the light was rather bad and, maybe, I had a drink or two more than I needed, but the third fellow did look like Tuey a little, and when he told the tall fellow to just forget about the woman because she wasn’t any business of his, I thought the voice sounded like Tuey’s.’ “All right, Rube, for the present we'll give him the benefit of the doubt; maybe it was Tuey and maybe it wasn’t. What next?” “ Well, they crossed the street and stood at the end of Barnitt’s loading platform for several minutes and while. I couldn’t hear all they said, I heard one of them say that it would be another month before the money for the pay roll of the construction gang would be sent out again. “Right after that I heard a funny, rasp- ing voice say something about driving a bunch over the Big Rim just to keep their hands in, and then the voice that sounded like Tuey’s said something about Jim Bar- _ ber and his holding a big bunch of steers near Sunset Pass. I coultn’t-hear all they said, but this fellow ended up by saying: ‘ And if you plug him for good, so much ‘the better.’ ” ‘““And that’s what you: told Rip ast night?” “Yes, Mr. Red, and as they moved away I heard the tall fellow say something about , spotting ‘this Barber hombre before he drags it,’ and the peculiar voice broke in with the suggestion that ‘ maybe this mav- erick might have some spare change in his pocket.’ Just as they got out of hearing from me, the fellow who may have been Tuey was warning the other two that Bar- ber was quick on the draw. I think the . three of them were laughing when they went around the corner of the trading store, heading for Long Horn saloon.” ‘“ And what did you do?” I asked. “Went lJooking for Barber, I had seen him in the Monarch just a few minutes be- fore, but when I got down there they said he had just started toward ’dobe town, in- tending to get his horse and hit the trail. I ° didn’t know what to do, so I hunted up Mr. Jaimson and told him and he thought it might be well for him to drift over into comiiclookks CO@