Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

142 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. It was a strange scene which they enacted, the woman pleading and the man aloof and scornful. Wageesh turned and darted a glance at me without warning. She put her lips up to Ledoux’s ears then and whispered a word or two to him. Years have passed since that unforget- table night wrote its story in my mind. Then, I did not know what those cryptic words of hers were. I know now. The change in Ledoux was instantaneous. His shoulders went back. A cold, leering grin creased his lips. He actually laughed as he turned his sneering, contemptuous eyes on me. He pushed Wageesh out of his way with a great sweep of his hand and came up tome. Beside himself, he cried: “T tought it was pretty fonny how tings come out so well for you. Mon Dieu! Now we see who is the liar, the thief, and the cheat!’ And he cursed me in his patois. I was stunned. I didn’t know how to answer him. I couldn’t imagine what I had done to bring this denunciation down on me. How could I know that Wageesh, with fiendish cunning, was playing us off against each other, that even then we were hope- lessly caught in her trap; that her one pur- pose, I was sure, was to get Ledoux out of our hands?” And how was I know the fateful import of the words which Wageesh had whispered in Ledoux’s ears? CHAPTER XXIV. SHEILA DECIDES. WAS past losing my temper with Le- doux. I resorted to his tactics and laughed back at him. It infuriated him. He raised his hand to strike me, but Wageesh deflected it by raising her bound arms. “Go on,” I encouraged him, “ don’t be bashful. If you’ve got anything on me, now is the time to tell it!’ I believe he would have blurted out his secret if Wageesh had not interfered. “ Forget what he says; his mouth always run away with him.” She turned upon Le- doux and lashed him with her tongue. “You think that is the way to ask a favor?” she exclaimed angrily. “‘ This man is not bad man; he do what he think is right. You talk like that he not let you come with me.” . “Oh,” I smiled, “ have no fear of that; he won’t go with you, Wageesh. He stays here.”’ “But he wants to go,” she insisted. “You ask him.” “So you want to go, eh, Ledoux?” I queried lightly. “Yes, I go with her,” he answered sul- lenly. “ [’m surprised,” I admitted, ‘‘ but that’s all; you stay right here with me.” “But mebbe you change your mind,” pleaded Wageesh. “I don’t say he must come. No! Nor do I say we take him if you refuse me. I beg you, please, let him come with me; he is my man.” The diplomacy with which she made her demand was not lost on me. I could ap- preciate it for what it was worth, but my decision remained unchanged. “Tf you let me go, I come back nex’ spring,” Ledoux promised. “T may not wait for spring. In three or four weeks, if the weather breaks right, I’m going to take a chance on getting out. Tl need you. I’m willing to admit, Le doux, that you are a good man on the trail. There isn’t a better one in the north. The help you give will go a long way toward softening what you get. It will be a chance for you.” He was frankly taken back by this, and yet it appealed to the gambler in him, for he knew what the odds against our getting out were. ‘““T come back, then, next month,” he declared. “You might change your mind,” said I, turning away, shaking my head. “ Your word doesn’t mean a thing to me.” “ But he cannot run away,” Wageesh exclaimed. ‘“ You can find him when you want him. I promise you / bring him back to you.” It was idle to continue this. I walked away from them, refusing to listen further. Gomichbooks (E@)