Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 13, 1925 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

060 “I knew you’d be interested,” he said; and Bud decided that, some day, he must kill this man. Fenton was too catlike, too subtle to be called a man, in the opinion of Bud Halli- day. If Bud had known something of the world beyond the Prairies which bounded his home town, he would have known that the quality in Fenton which caused him instinctively to fear and dislike the man beyond the fear and dislike of wholesome rivalry, was a quality of almost feminine Insight; something which was not quite human. ‘““ My theory,” the even, modulated voice of Fenton continued, “is that this Conway who has run Stockbridge such a chase, has pulled the wool over your sheriff’s eyes because he uses his brains in a way you people haven’t learned.” ‘““ Shore,’ said Bud. “If we used our brains the way he does we'd all be in the State pen.” Fenton smiled tolerantly. itched. ‘You don’t understand what I mean.” Fenton turned to Marion, obviously appeal- ing to one whom he felt confident would understand. “‘ What J mean is that you are dealing with a man who can’t be dismissed as a common criminal. It doesn’t appear as if you have a single man in the county who is capable of seeing Conway in any other light save that of another Jesse James. Certainly none of your officials can; and yet this particular bandit is as far removed from Jesse James as Robin Hood was removed from Ali Baba.” “ How do you mean?” Marion hung on the young man’s words as though he spoke prophecies and uttered unfathomable truth. Bud, standing a little below them both, saw them as the spectator at a play sees the actors on the stage above him. The still clearness of the air and the unabating glare of the yellow sunlight which bathed the picture added to the effect of drama, and at the same time as he realized that no chosen beauty of the footlights could pre- sent a picture more fair, more infinitely alluring than Marion as she stood there in the sunlight, Bud Halliday grudgingly ad- mitted that no actor he had seen could have Bud’s fingers ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY appeared more picturesque, more handsome in the fine proportion of feature and of limb than Fenton did as he loomed above her, seeking her eyes with his compelling gaze. Bud learned new things in his capacity for hatred as he watched these two; and he discovered a new element in the illimit- able manifestations of love. Love, he learned, could be painful; love could be well nigh intolerable. And Marion, her eyes warmly gazing into the nandsome face of Crazy Jim Fenton, wanted to know just what his infernally insulting estimate of the intelligence of all Clay County meant. ‘“T mean,” said Fenton, “ that Conway has a sense of humor.” As he spoke, Fenton gazed down upon Bud Halliday with such a calm assumption of in- failible percipience as would have bereft many a good humored man of his temper and his dignity. But Bud, in the presence of the girl, was in armor clad. Flatly dis- obeying the voice within which demanded that he slay Fenton out of hand, he grinned desperately into Marion’s eyes, trying in vain to read them. ‘Sense of humor,” he said. ‘ Sure, I'll bet he can even see something funny in Stockbridge.” ‘““Now you're speaking sarcastically,” smiled Fenton. “Always a dangerous thing. It leads to errors of judgment. You suggest that it’s nothing unusual for a criminal to see something funny in the efforts of a stupid officer to capture him. You are mis- taken. Only one criminal in a million, one in a generation, ever finds real fun in being chased. That’s the kind of criminal you have here. This Conway is the type of bandit who goes down in history. He can play with stockbridge as a cat plays with a mouse, because Stockbridge is a fool. But he can also play with your Consolidated Mining Company; and, if you will forgive me’’—a most courteous gesture here, for the henefit of Marion, who, to Bud’s chagrin, acknowledged it with a brilliant smile——‘‘ he also plays with Mr. Grover. And these men are no fools. ‘* He robs the paymaster of a trivial sum. The humiliation of that mistake would have caused almost any ordinary criminal cComicbooks.c©