Argosy, Vol. 147, No. 1 — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. nesitated a moment and then added: its deliverance relieved th i ight’: well tell you we're gonna sell the banality. ae what we can git and then scuttle ‘ You're a queer ‘un.” J -handed bally-hoo. ‘There’s your “T suppose I am—queer. Things,” he \ ae hastened on, “ bother me.” he sea lawyer indicated a door on the =“ What things?” board side and mounted the ladder to “Queer things—like souls.” a | An uncertain light filtered in upon her. y, a slender feeling of exaltation “ You'll keep me,” she said, “ even—from over lim, opened the door of the yourself?” ym that was to~be his. “From myself.” From: out of the gloom that shrouded the “You wouldn’t want—me?” row confines of the cabin, he caught the —“ It ain’t a question of that.” : suggestion of a startled, quickly Se raised a speculative finger tip to the ered intake of a person’s breath. edge of her teeth. Po . cc So! ») Vy. Danny wheeled. The word had slithered es from some one standing behind him. ‘Porp—he’s gone?” The gitl faced § The sea lawyer stood framed in the open y, staring searchingly at him through door. of hard, jade eyes. Vi. _ She nodded. “ By God!” the sea lawyer grinned ami- “Yes, miss.” Danny stared blindly over- cably at the two of them. “ Astut!” head. “So,” he added, “is the rest of Danny, his face dead-white, closed with a n. The rest the words were dust— rush. After the first smashing blow the em that counts.” sea lawyer, his fists doubled into enormous She looked at him curiously, speculative- hams and his head lowered, let out a roar of ly. He wondered why she didn’t cry. angry amazement and settled down to work. Daughters, he figured, when their fathers Danny met him. Shoulder to shoulder they ie , should cry dealt out man-killing punishment. With “Pm sorry,” he muttered. The state- no attempts at parrying they battered. nent. sounded hollow—a mockery of the Danny went to his knees, his face bruised than a wastage of and bleeding, his head swimming. The sea tumult inside him—worse ords. He wanted her to kill him. In- lawyer rushed in to finish with his feet what he had battered to his knees with his hands. Danny saw him charging toward : him and he rose to his feet and clinched, He told her—loosed the hideous mess of fighting for his strength. He landed a ondemnation that had been festering mighty right hook flush on the jaw and the in | him, crushing him ed at the end of his recital into a hesi- around the middle. They broke—blood nt, stumbling avowal of the things he was dripped from Danny's mouth, it ran down 1g to do for her—to atone—to erase in his chin, over his naked bruised chest and » measure the stain; explained fum- vanished into the tangle of rags that swung ol to: her precisely what, in his eyes, from his hips, the remains of his shirt. a ead, she stated, in a perfectly even and ‘i 5 ” n him. He felt immensely relieved, sea lawyer clung to od for. | The sea lawyer, swaying drunkenly, his ‘at the end the jade in her eyes lips drawn taut over tobacco-stained teeth, into him, pricked their needle points his black, hairy chest showing angty ea een ——F _ blue of his. own. welts, staggered and caught himself on the “keep me safe from the edge of the table, preparing for a rush that Pc caid, would end it all. Danny watched ‘bin 40 . ~—CdKdLCTLA a . ae! Se ee ® - , * DT “ONnscic Wy os “Tne ing ~6SIUMDL city ; 5 ; ~ YE oa + . . ’ ~~ ed Cais a ae : a TSS" a mt ta ont “i. <4 ' ——— vs ‘ et 4 Z — ~ % —— Lay a ov one > pares. ox: Mat aot Sea a eRe eR + comicbooks.com