The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 315: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOLD muttered, halting in front of another drinking place. “I’m played out, and must have more whisky to brace my nerves.” The next moment he was inside the resort and patronizing the bar liber- ally. So generously did he “brace his nerves ” that he over-reached himself. The keen edge of his faculties was dulled, his limbs were unsteady, and he became irresponsible by swift degrees. He lost all sense of danger in the lethe of the red drink, and when he was done with the bar made his way reck- lessly to a chair, sank into it, and leaned his head against the wal! behind him. The forms of men, moving about in the clouds of smoke, grew more and more shadowy until they vanished from his sight; the rattle of chips, the clink of glasses, the coarse laughter and ribald songs died away in his ears. Erect in his chair, head back and face in plain view. the fugitive fell into a drunken sleep. It was thus that Abe Griffin found him. With starting eves and falling jaw, Griffin halted and took in the counte- nance that a few brief moments had in- delibly impressed on his mind. Stepping closer, he stooped down and scanned the features line by line. The ragged beard, grown for pur- poses of disguisc, was new to him; but otherwise the identification was com- plete, and Griffin lifted his head with a triumphant yell that brought every man in the room to his side. The unwonted commotion caused the fugitive to stir restlessly. He did not rouse up, however; merely changed his position, muttered some incoherent words, and slept on. ‘Excited voices demanded the cause of Griffin’s shout. “'There’s the fellow I saw that night Nate Brander was killed,” averred the miner, a bony finger leveled at the man in the chair. “He’s the ombre that " mixed up with me and used the knife. Beats all how things come out! ” In a fury, Griffin sprang at the sleeping man, grabbed him by the shoulders and jerked him forward in the chair. The fugitive lifted two hands in GLEANERS. oll feeble protest, slipped from the chair to the floor, tried to raise himself, and then fell back at full length. “Dead drunk!” exclaimed an on- looker. ‘The question is, men,” said Griffin savagely, “what’s to be done with him?” “There ain’t no mistake, Abe?” asked a brawny, blue-shirted miner, shouldering his way to Griffin’s side. “J seen him as plain as [ see vou this minute, Kanuck,” replied Griffin in positive tones, “and I’ll stake my head he’s one of the three that had a hand in doin’ up poor Nate. You all heard me say I recognized one of the scoun- drels. Wasn’t that what I said when you brought me in, and haven’t [ harped on it ever since? ” “Right ye are, Abe!” returned a voice. “You allowed that all averred another. “It’s a clear case,” went on Griffin. “ Here’s the fellow I saw ”—he spurned the prostrate form with his foot— and I'll take mv affidavit on it. I couldn’t never forget that face.” Another man, small of stature but full of determination and authority, pushed out of the crowd and stood at Kanuck’s side. “The evidence is all in, I reckon,” said the small man. “ Andy Larkin, you run down to McGraw’s and get thirty feet of brand new rope. Is there any reason on God’s earth,” he added, ta- king in the crowd with a sweep of the eyes, “that this thief and murderer should make extry expense for the tax- pavers of this here community ? ” Voices went up on every hand in vig- orous approval of the small man’s sug- gestion, Kanuck alone holding his peace. Andy Larkin was half way to the door when silence fell and allowed Kanuck to speak ont his mind. “ Hold up, Larkin,” he called; then, Javing one sinewy hand on the shoulder of the small man: “ That suggestion of vours, Yeager, is right and proper, and I’m not goin’ against it. There’s a new grave on the hill, above camp, and it’s sure got to be paid for. But let’s con- sider.” | “ Consider what?” growled Griffin. along,” COMM ElOOO CO