The Argosy, June 1904 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

THE FOOL'S -POCKET. 499 I? Jackson is very considerate of me ings niust indeed have seemed pro- —very considerate!” Again her mouth phetic. The greed of gold urged him to took on its humorous curve and her continue in his crime. But afterward eyes twinkled. “Oh, la, Jackson knows the fear of what he had done, and the the goose that lays the golden egg!” ~threais of his victims, must have had She walked aw: ay from him abruptly, a withering effect upon Shaw’s mind. chuckling as she went. For nearly half a century he had hid- Lynn stood and stared after her. Te den himself in some secret place, only knew that he was almost within touch venturing forth at long intervals to of the solution of the problem which visit his only remaining relative. «And confronted him, and yet he dared not now, haying grown old, “he did not come address a question to the old woman. at all, but ke pt in touch with her Cunning she had been years before through the medium of this Captain when Preston Shaw was being searched Engleiock and his bark, the Susannah. for by Lynn's father; she was doubly This Enelebock held the clue. He cunning now. A question from him was the inter mediary link between the would fire her suspicion instantly. She hiding man and Mary Shaw and. the might be pecubar, but she was not Hawlevs. I tie could get into the con- weak-minded. fidence of Imglebock Linn was sure she had referred to Lavan had paced the river bank, up her brother, despite her strange com- and down belore the old shed, while ha ments upon Jethro Hawley’s invention. thought these matters out. Time had Preston Shaw used to visit her here. passed unnoticed. Tle raised his eyes, Probably aficr the representatives of and suddenly beheld Bertha Hawiey Hoadley & $ellingham had given the coming towards him along the path. woman up as too hard a nut to erack. Lynn could not go to meet her; he Was he yet alive? Might he net had suddenly lost his pluck. He had come again to see his sister if he was seen condemuation in her eyes when still in the land of the living ? she left him at noon. And what had she meant by his fear- And her lovely countenance was very ing the “maunderings of a mad wo- stern as she stopped before the young man”? man. She began to speak without any Lynn’s mind went back to the storv formal greeting. of the Fool’s Pocket mine as I had told “J have given you a chanee to ex- it to him in my breakfast-room the plam . ourself, sir, although I doubt if morning he returned from the West. my father w ould wish me to meet any He recalled Preston Shaw’s awful crime man in this way,” she told him. “Iam —he remembered the fate of the Mexi- satisfied, however, that so brave a man ean girl who had died at the stake be- cannot lack some measure of honor. side Jim Shepard before resene arrived, “Now, What have you to tell mer” Shaw had feared her. We had been And fiynn Shepard, knowing that he in terror of what he called her “evil had nothing to gain by keeping back a eye. As he left Shepard and this poor hairbreadth of his story, told it ae creature to their awlul fate, her curse He related every particular of the dis- had rung in his ears—her prophecy was covery of the Fool’s Pocket fifty year: the last sound he heard as he hurried before, and of his own examination of the gold-burdened paes-honets down the oid claim a few months previous the trail from Sander’s Bar. “There is surely a million sterling in Jim Shepard had told him: “There that vold reef which I uncovered deep wont be a dry hand’s breadth of land below the ‘ pockets’ out of which Pres- in all God’s universe on which you can ton Shaw took his wealth,” he said. hide from me!” and the woman had ‘“ Half of it would, of course, belong io repeated this awful prophecy: “ You Shaw. or to his heirs if he is dead. shail live in fear of him all your life, “My father is dead. I have no rea- and not a foot of God’s earth shall son for pursuing Preston Shaw for the offer you safety!” crime which he undoubtedly commit- To a superstitious man these rail- ted. All I want is my rights. PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG CoONnnicloOoks. Com ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED