Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

BING, BANG, BOOM! The sheriff spoke to them then, as a body, informing them, as briefly as was compatible with clear understanding, of the emergency that had arisen; and when he had finished they breke into a roar of angry clamor that threatened the fugitive with speedy and awful retribution once they laid hands upon him. “We ain’t here fer no lynchin’,” War- ren shouted to them. ‘“ We got laws to punish ’m, an’ we ain’t got no right to take them laws in our own hands. I want a hundred men to help me go out after that there feller, an’ th’ rest o’ you kin go home an’ go back to bed. Now everybuddy git down off’n th’ steps, an’ then those as want to join th’ posse kin all git together up here.”’ A half-hour later the hundred men were chosen, divided into groups of ten, and, with orders to arm themselves with what- ever weapons they possessed, were - sent away in every direction to search for : Paprika. In the group to which Bert was as- signed were, among others, Fred Patterson, Ellis Turner, and the sheriff himself; and the territory which they were to cover lay to the northwest, in the vicinity of the Majestic Hotel. Some of the men carried rifles, some shotguns, and Bert was pos- sessed of a revolver and a pocketful of cartridges which Fred had procured for him. It was agreed that no shot was to be fired save in an emergency; for Paprika, if he could be found at all, was to be taken alive. To those who knew Sheriff Warren as a vacillating, timorous, dull-eyed man, he was that night a source of wonder and puzzled admiration. He took command of the situation in a manner that bespoke a de- termination and resourcefulness that gained for him respect and quick obedience. His voice and gaze were, steady and Tearless, his tone held a decisive note of unmis- takable authority, and into his eyes had come that fire of unfettered soul that had for so long lain smoldering under the ashes of another’s will. His was the short-lived glory of the defiant slave who stands for a tottering moment upon the monarch’s throne; his 291 the fleeting -triumph of the fuzzy worm emerging from the chrysalis, to fly, a brief span, with a butterfly’s golden wings. For, as you shall see, his glory was but short- lived and the sudden spurt of fire within him was quite as suddenly snuffed out to a draggled wick. To Ellis Turner, more than to any one else, this strange transfiguration of the sheriff came as a distinct shock. When the two men were alone together in the sheriff’s buggy, driving out to the foot of Majestic Road, from which meeting-place they were to set out on foot, Turner gave astonished ear to the tirade that the sheriff heaped upon him. “Your goin’s on has got to come to a stop, Ellis Turner!’ Warren declared bald- ly. “ Twas a unlucky day when I ever let myself git under your grindin’ heel. I don’t know how you come to git me elected sheriff, but you as much as told me that it was through some durn crookedness. If I was sure it was, you kin jest, bet I’d tell folks about it an’ give up a office that don’t b’long to me! ‘“ You’ve went too far now, Ellis Turner! You went an’ took that there jailbird an’ let ’m loose upon this here community— an’ it nearly ruined th’ life o’ my Ruth. That’s what you done—an’ I’m through with you. I'll tell folks who this Paprika devil is, an’ when I got ’m locked up I'll make ’m say that I’m tellin’ th’ God’s !? ‘What the devil has happened to you, Joe?” gasped Turner. ‘“ Have you gone crazy?” “ Crazy! You jest bet I ain’t! Im jest gittin’ a holt on my senses, that’s what. Yow’re a goin to git showed up now fer what you are. /’m a goin’ to show you up, an’ I'll have Paprika to prove it! wait an’ see, Elis Turner!”’ Turner laughed. ‘‘ My goodness, Joe! That’s no way to talk to your prospective son-in-law.” ‘“Ehe What’s that? Well, I guess not! You'll marry no datter o’ mine, Ellis Turner. Sara ain’t a goin’ to throw her life away on such as you! She'll know what you are, too!” ‘ Come now, Joe,” wheedled Turner, COUMIUC You } Son-in-law, eh? DOOIX COlini