The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

GOLD GRABBERS. “Perfectly. You'll go, and the girl will be getting you out of one danger only to draw you into another. For the peace of my soul, I’d rather face a battery of masked guns than come com- pany front with those big black eyes. There’s the danger for you, and I’ve known it all along.” “ Don’t talk like an idiot!” growled Bremerton impatiently. lure, just as the note to Lacey was a lure. Can’t you see it?” “He says that,’ murmured O’ Hara, “and calls me an idiot! My poor man,” he added, “ you are not yourself. That’s © one thing I can see.” ‘Of course I’m going—’” “Of course you are!”’ “Tf for nothing more than to con- vince you that you’re wasting a lot of sentiment on a scheming, treacherous woman!” continued Bremerton hotly. “You can’t take that back,” said O'Hara dryly; “but I’d not say it again. With me it will go no further.” “We'll put the girl to the test.” “Tt's you that will be put to the test, not Mariquita Mallory.” “Tf an attack is made on me while I’m riding to Oak Flat, you'll be con- vinced that the girl is not what she would have you think.” “ Nothing of the kind. I’ll be con- vinced that Deane’s enemies have watched their chance to catch you away from home. Even two coincidences wouldn't spell the truth.” “ Be reasonable,” implored Bremer- ton. “ Don’t let your heart run away with your head.” “ And don’t you, Lee Bremerton, let the cursed plots of Deane run away with your sense of right and justice. Make your call. If you’re shot out of your saddle and brought back here with the breath gone out of your body, it will not be the girl I'd go hunting. Mark that!” “ Whom would you hunt?” queried the superintendent curiously. “Why, the fiends who would cause that girl to bear the brunt of their own black deeds! Lee, you began your work “This is a. 527 here with a mistaken idea. You can make mistakes—I have seen you do it before. “ You went out of your way to think wrong of a woman. It comes hard for you to think it, and deep down in your heart you are not convinced; but Deane’s money has worked its spell, and you've got to do something to earn it. “Deane! Deane! He’s the man who has built himself up by knifing his friends! He has piled high his dollars by blasting the hopes of others, by back-stabbing, by schemes that won’t bear the light, by—” “No more of that, Mike!” “by talking fair to your face and hitting you with a club from behind! A robber so black that Big Steve and Chombo are white as the saints by com- parison! And he has hooked you— because I was slow in getting around with that’ thousand! Can I ever for- give myself for that?” The washed-out blue eyes snapped, the red hair seemed to stand on O’Hara’s head, and the blood rushed into the thin cheeks. The Irishman half rose and shook a clenched fist at the ceiling. “ He saved my life once,” said Brem- erton, his bronzed face almost white; “and he wouldn’t play anything but square with me.”’ “Square!” sneered O’Hara. “ He has forgot how to be square! When he took the wrong turn of the trail he went money-mad. Play square with you! Lee, you’rea tool. Oné of these days you will find it out, and then, ‘blackguard that he is, I tremble for Silas Deane.” Without speaking a word, Bremer- ton turned on his heel and strode from the office. The notes of the flute fok lowed him through the door. CHAPTER XVI. THE CUL-DE-SAC. O’Hara was right. Bremerton’s attitude toward Mariquita Mallory COMicdoo S CO@