Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 13, 1920 — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

WHAT WAS THAT? * On the night of the murder Joseph Harkins started for New York, where he was to meet Judge and Mrs. Harkins. He Was a miserably unhappy young man, for he had had word, just that afternoon, that the Water Company’s books were to be au- dited. Plans went through his head about disappearing, but the lack of money,. his usual state, made all these impossible. Every gate was closed, and he was up against a fight with no armor or any other means of defense. “He brooded all the way over to the junction, shrinking every time any one looked at him. In the station he met Harry Greenleaf, who had‘ driven over that day with a load of firewood Nathan had just cut. Harry was warming up before his re- turn trip. ‘‘ Somehow, Joseph Harkins confessed— and Harry offered a solution. He judged that Rudolph wouldn’t be so brash in the face of a forty five, and he asserted that Rudolph would have no mercy if he discov- ered the shortage, which was undoubtedly true. ““<This is your only chance,’ said Harry Greenleaf. ‘ Squeeze him, or he'll squeeze you; and it ‘ll be the pen—you can wear a mask—’ “Joseph went back with him; drove be- hind Nathan’s team, and was seen by no one. After Harry had put up the team they made their way to town. At the foot of Greyson’s hill they paused, considered walking the rest of the distance, decided they. would not. ‘“Sleighs whirled by them, returning to town, for the storm was growing bad. These sleighs and the cold made Harry sneer over the division of the world’s goods and decide that what was needed must be taken by force. ‘That led them to use the sleigh of the Norwegian draftsman, gag him, take him through an adjoining building, an easy-to- open, empty storage place, to the third-floor room of the disreputable hotel on the flats, from which Vera Struthers had been coaxed by Rudolph Loucks. ‘Without knowing he had her, they fol- lowed him, having learned, by the judge’s telephone—the house was closed, but Jo- 407 seph had a key—that he had gone to his bungalow. “ After they again started, Harry Green- leaf decided he would not become involved. ‘ My uncle’s sick,’ he said; ‘ has a hell of a cold. I'll go get a doctor. You go on. You can deal with him, and it’s your mat- ter, after all. Got a pistol?’ ‘Shaking, Joseph admitted that he had one that he had gotten at the judge’s after telephoning; and then, letting Harry Green- leaf get out of the sleigh, he went on alone. “Now, no one knows what happened,” said Dick, after Midgette’s third small squeal made his hand cover hers; “ but you can judge—” Nan sat forward. Her plot sense was as- serting itself. “He followed him into the field,” she whispered, “‘ the wind blowing the hander: chief away from his mouth, revealing his shaking lips. A thin, pitifully shaken boy, forced by circumstances to his lowest hell. In the center of the field Rudolph Loucks turned—waited. He spoke, ater a laugh— a sneering laugh. eee think.’ he said, ‘ that it was you, Joe—you weak, shuffling—’ and so on—” ‘No, he didn’t,” cut in Jane. “How would he know?” | “He might have gone over the books that evening,” said Nan, “or known the cut of the boy’s coat, his hat, his walk— I'll venture he knew, and laughed, and that that piece of arrogance from the class that Joseph had learned to hate brought his death.” 5 ‘Tll venture he said, ‘Come here and fight like a man!’ ” sai¢ Gustave; “ and the boy turned weak, and in a frenzy of fear shot him down.” ‘He was shot in the back,” said Dick. ‘“ Perhaps,” Nan cut in, “ all the hell of fear was upon him. Perhaps every breeze brought to his fevered hearing the sound of footsteps; perhaps Rudolph refused to help him, quelled him, laughed, and care- lessly turned away, swaggering like a con- queror; and then, desperate, hunted, sick from fear and loss, the boy followed—fol- lowed until he was near; and then he screamed, as a woman might—and fired!” Eomichbooks (E (0) f