Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

878 I’m a marked man and that as soon as we reach civilization you will hold my life in the hollow of your pretty hand. Yet there are only two things I want from you before I take the chance, from which you may see how much I trust you. I want your promise to say no bad word about me, and your promise to say the best word of all before the first priest we meet. Pledge me your honor to those two things and I'll get you out of this country where no man or woman is safe.” His voice grew softly caressing. ‘‘ Will you come with me on those terms, Celia, me darling?” It has been mentioned that Celia Holden was fearless. She might have played for time, she might even have adventured on the perilous trip he proposed, trusting to her spirit and resource to overcome his greater physical strength, but she chose in- stead the bolder, more reckless part. She cast pretense to the winds and blazed forth at him in a passion of hatred and contempt. “ You beastly, murdering brute! Do you think you have deceived me with your lies? Don’t you know that I’d rather trust my- self a hundred times over to these blacks than to a thieving white renegade who as- sociates with them? Liar! If you really plan to leave this party to-morrow night it isn’t because you are afraid of Lombo, but because you are afraid of the two honest white men that you know are on your trail. You know they will hunt you to your hole! No matter what happens to me, they will surely catch you, and they will treat you like the sneaking, yellow cur that you are!” He leaped to his feet, furious, as she stopped to draw breath. His face was ter- rible to look at while it became the screen upon which were pictured the violent pas- sions that were mastering him. The scar that crossed his evil visage showed livid against the purple flush of bitter anger and still more bitter shame. She shrank away from him, convinced that the final test of strength had come. In another second, she thought, his rush- ing bulk would match itself against an ounce of lead. “You little fool!” he gasped. “ I’ve of- fered you marriage and you’ve refused; now ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, you'll take what I choose to give you, and be damned to you!” ‘“‘ Spoken like a real gutter-snipe!” she sneered. If it came to a fight her chances would be all the better if his wits were confused and his caution dissipated by un- trollable anger. She set herself to taunt him relentlessly, and he snarled back at her in kind. ‘* Nix on the rough stuff, Dan!” Burk and the girl, rooted in their tracks, stared at each other for one moment of sheer astonishment. Then they both turned toward the entrance of the tent and beheld the figure of Smale standing in the open- ing, the raised flap still held in his hand. Burk was the first to recover himself. ‘“Who asked you to this party?” he shouted truculently. Smale regarded him serenely. He stood silently in his place, his attitude passive but compelling. In that second the wills of the two men met and clashed, but the Irish- man’s volatile temperament was no match for the phlegmatic strength of the Boer. He gave a short laugh. “What do you want, little man?” he asked. ‘A few words in your pretty ear,” an- swered Smale, and grinned slowly. His glance shifted to Celia, who was watching the scene with hopeful eyes. “ You can tell the young lady from me that while she is with us she’ll be treated like one of the family!” The big Irishman shrugged his shoulders. “Faith, it was the same thing I was just telling her on me own account,” he grum- bled half humorously. “ It seemed to upset her!” Abruptly he turned on his heel and strode out into the night. Smale followed him quietly, pausing to duck his head in friend- ly farewell to the astonished girl. She was left staring at the blank wall of the tent as the flap dropped behind him, and presently she sank exhausted upon the blankets of her bed. Her body had finally succumbed to the nervous reaction from the strain under which she had been labor- ing, and for a moment her mind was shut to all impressions from without. Then a sound gradually obtruded itself comicloool C©