Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

A. MERRITT 103 Drake picked up the teakettle and motioned me before him. “About Yuruk,” he whispered when he had gotten: outside. “I gave him a little object lesson. Persuaded him to go down the line a bit, showed him my pistol, and then picked off one of Norhala’s goats with it. Hated to do it, but I knew it would be good for his soul. “He gave one screech and fell on his face and groveled. Thought it was a lightning bolt, I figure;-decided I had been stealing Norhala’s stuff. “Yuruk,’ I told him, ‘that’s what you'll get, and worse, if you lay a finger on that girl inside there’.” “And then what happened?” I asked. “He beat it back there.” He grinned, pointing toward the forest through which ran the path the eunuch had shown me. “Probably hiding back of a tree.” | As we filled the container at the outer spring, I told him of the revelations and the offer Yuruk had made to me. “Whew-w!” he whistled. “In the nutcracker, eh? Trouble behind us and trouble in front of us.” “When do we start?” he asked, as we turned back. “Right after we've eaten,” I answered. “There’s no use putting it off. How do you feel about it?” | “Frankly, like the chief guest at a lynching party,” he said. “Curious but none too cheerful.” Nor was I. I was filled with a fever of scientific curiosity. But I was not cheerful—no! We ministered to Ventnor as well as we could; forcing open his set jaws, thrusting a thin rubber tube down past his windpipe into his gullet and dropping through it a few ounces of the goat milk. Our own breakfasting was silent enough. We could not take Ruth with us upon our journey; that was cer- tain; she must stay here with her brother. She would be safer in Nor- hala’s home than where we were going, of course, and yet to leave her was most distressing. After all, I wondered, was there any need of both of us taking the journey; would not one do just as well? Drake could stay— | “No use of putting all our eggs in one basket,” I broached the sub- ject. “I'll go down by myself while you stay and help Ruth. You can always follow if I don’t turn up in a reasonable time.” His indignation at this proposal was matched only by her own. “You'll go with him, Dick Drake,” she cried, “or Pll never look or speak to you again!” | “Good Lord! Did you think for a minute I wouldn’t?” Pain and wrath struggled on his face. “We go together or neither of us goes. Ruth GOGO .S (GO)