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Pulp Fiction, 1949 · page 64 of 132

A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 64: Pulp Fiction, 1949

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sip i } AY 5 ¥) Phat int alt VN eG i —— ‘.s, Ue { AN) bys Ayn , : ‘ yy FAA ath: ‘ se ou Oa male bg Piven aie We May Ces “Tye ne es as «| , ON eet Me eed te Me ef ou 4) 4 * Waid Ge 64 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY at that, an’ I say where I come from we _ put our stakes on the table before we play, - an’ pull out the roll. He waggles his ears at that, an’ after I’ve talked him down ~ about two bits on the tariff he’s not only plumb curious but got quite a respect for me. . “I go in an’ have a darn good meal, and when I’m near through the old goat comes an’ asks me how things is an’ so on, an’ I tell him fine an’ to sit down. He does. We talk of this an’ that, an’ after awhile he gets probing what my business is, an’ we have some darn good applejack. I get con- fidential an’ tell him I been nursing cows for years down Texas, way, an’ they’ve left me sitting mighty pretty. Tell him my grandpap came from round these parts an’ I’ve got a yearnin’ to get back. “He asks me grandpap’s name an’ I tell him Partington, an’ what I’d hoped to do - was to buy back the old*house, but I was too late learning it was on the market an’ I’d found some Frenchman called de Keradel had bought it from the estate an’ - so I supposed that was out. But mebbe, I say, I could pick up a place near, or mebbe the Frenchman would sell me some of the land. Then I’d wait till mebbe this French- man got tired of it an’ I could pick the old house up cheap.” Bit explained to me: “This place de Keradel bought had belonged to the Partington. family for generations. The last one died about four years ago. I told McCann all that. Go on, McCann.” “He listened to this with a queer look on his face, half-scared,” said McCann. “Then he opined my grandpap must have been Eben Partington who went West after the Civil War, an’ I said I guessed so because pap’s name was Eben, an’ he seemed to hold quite.a grudge against the family an’ never talked much about ‘em, whi¢h was mainly what made me want to . get hold of the old place. I said I thought buying it back an’ living in it might rile the ghosts of them who kicked grandpap out. “Well, that was a shot in the dark, but it hit the mark. The old goat gets more talkative. He said I was the grandson of Eben, all right, for the Partingtons never forgot a grudge. Then he said he didn’t think there was a chance of me getting “he was trying to make up his mind about the old place back because the Frenchman — had spent a lot of money on it, but there — was a place right close he knew of that I~ could get an’ if I’d put it in his hands he’d get me the lowest price for it. Also, he was sure I couldn’t buy in on the Parting- ton ranch, an’ with that same queer look said he didn’t think I’d like it there if I could. An’ he kept staring at me as though something. “T said I’d set my mind on the old homestead, which I always understood was a pretty fairish size for the East, though mebbe not so sizeable out West. An’ I asked what was the improve- ments the Frenchman had put in, anyway. Well, the old goat got a map an’ showed me the layout. It’s a big chunk of land sticking out into the sea. There's a narrow neck about a thousand feet across before the land spreads out. Outside that it — spread a fantail which I figure’s got two or three thousand acres in it. “He tells me the Frenchman’s built a twenty-foot-high wall across that thou- sand-foot neck. There’s a gate in the mid- dle, But nobody gets through it. Anything that goes from the village, including the mail, is took in by the guards. Foreigners, he says ; funny little dark men who always have the money ready an’ say nothing no way. He says they take a lot of supplies in their boat. Also, they got a truck farm an’ live stock—cattle an’ sheep an’ such, an’ hosses an’ a pack of big dogs. He says: ‘Nobody ain’t seen the dogs, except one man, an’ he— “Then he shut up all of a sudden as though he’s saying too much an’ that funny, scared look comes on his face. So I file that for reference but don’t press him none, “T ask him if nobody ain’t been inside an’ knows what it look like, an’ he says: ‘Nobody round here has been except the man who—’ Then he shuts up again, so. I figure he’s referring to the man who — seen the dogs, an’ I get more curious about = “T say that with all that coast line I~ don’t see why people can’t slip in an’ look around a bit without anybody knowing. But he tells me it’s all rock, an’ only three places where you can land a boat, an’ these three places are guarded like the gate. He ne . ‘ . . . ee) : “1 estas oe Dt a dd wes lat TT ae ee ee ed LPI URE Fe Ae eS Ta aa Beh ae t a bis ta ek oe li , * 4 s * c * rf - CR Pee eee. ee "at “ay Se A le ae eet ee 3 aes La vey Ae MAIS S EA he Pe UO 4 comicbooks