Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

ized he was ugly and that she—whether _ devil or angel—was a beautiful creature. DESERT lin, cornet—anything you gave him—it made no difference so long as he could work men or women into a passion. And a gambler, too, who busted men—” a Absolutely straight—though, ” Hayden put in reminiscently. “What difference does it make if a gam- bler’s straight or crooked? He ruined men—”’ ‘““ And himself—” “ All right! ‘That’s all the worse! He represented what you—-what sentimental citified poets call the spirit of the frontier days. Drank like a hog—” “ But was never drunk. I’ve heard that, too. 92 - This also was a distinction Noah Doxey would not recognize. ‘““He was a man—a master, if you want to call it—of sin, So: of the ways of hell’s fire.” “ The last of a great 1 race, i P Pagden com- mented with the same exuberance. Doxey did not heed the interruption. == ze And it was me who Ape je out of town. : sees See gunmen! and his influence is gone the town is a town of peace.” Fhe nasal screech from the vestibule— = z the voice of Jen Parker—cut into Doxey’ S et This here gal wants for to “talk to. you. 5 Mr. Doxey,” the clerk called out. “It’s Hallie Crockett.” “ Crockett?” Hayden raised his eye- brows with a_look of sudden enlightenment. - ett’s,” the proprietor said. ‘‘ Dan Crock- ett, the gambler, the devil I chased out of town. Speaking of the devil—here comes his daughter!” Noah Doxey stepped into the vestibule with a feeling of self-elation common to business men when pretty girls ask for em- ployment. But here, meeting the full, bright — gaze of the girl, he shrank, his head set- tling into a large celluloid collar. He real- He squinted directly at every feature of her face; the huge gray eyes, the smiling = damask lips, the curl of silken hair about eS = Since his time — he di d, wa S kn S vn up here. — ; down. at the range,” “the. girl announced _ It’s his daughter—Dan Crock- — : VOICES. a slightly tanned forehead, ta the Sie room which opened wide upon the vestibule, _ — Fred Hayden sipped his special tend = coffee and took small puffs from a fancy — = cigarette, deliberately assaying the frag-— rance of each sip and each puff. As yet he showed no interest in Noah Doxey and his visitor. — “Now then set down tere by the win- ——s dow!” the old man ordered, 2s The girl obeyed, seating herself in the ae = wicker sofa and leaning forward. Doxey — hunched himself in the brightly varnished “golden oak ” armchair, with a convenient and resplendent brass spittoon at his heel. == Through the plate glass window Sua = = looked on; the stage driver pretending to _ 2 be busy with a tire, a stocktender just in town from his range, a squaw and choles | = a youth from the telegraph office. They ould not hear the conversation, but SS could see Hallie’s Jips—which sufficed. — “* Now, miss, if you want to see me about getting a job in this town,” Doxey said, “7 want to know something about you.” = a “Tm Hallie Crockett —my f oS before - ~~ « Yes, I Bee your ron eal? = he said. = “A very popula fellow. A Dixie gent—as — they call °em back in Texas. [I don’ know — i= nightly aba. we call em. here. in Arizona.” _ ss necessary "Tespect for the ead “passed po — judgment. 7 = “He was a great man, our hands say = y. “Ma and T are - just or : ranch folks.” She bloomed out into a rafaile again—the kind the onlookers were waiting — : for—the kind Noah Doxey said was of the ; devil. “But when ma used to tan me_ with a quirt down in the stables, she saic = I inherited a powerful lot ‘of my -dad’s” character traits!” — : = “TJ reckon you look like him,” Doxa said. He did not know how to pay a com-— = == pliment to a woman, but he was — definitely that the girl’s face was a beauti- = - fied copy of the face of the devil, her father. es ce ee ma said = was = to ack oie give |