Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

914 edged MacQuillan. him?” Billy’s grin broadened. “Tl no say I have,” he remarked. Striding to the window beside the door, he threw it open. ‘‘ Wait at that window,” he said; and without another word he had passed through the door again. Sergeant MacQuillan walked to the win- dow, and had hardly reached it when, pro- pelled by an unseen but violent force, the body of a man shot through the open case- ment and fell with a thud to the floor. MacQuillan thereupon leaned forward and discovered at his feet the form of Samuel K. Menzies, neatly lashed from head to foot, gagged with a bandanna handkerchief, and labeled with a tag which bore the ad- dress of “ Staff Sergeant Baldy MacQuil- lan, Sleepy River, Alberta, Canada.” “The devil!” exclaimed the sergeant feelingly. “That’s him,” said Billy’s voice at his elbow. “And now where’s that nickel?” Sergeant MacQuillan turned upon him with a smile of unwonted warmth. Appar- ently incapable of words, he drew from his pocket a Canadian five-cent piece and bal- anced it upon his thumbnail. “Wait a minute, ” adjured Billy. said a nickel.’ “That’s what it is.’ “Tt is not. In God’s arntry we call things like that a crime, and put the peo- ple who make them in jail.” MacQuillan frowned. “Ver talkin’ of the king’s coin,” he warned. ‘ Don’t blether about it!” “Tm talkin’ about nickels. I said we’d flip nickels, and you HIVE me to play with a chip orf a tin can.’ MacQuillan ground the fine cut tobacco between his teeth. “Vell remember the agreement,” he said. ‘Iwas to be my nickel.” “When I play cards,” reasoned Billy, ‘‘T don’t deal shingles, I deal cards.” “We use this coin, or we use none,” re- plied the sergeant. It was one of those little disagreements which rankle in the minds of the most rea- sonable men. The sergeant had anticipated * meeting Billy with the most benevolent in- “Have ye no got oe | ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. tentions, but in the matter of this nickel he would not give way. Anyhow, argued the sergeant, Billy was too domned arrogant. In moments of deepest misunderstanding, the minds of men are most akin. Billy’s attitude was precisely that of the sergeant. He had come to deliver Menzies, deter- mined to deal with MacQuillan in the most sportsmanlike manner. But he couldn’t let this matter of the nickel pass without a protest. Anyway, the sergeant was plumb stuck up, and real irritating. “We don’t use anything but a full weight nickel out of God’s own United States,” quoth Billy. “Ye mean that ye have such a coin as will come up the way ye want it?” sug- gested the sergeant icily. Billy smiled immediately, and the tinkle of steel sounded in his voice. “You talk like you needed the money, Baldy,” he said. MacQuillan leaned back against the ta- ble and addressed Billy with a masklike countenance. “Ye have done me a service, Argent,” he said, “and I’m willing to toss for the gains, but I cannot permit ye to talk so big in this house.” But Billy had a point in mind. “Vore remark was that I wanted to pitch a fixed nickel,” he recalled. “If you had a gun, we’d talk about it. As it is, I’m go- in’ to call orf this parley, and take Men- zies with me.” The sergeant straightened like a steel spring, and Billy’s gun flashed forth like lightning. ‘¢ Stand still!” snapped Billy. How well the sergeant knew that urgent voice! He stood still. Billy, covering the sergeant, backed away until he had the form of Menzies at his feet. Then, still covering the sergeant, he withdrew from a hip pocket his clasp knife and proceeded to open it with his teeth. Speechless with chagrin and self reproach, but unwilling to make the abject apology which he well knew was his only loophole, MacQuillan bethought himself in that mo- ment of Annette. She would never forgive him for this. “Ve fool!” he bellowed. EomMichoo “ Dinna ye KS (<@)