Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

JEREMIAH PARSONS—HE-MAN. 663 ‘Sure you won’t be troubled with in- somnia to-night and decide that seeing as you can’t sleep you might as well get on your way toward North Park during the night?’’ Goss inquired sarcastically. Jem sauntered off toward the door. “ Me, when I sleep,” he tossed blandly over his. shoulder, ‘‘ give a first class imitation of a sheriff chasing a bandit.” ee eee CHAPTER IV. AT BLUE BUTTES CAMP. UZZING along the road to the Blue B Buttes camp early next morning in the Ford car the sheriff had furnished him, Jem belabored himself for a meddling fool. What call had he to get himself mixed up in the troubles of Sky City? What af-. fair was it of his, anyway? A fine mess his boasting and chestiness had got him into! It was as Goss had said—a bit of luck had given him the advantage over Kurtz, and the victory had gone to his head. He was certainly in a nice racket now. Dog-gone lucky he’d be to get out of it with his skin intact, let alone with the prisoner he was after. He, single-handed, going into a camp such as Judge Lawton had described Blue Buttes to be, to take one of their number prisoner and bring him into town to answer to what might develop into a charge of mur- der! “ T must ’a’ been plumb out of my haid,” Jem lugubriously reflected. He tried to re- member whether he had partaken of any- body’s bootleg hospitality, to which he might lay the blame for the mental con- dition that must have possessed him the previous night. Well, he was in for it now. And, being in for it, his mood quickly passed and his spirits bounded to the level of the high ad- venture upon which he had embarked. “They may. get me, but, by gum, they will know somebody’s been out to camp by the time they get through,” he chuckled ‘grimly. The road to the Blue Buttes camp ran high around the edge of the mountains. On one side the green mountain slopes rose steeply to their snowy summits, while on the other they dropped to the river bank some distance below. The last mile of the road dropped sharp- ly to the clearing, near the cafion’s level, Wherein the rude camp nestled. Jem, halting for a few moments as he came into sight of the camp, saw a cluster of rough, log buildings. From far up the river, above the rush and roar of the water, came the distance-muffled crash and grind of the , dredges. Driving into the camp, Jem’s acutely alive eyes roved about him. In the center of the settlement, by the main roadway, stood the largest building, probably the bunkhouse. The other houses were scat- tered about in indiscriminate irregularity. Jem circled around behind the bunkhouse and brought his car to a halt in front of the door, headed in the direction back to- ward Sky City. He throttled his engine down to a low mutter, but did not kill it. He was playing his hand with extreme wari- ness. He climbed out of his seat and strolled toward the door. His manner outwardly was all calm, cool insouciance; but beneath that careless exterior every nerve and every muscle was set at hairtrigger tension, ready for instant action. The door of the bunkhouse was standing ajar. Jem stepped to the doorway and looked within. In the large general room of the bunk- house ten or a dozen men sat idly at the table or tilted in their chairs against the walls. The doors to the inner bunk- rooms were closed. With the impact as of a physical blow there struck Jem’s consciousness an atmos- phere of expectancy about the men hefore him. The cards on the table lay in care- lessly bunched stacks. All chairs were fac- ing the doorway, and in each eye Jem seemed to be aware of a light of happy anticipation. His glance, roving over every detail of the room, flickered an instant over the telephone on the wall. What pregnant activity had that instrument, now so blandly inscrutable, been party to in recent hours? In the foremost seat by the table sat Kurtz himself, his ugly snarl now a sar- CORNIC LOOKS :eEO nate ahs sf iad ae > 1G yh) ) Pie it rY rid ¥ oe Re mPRELT ies Ch AN ad oh {