Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

CHANNING COMES THROUGH. ‘Mr, Channing,” she said, “‘ would you mund telling me how Mr. Bassett died? What he died of?” “He died of devilin’ a woman,” replied Channing. She stared at Channing. He was now looking straight at her, and he saw how She tried to appear perplexed. ‘““ He was devilin’ Eve Winthrop,” added Channing. “I killed him. He fell right over in the corner, where them ropes an’ Straps are layin’.”’ “Oh!” exclaimed the girl, sharply. Again Channing thought he detected in- sincerity in her voice. But he saw again how her gaze went to the guns at his hips. And now her cheeks paled and he was puzzled, for she could not produce her pres- ent pallor without feeling emotion. He wondered what emotion gripped her. “ Why—” she began. ‘‘ I—I— Just how did it happen?” She was rather breathless now, shaken. He saw her lips quiver and he felt a pang of sudden remorse for his brutal frankness. ‘“* Bassett had been slowly losin’ his mind, I reckon,” he told the girl. “I reckon he never liked Eve a heap. For ten years, after he married Eve’s mother, he was able to hold himself in pretty well. But after Eve’s mother died he got worse an’ worse. He’d got hold of a book Eve had, which had a poem called ‘ Mazeppa’ in it. Readin’ about the wild horse sort of got on his mind, got him to broodin’, The broodin’ give him an idea. “Seems about the time he got the idea a young fellow named Wayne Warren come into the country. Eve got to likin’ Warren. Eve had been raised East. Her mother had been an actress. Eve, too, when she was little. Eve had always liked nice dresses. She went to Red Mesa one day. an’ bought one. Jay Ventray an’ Buck Lane, seein’ the new dress an’ thinkin’ Eve was a dance hall girl, got fresh with her. She shot Ventray, but didn’t kill him. Thinkin’ she had, she lit out for Warren’s shack, bein’ afraid to come home for fear the sheriff would get her for killin’ Ventray. Near Warren’s shack she was thrown from her horse, hurtin’ her head. Warren took her into his shack an’ nursed her till she got well. 651 ‘“‘ When she got home again she was tryin’ on the new dress. In this room. Bassett came in an’ saw it on her. He tore it off, accusin’ her of havin’ let Warren buy it for her. Then he carried her outside an’ lashed her to the horse she had rode home on. [I come in here right after an’ Bassett told me what he had done. So I shot him. That pile of ropes you see layin’ there was where he got the ropes to tie Eve to the horse. He fell on them when I killed him.” There was no pretense of emotion in the strange girl’s eyes now. The horror in them was genuine. “Oh!” she exclaimed: ‘‘ How terrible! Mr. Bassett must have been demented!’ ‘“So he ain’t here any more,” finished Channing. The girl stood, looking at Channing. In her eyes was a new interest, wonder and awe. Again her gaze went to the big guns at his hips. She shuddered, closed her eyes. At this instant Eve opened the door of Warren’s room and stood in the opening. The light of a terrible anxiety was in her eyes. Her hands were clenched, she was biting her lips to keep them from quivering. “Channing,” she said, looking straight at him and ignoring the strange girl, “ it is unbearable to sit here doing nothing while Wayne is suffering. And it may be days before that doctor comes. He may never come. Won’t you please go after him?” “Sure!” Channing was turning to go out the door when the strange girl’s voice halted him. “Wait!” she said. ‘‘ I may be able to do something. I have had a great deal of experience with sick people.” She smiled at Channing and Eve. She was now calm, and her voice had a confident note. ‘“ Sometimes a doctor is not necessary,” she said. ‘‘ And you will have to go a long distance to get one. I was told in Red Mesa that all the doctors in the country were in Laskar, taking care of the people who were injured in a train wreck. Won’t you let me see him? It is the man you called Wayne Warren, isn’t it?” The girl was now at Eve’s side. Their low-voiced conversation Channing did not hear. He went out upon the porch and COMIC OOOKS COM