Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

THE GREAT OUTLAW. make it—going out. They’re going to wait a day or two to make him think himself safe.” A faint cry from Midge, which for- tunately for her was drowned in Elsie’s in- dignant but thoroughly unreasonable ex- clamation: ““T call that too mean for words!” “There’s more than that,’ Major In- glis went on. “ Some one has told the Home authorities who he is. There has been a despatch from Khargit—from the Com- missioner. There are strict orders that he must be taken alive.” “I think it’s simply horrid!” cried Elsie. “What will they do with him?” ‘Take him home and try him, I suppose. My dear, you seem to forget what the man has done.” Midge felt as cold as if she had been packed in ice. They knew where the White Horseman was. He had come back to his old life. They were going to surround him and take him prisoner. Some one had betrayed him. <A thought came like a flash of lightning that blotted out the room and its occupants and left her reeling alone in a black and empty world. He would think it was she who had be- trayed him. Only she knew that he was alive. From that moment Midge became pos- sessed by that one thought. They were going to take the White Horseman; they knew where he was. They were going to surround him and surprise him; they were going to make quite sure of him this time. ‘Some one had betrayed him. He would think it was she. He must think it. Only she knew that he was alive. She heard his hard, mocking voice again, as they stood together saying good-by in his sitting room in the Green bungalow. ‘“ And you are not ‘going to give me away?” Didn’t that imply that she was the only person who could? She was in the grip of a tremendous pur- pose. She must get to the White Horse- man; she must get there before the sol- diers. She must warn him of his danger; she must tell him that she had not betrayed 877 him—that she would rather die than do that. If they took him prisoner, she could not bear it. Back to England—to be tried for that awful crime of betraying his country. How could he have done it? Oh, how? She would never have believed he had, if he had not admitted it to her in those darkly bitter words, “ Would I be living the life I live if they were not true?” To be tried! She could see his erect figure in the pris- oner’s dock—his dark hawk face, stern and terrible in its imperishable pride, his in- human slaty gray eyes staring defiance at all around. But he had done that awful thing, and he would be punished for it. What would the punishment be? She did not know. Prison—perhaps for life? She shuddered. Prison for him who was very one with the air, with the hills, with the clouds! It was unthinkable—he in prison, and she in the world eating out her heart. She forgot everything. She forgot Sir John, the memory of her father, what she owed her kind hosts; she forgot friendship and honor and duty. Her whole being, not only her heart and brain, but her eyes and ears and hands and feet, were put at the service of the outlaw. He had said to her that if he could hold his head up among his fellow men, neither heaven nor hell should keep her from him. And neither heaven nor hell was going to keep her from his side. Only death could have stopped her. Of the company of great lovers was little Midge. And luck was with her. Colonel Man- isty came in after she and Elsie had gone to bed. Midge crept to the door of Major Inglis’s little study and listened to what they were saying. They were discussing the plans for the capture of the White Horseman. They had sent for two troops of mounted riflemen and a couple of extra mountain guns. They had arranged with the flying corps commander to act in uni- son with the troops. They knew the exact place of the White Horseman’s present en- campment. They discussed it at length, and Midge committed everything to a new and startling memory she had just acquired. The troops were to set out at dawn of the Ccomuicbooks CO