Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

VALOR. fury, but as the girl staggered back from his rude shove, the door opened and David entered the room. CHAPTER XIV. THE KNOUT. “mam IN’T you got nerves? Ain’t you got Av ecain’s?” screamed the exasperated old man as he stumped forward, leaning on the table to lunge out with one foot at the wretched puppy. But David sprang lithely from the doorway to push his father back and sweep the little animal up in his arms. “You leave it be!” he cried. mine.” With the injured puppy clutched against his breast the boy tossed back his head and fixed shining eyes upon his father. ‘‘ That’s one thing you got to leave be,” he said. Man and boy ignored the girl as they stood there facing each other. Old Man Parmelee, having been pushed almost from his precarious balance by the exuberance of David’s onslaught, now firmly grasped the high back of a chair before him and stared at his indignant son. As usual with these two, a turmoil of thought passed in their minds between what time they spoke, and Madge, kneeling on the hard earthen floor, saw the face of Old Man Parmelee as his mind worked furl- ously in that silence become. gradually harder, gradually beclouded by the dark- ness of 2 ruthless determination. His hands left the back of the chair and in his peculiar stiff-legged manner, he walked to the wall beside the fireplace. He spoke as he walked, and Madge Hendry, watching and listening, felt her heart con- tract within her as she sensed impending tragedy. The boy stood with the puppy in his arms, folded to his breast, and watched his father’s movements. His face was flushed so. that his cheeks shone apple red, and his dark eyes glowed handsomely. He seemed marvelously un- perturbed, yet there was a certain set alert- ness in his face, and a great deal of resolu- tion. “It’s 923 “So you come back,” said his father, as he moved to the wall. “ You come back. Aw’ the first thing you do is to sling yore spite out at me like a rattler.” His voice rose to a sudden harshness. © ** Well, I’m glad you come!” he cried. “TI told Aleck Sheffield what I was goin’ to do. to you when you come back, an’ now I’m goin’ to do it! Pm goin’ to whip you till you yell out for mercy.” And his hand: clutched the stock of a rawhide whip that hung at the mantel side. Springing to her feet the girl gasped out something incomprehensible, inarticulate; but neither the boy nor the man took notice of her. “Father! You won’t.” In that cry David voiced all the trust of a boy in his father’s love and fairness, but the wretched man was deaf to the meaning of his voice. ‘Ha! Yo’re afraid. I knew it. I told ’em.”” The old man strode across the floor to the boy’s side. ‘ Save yore whines an’ yore pleadin’,” he rasped, “ ’cause you'll need ’em now.” David turned to grasp his father by the arm, but with great violence old Parmelee tore his grasp away. “Yelp now!” he cried, and raising the whip he laid it with all his might across the boy’s straight back. * A-a-a-a-h!” David caught his breath, but that was all. He drew up his shoulders after that, and his head shrank down in am instinctive physical resistance to the blows which his father showered on him. “Cry out! Yell! Yelp like the yellow dawg you are!” Old Man Parmelee shouted, and he lashed the boy again with all the strength of his arm. The third stroke snapped loudly, and the boy’s shirt was ripped open as if by a knife. David, clutching the puppy to him, made only one single sound. It came thickly through clenched teeth, and was preceded by a sharp intaking of the breath. As the fifth blow lashed across his back, he jerked out the one word. ‘ No!” “No! No! No! Stop you'll kill him!” shrieked Madge, and she grasped the old man by the arm. With a sweep of that arm he flung her away, and she fell back into a chair. Commicbooks.conm