Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

THE DANCING DOLL. - ‘Tina’s only answer was a smile, but it _ ravished that susceptible heart. A moment later the footsteps of the in- truders clattered down stairs and out into tic street. ee CHAPTER XX, VALDEZ ACTS. HAT would Pedro Valdez do about it? That was the question on the tongue of all Rio. The politician had insulted a married woman, and the husband had knocked him down. It was a public beating—not a thing to be hushed up. For the next few days the town was talk- ing of nothing else and the newspapers kept the gossip going. The latest issues were in demand in every club and public bar in Rio. The coffee drinkers on the Avenida drew their heads together over the tables as they read the headings. Young bloods declared that George was right—that they, too, would have knocked down the big boss in such a case. But the older men declared that Valdez was taking too much time. When they were young—and they twisted their white mustaches: defiantly—such an attack on a _ Jeading politician would be instantly wiped out in blood. In those days an affair of honor was not allowed to grow cold—a blow, a challenge and at dawn the next morning—crack-crack! The pistols spoke the short deadly words of the code. An insult like that demanded nothing less than blood! George, going about his affairs at the Café La Scala, no longer feared arrest. Brooding savagely over the loss of Margot, he was longing for a fight. The one thing he dreaded was that he would be shot at or knifed in the back by some paid thug. He got into the habit of scrutinizing carefully all the strangers in the café. He had a terrible shock one night when he thought he recognized an old ac- Quaintance from Bleecker Street, not one of the gang but a fellow who sometimes drove a car for them—but when he turned for 239 a second look at the man he had disap- peared. “IT guess I just dreamed it,” thought George. “ What would Tony be doing in Rio?” In those days George was the center of attention, ‘The man who had defied the big boss. But he was no longer “ the brig- and, the vile assassin.” To Valdez’s opponents he was a hero: To others he was the doomed man awaiting execution at the point of the Brazilian’s sword or the muzzle of his duelling pistol. For Pedro had a reputation for gallantry, a fighting Don Juan! Meanwhile Valdez sulked in his villa. Though he spread threats of terrible venge- ance abroad through the active tongues of his hangers-on, he did not take immediate action. Perhaps he hoped that George would be frightened at the rumors of slaughter and sneak out of town. Perhaps he wished to conquer by scaring his enemy to death. But his parasites returned to tell him that George only smiled at the tales of Valdez’s skill with the sword and did not seem greatly worried when he heard that his enemy could shoot out a candle at forty. paces. Lieutenant Rico, whose order to arrest George had been revoked, spent much of his time hanging over Tina’s desk. He de- clared that George was a terrible fighter with sword, knife and pistol, and had slain many men in duels in the streets of New York—to say nothing of the wild Indians who lurked about that city. He said this so often that he finally believed it and be- gan to admire the man he had tried to arrest. All this gave Valdez something to think about. He instructed his confidential agents to look up George’s record in the United States—question every man in Rio who had ever been in New York. He even thought of bribing George se- cretly to leave the country. It would be worth money to save his face that way. But somehow nothing came of this. Reluctantly he prepared to fight. It was Guy Dalby who finally goaded him to action. The_song-ard-dance map