Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

242 “Good luck, boy! Plug him for me!” He was gone. Tina stood at the window looking through the Venetian blinds, and saw the boy she had prayed for leap into the car between Lieutenant Rico and another of- ficer. His manner was as jaunty and gay as if they were going off for a fishing trip. He glanced up, waved carelessly to the girlish figure in the window, then turned to talk to his two companions. Tina strained her eyes to follow it as the motor slipped away in the gray light; then she dragged her feet wearily to her bedroom as if she were being led to exe- cution. Once more she fell on her knees before the Virgin and prayed silently. The meeting place was a clearing on the hilltop not far from Valdez’s country house, the villa where the party had been given. Although George and his friends had much farther to go, they were first on the ground. ~ When Valdez did arrive with his seconds and a gray bearded surgeon carrying a case of instruments, he looked surly and heavy, as if he had quieted his nerves with alcohol or some drug. The politician was very imposing in frock coat and silk hat, and the young men who seconded him were fastidiously dressed. While the seconds were measuring off the ground the politician carefully laid aside his coat and vest, folded them, and placed his high hat on the pile of garments. Then he stood with his arms crossed like the hero of a melodrama scowling at George. After a few moments’ consultation, Rico returned to George and said in an under- tone: “T’ve been told that you have one more chance to apologize. Even now if you wish to ask pardon before these gentlemen, Sefior Valdez will let the matter drop.” “We're wasting time,” said George. “When does the shooting begin?” The pistols were not the sort of arms George was accustomed to, but heavy duel- ing weapons, firing only one shot. They were loaded with great formality by the seconds, and the choice was determined by lot. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. As he took his position in the field cov- ered by dewy grass, George could feel the cool morning breeze from the sea blow through his light shirt and caress his body. From where he stood there was a long, Sweeping vista over the sleeping city; the broad harbor and the glory of the sea at dawn. A full throated chorus of birds was jubilantly greeting the new day from the tree tops. ‘Their joyous music seemed to echo back from the sky, tinted like a pearl and rosy in the east, How beautiful the world was! sunrise was a fresh miracle! And, waiting for the second’s command to fire, George felt a little swift pang, a feeling something like terror at the thought that when the sun did rise he might not be alive to see it. His jauntiness had not been just a pose. Until that moment it had actually not oc- curred to him that a bullet from Valdez might strike him dead. From life to death in a single second! George saw it in his mind’s eye as a bird in careless flight through the air. Sudden- ly there is a report, a scattering of feathers, and the creature that was so full of life and joy and energy drops, a limp, bedraggled thing—dead! In the instant that George realized that he was facing death, things seemed sud- denly to take new values. Life itself, the mere fact of existence, seemed tremendous- ly precious just then. ' Before that he had simply taken it for granted, just as he had taken for granted the best things of life, his youth, his strength, his friends, the devotion of the best little friend of all—Tina! Tina! What a plucky little kid she was, and what a friend! ‘Time and again she had stood by him and pulled him out of one scrape after another. Why, even this very morning she had drawn his bath and made his coffee and sent him on his way with crisp words of courage. She had smiled, but all of a sudden he realized that she must have been holding back her tears. She had given him her amulet. And at this moment, no doubt, she was praying for his safety. She loved him! : Every COMMGCOCOK<S.eOrna)