Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

850 Farley grinned at Hazel and moved to- ward the door. “You'll excuse me?” he leered. She felt that she could not bear being Jeft alone with Lederer—an unreasonable dread which she could not understand. ‘* No—wait!”’ she cried. But, Farley had already disappeared through the doorway. ‘What business?” asked Lederer. He smiled at her boldly. She examined him with a swift glance, and, recalling the wound which Cosgrove had inflicted upon him, wondered at her fear. “Your business,” she said firmly. ‘I’m planning to use my share in this ranch to raise bail for Mr. Cosgrove.” His practiced smirk, proved irresistible by past conquests, changed ludicrously to a frown of mystification. ‘“‘ Bail?” he asked. ‘‘ Your share? What you talkin’ about?” And she remembered that he was igno- rant of all that had passed since his duel with Cosgrove. ‘Klien is dead,” she said. grove shot him in fair fight. is playing foul against him.” And even as she spoke, her spirit was overcome with the realization that Cos- grove had no enemy who hated him more bitterly than this swarthy cow-puncher. “He has put him in jail,” she added. In a flash Lederer achieved understand- ing. He turned from her as a thing of no importance, and burst noisily into the front room, where Christofferson was clum- sily questioning Farley. “What's this, Wert?” he roared. ‘‘ What is this about Klien being shot?”” He drew up short before the body which they had placed on the table in the middle of the room. “ Drilled clean!” Farley murmured, with a technical interest in the wound. ‘Yeah, an’ Jake without no gun. They are holdin’ Cosgrove fer murder!”’ ‘“‘ They’re holding him for the findings of the sheriff and coroner,” snapped Gaines. Lederer’s eyes gleamed with an evil fire. “That boy’s certainly notchin’ up his gun a lot,” he remarked. “ First, Mase Farley, then me, then Jake.” “ Mr. Cos- My uncle ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “What's that?” asked Christofferson. ‘Nothing that concerns you, Chris,” said Gaines. “ It ain’t evidence.” ‘““Oh, ain't it?” Cliff laughed. He was in a mood of reckless triumph. “ It’s evi- dence enough to hang him. Chris, this lady here, she’s all worked up about bail and such. He fixed it, this Cosgrove did, so she comes into Jake's share of the ranch, an’ she’s rightly grateful.” He smiled with glistening teeth at Hazel. ‘But if you let that snake-blooded skunk out on bail, yo’re missin’ the best chance vou ever had of hangin’ onto the man who shot Mase Farley in the back.” He turned to Hazel. ‘‘ That’s how favorable I am to bailin’ him out,” he said genially. ‘“But vou will in the end!” she cried; and she suddenly felt that she was an equal for this man—that he had no power over her. ‘“ When he is free, as you are afraid to make him free to fight for him- self, you'll remember what I’m saying now. You have seen in Bradley Cosgrove the form and substance of a gentleman such aS vou can never understand. You chal- lenged him to try your own game, and he beat vou at it. ‘“He was too contemptuous of vou to shoot you dead as you would have shot him. So he just winged you, and hu- miliated you. I should think you’d be ashamed to stand there and play your heroics in the face of the mark he’s put on you. ‘“ And you hope to keep him behind bars by your efforts! You might as well try to imprison the wind. And when you speak of fighting him with the law, you challenge him to meet vou at his own game; and he'll beat you worse than he did before.” Her voice stopped, leaving them si- lent—leaving Lederer without a word he dared to speak. She turned to Gaines. ‘Have you finished here, Mr. Gaines?” Gaines looked from Farley to Christof- ferson with an amused twinkle in his eye. “Yes,” he said gravely, ‘‘ we’ve finished. You can cart Jake Klien over to the coro- ner, Chris, and then you let the law take its course,” he advised. ‘Drive me into town,” the girl re- quested. lDOOlK