Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

862 invoke. But he moved. He shifted away from the wall. “Don’t move!” Cosgrove’s voice rang with a sound which no man there had heard before. His hands hung lightly at his sides, his arms a little bent; it was as though his fingers hovered about the grips of those two guns. Gilley arose slowly from his chair, but only Cosgrove noticed him. All other eyes were fixed on the man in the doorway. ‘For God’s sake, don’t move!” he re- peated. ‘‘I don’t want to kill a man to- night!” Gilley stood rooted in his place. His eyes, with the mystery of blue flame in them, seemed to cover all these men at once. His presence held them rigid, and the sight of him stamped his figure indelibly upon them. TFrank Slade especially remembered him and was destined never to forget him. Many years later he could have described him in every detail; the texture of the white shirt he wore, and how it spread slightly open at the throat, so that in a peculiar manner it set off the like whiteness of his skin; the chaps which Cosgrove had donned over his well fitting trousers, the number of cartridges about his waist. Cosgrove had stopped at Manford long enough to acquire those chaps and that ex- tra gun, and he had left his coat in the car which he hired to bring him to this scene. To this fighting equipment that thus im- pressed his figure on Slade’s mind, he added the ringing tenor of his voice. “But if you start shooting,” he cried. ‘“ Just remember that I’m giving you a fair start!” He flung these words at Lederer: and as he spoke them Gilley snatched at his gun. . There was a roar of shots, and an- other of the Bar Nothing men drew to fire as Gilley crumpled slowly to the oor. Cos- erove leaped across the room and felled the other with a blow of one fist which held a smoking gun. He disarmed the cowboy as he fell, and spun about to face the room again with Gilley dead at his feet. Cosgrove’s movement had been so light- ning like that he seemed to execute it all in a single gesture. He had drawn and fired, crossed the room, felled his man and ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. whirled upon them again, before any but Lederer and Slade had managed to extract their weapons from the holsters; and that leap across the room had been so unexpect- ed as to baffle the few who sprang to action. ‘Drop ’em!” roared Cosgrove in a fury of resolution. Jederer’s gun dropped to the Hoor with a clatter. Slade stared at the young man a moment with his own weapon in his hand. A slight movement, a quick pressure on the trigger was all he needed; but it was more than he could do. With the blue passion of Cosgrove’s eyes upon him, and a vague realization of the spirit behind those eyes, Slade felt sud- denly that here was a man he had no desire to fight with. His gun fell from his hand to the floor. Cosgrove's voice fell to a conversational level, but Slade found himself as he heard it, recalling the sound of falling icicles as they had broken from his eaves in time of thaw. ‘Now you know how we stand,” said Cosgrove. And grinned. ‘As for this hanging, I’m telling you that no man has ever died by my gun with a smaller chance of his life than this poor devil here.” He touched the body of Gilley with his foot. * You're here to hang me. I had plenty of warning and could have made clean away, but I came here to talk it over. This man,’ again he lightly prodded Gilley’s corpse, ‘is a paid gunman for that pack rat.” He waved a gun toward Lederer, ‘“who would profit by seeing me hanged. You saw how quickly he passed up the priviege of exchanging shots; that’s be- cause his arm is still sore from the last time he did it. He let his gunman do the dirty work and you all had the opportunity to witness the result.” He paused for a moment, and smiled. ‘“Now most of you gentlemen mean well. I know that. You’ve just been listening to one side of the storv. Lederer’s side. I'll bet vou've already found out some of it was lies. Now the proposition I’m going to make is this: * If you hang me for the worst thing I’ve ever done, vou’ll hang me for the death of this poor hireling here. Klein had me cov- ered before I drew, and I’m asking for a Conn lDOOlK