Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

328 was the old New York aristocracy; and it was by a strange coincidence an affair of love as well as convenience. An ugly mat- ter to break into that young life with a murder scandal. ‘“‘Y wish to God I had gone up to that room instead of you, Rivers!”’ Chilton mut- tered. “Oh, bally rot!” the doctor rejoined. ‘““What’s that got to do with it?” “You see I could run away,” Chilton ex- plained. ‘‘ It would make me look guilty, I admit. But I could have a little fun of my own, I’ll tell you, out there in the West. Escaping from the law! Wow! Wouldn’t that be glorious! A horse and a six-gun! Into the unexplored canons! I’d give them a merry chase, I’ll tell you!”’ “Look here, let’s get down to business,” the doctor said. ‘‘ Just what are we going to do? Just what am / going todo? I’ve got to face it, of course. The whole truth. If it can only come out! ‘The fact is I’m strapped. Can’t do anything, and here I am expecting to be surrounded by plain- clothes men any minute. It'll take some nerve, I’ll tell you—while I’m thinkin’ of those poor souls at home. “Like as not I’ll botch the whole busi- ness by going to pieces! Not that I’m afraid of those bullet-headed crooks and cops that they’ll sic on me—don’t think that for a minute. I’m not afraid of death, either. You know that well enough! But it’s thinking of my wife that makes it all so -hard!” Chilton apparently had not listened. He burst out suddenly as if he had been puz- zling over a brain-racking problem, and had suddenly found the answer: “Tve got it!” ‘““ Got what?” ‘The answer!”’ “ Don’t be an ass, Chilton. There is no answer. And don’t be rash either. I can see something in your eye that tells me you’re going to shoot down the whole police force.” “ Purely as a matter of luck, I have just conceived an insatiable desire to live in the adventures of a frontier.” ‘“Deuced lot that’s got to do with it!” the doctor grumbled. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘Quite so. But it has suggested to me the answer to our riddle. If I had not been gorging myself with these yarns of the Wild West I might not have thought of the move I am about to make.” The other stared. He knew that James Chilton was capable of anything—no mat- ter how hare-brained. ““T am going west to-night.” The doctor grunted disgustedly. “I thought you understood that situation. If you so much as leave town—or depart from your ordinary routine of life, you will at- tract the suspicion of the police. Don’t forget that you, too, are in a delicate posi- tion; you threatened that fellow yourself this afternoon.” “That is just the reason I am going. I become from this moment a fugitive from justice. My blood is beginning to course with a splendid excitement. I am pursued. Don’t smile. And, above all, please don’t swear. ‘When it is known that I have disap- peared from the club, leaving everything up in the air so to speak, saying good-by to no one, just peremptorily dropping from exist- ence, then the riddle of Moduant’s death will no longer bother anybody. The world will consider it very satisfactorily solved. The only question then will be: Where is: James Chilton? ‘You, of course, can go to your wife still retaining your spotless reputation. You will probably celebrate a little indis- creetly—but that hurts no one’s reputation in these days of prohibition. As for me I get my greatest wish in life—to be a fugi- tive in the Arizona desert without fleeing my own conscience. What could be more soul satisfying than that? I could not have cut the pattern better if I were Destiny and the Three Fates. ‘“T hurt nobody. I benefit many; yvour- self and your estimable family. I also benefit the real murderer by decoying all suspicion from him, who, in my mind, did a very praiseworthy deed when he stopped Morduant’s treachery forever!” Dr. Rivers had listened breathless at first, actually aghast at this lunacy. But when the end came, he saw his own answer clearly enough. He said calmly: oO (S@) COMmiclooOolkks