Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

~ VINGO’S LADY SERPENT. T nodded. “They didn’t tell me,”’ she whispered. “You know it now,” I told her. “It would be a shame,” she said, “ to break up anything between those two sweet girls and the twins, wouldn’t it?” And she looked up at me as if she were speculating about something. “ Yes,” I agreed. “ But I can’t help myself if I draw men the way honey draws bees, can 1?” “You might sort of screen yourself in,” I suggested. ‘But I’m so lonely, sheriff,’ she sighed, and her lashes fluttered down to her cheeks —long lashes, so dark that they were almost black. ‘ I’m young and I—TI have these im- pulses. Oh, I know I oughtn’t to; but—isn’t it natural to have them? I’m not cold _ blooded.” ‘“‘ Aren’t you?” I said huskily. She bent her body until her shoulder was just touching mine—and some old instinct of self-preservation told me that, as sure as God made little apples, I was being lured into a trap. But its voice was mighty faint and far away, and Alvina’s shoulder against mine was warm and soft, and she was looking up at me with dreams in her eyes. ‘Do you think I am?” she whispered. “JT don’t know,” I whispered back. She sighed again. ‘I want love. [I want some man who will be my master and love me and love me and love me! Oh, you don’t know how hard it is for a girl like me! You think I’m cold blooded and cruel and designing. But I’m not. I’m all emotion!” And her eyes seemed to turn liquid and dark and to glow with hidden fires. And only that distant faint small voice kept my arms where they belonged. It said: “Watch your step, Buck; she’s gunning for something!’ So I kept my arms beside me. And next thing I knew her soft arms were around my neck and a kiss that was like perfumed silk was being pressed on my lips. And for the next few seconds the still small voice wasn’t even audible. Yes, sir, that little redhead certainly knew one or two things about the kissing business, and when I finally let her go, she drew 363 back and sort of wilted, as if all her — strength was gone. “What have we done?” she whispered. “Oh, what have we done?”’ I think a less experienced girl would have pushed the blame off on me; but Alvina, saying it that way, kept things in just the same key as they had been started. Her words and her tone and her whole attitude — meant: ‘“ Oh, we poor, frail humans! How helpless we are in the grip of these powerful emotions!” She shivered a little. said, “we must be careful. But you are so—so fine and noble. I—I brought you a little present and I’m so afraid it will make you mad.” “A present from you—make me mad?” “ Sheriff,” she I snorted. And for some reason a picture — of old man Clayburn came into my mind. Maybe I had a clairvoyant moment myself, was Sensitive for just a second to the ideas and impulses going on behind that lovely face. Old man Clayburn came into my mind as he had been the night he first saw her—blushing with embarrassment, his watery old eyes glittering with desire, his — clumsy, red, gnarled old hands plucking away at his tangled gray beard. Then the picture faded out. Alvina had put into my hand the ae flat package she had brought into the commissary. I undid the brown paper wrapping. And looked down stupidly at a pint flask with- out a label and full of a transparent fluid the color of domestic honey. Tiny pearls in clusters floated on top. “ Mule!” I blurted. That faint, far-away voice leaped into full cry now; but it was drowned out by Alvina’s soft whisper, accompanied by the tips of her soft fingers trailing across my cheek. “For you, honey.” That old instinct had told me that some- thing was coming, and when that flask of ’shine appeared, my mind jumped to the right conclusion. That kiss had been as care- fully planned as the move that a champion chess player makes. I was the only officer of the law in Vingo, and her brother was breaking the law; and she was going to Eomichboo <S (S@)