Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

VINGO’S LADY SERPENT. training had taught them how to suffer in silence. They weren’t grinning, but they were bearing it. And I am sure that, even in their darkest hours, they didn’t quite lose hope. Something about the way they held their chins gave me that idea. They were proud girls, and the blow to their pride had been terrific, but they didn’t whimper and they didn’t ask for mercy, and when the time came for fighting they would fight, as we are going to see. In all the gloom that in some uncanny way Alvina Barnes had brought to Vingo, the Clayburn girls re- mained the one bright spot. They were catching glimpses of stars when the rest of us could see nothing but blackness. They had a list made out of the rations they wanted; and Belinda read it off in her low, steady voice, and when the order was filled they paid cash as they always did, loaded the things into the old buggy and drove away, chins up and heads back. Perhaps an hour after they had gone, the twins sauntered in. There was some- thing stiff and odd in their manner that I detected at once. You’ve seen two strange dogs meet and stiffen and bristle. Well, it was something like that.” They wanted rations, too. And I didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to tell me that at least one of those rumors I’d heard was true. Ed picked up a picnic ham all wrapped up in stiff white paper from the counter. He picked it up by the small end, as if it were a club, and he balanced it in his hand. “Five pound o’ sugar, a coupla pound 0’ lard, a can o’ that cheap coffee, a package of them grits, a box o’ matches,” Jim said. “ Aren’t you boys boarding with the Clayburns any more?” I broke in, as sur- prised and natural as I could make myself sound. ‘““ Nope,” Jim grunted. “Too cramped,” Ed amplified. ‘“ A can 0’ them peaches, a six-pound sack 0’ flour, one o’ them cans o’ salt and a cake 0’ sweet soap,” Jim went on. ‘““ Reckon we might as well take this ham along,” Ed said in a strange voice. “{ don’t want no ham,” Jim snapped. ‘“Well—I do!” his brothed growled. ‘Well, you'll pay fer it outa your own money then!” ham and threw it on the floor. “JT will like hell!” “Hey!” I yelled. But I might as well have been hollering « | at twin rocks. They had swung about from the counter to face each other, and they were half crouching, with their heads ducked down and their teeth bared.. What had happened to all that nice, All| quiet, easy-going affection? Gone. gone! In its place was nothing but fiery- eyed hatred. Jim had curled up his big brown hands into fists and Ed was wagging the ham in his hand. It wasn’t a very reassuring situation. “Come on,” I said briskly. ‘“ Calm down. I'll make you a present of the damned ham.” “No,” Ed snarled, “it’s goin’ to be paid for outa our money.” ‘““ Over my dead body!” Jim croaked. It seemed to me I could see the hair start to bristle up on the backs of their necks. What happened happened pretty quick. “Ya sneak!” Ed roared. “Ya dirty skunk!” Jim shouted. Everything considered, J’ll say they were fighting words. Up came the ham in Ed’s hand with a smack on Jim’s face. Jim grabbed the Then they began slugging. Well, I enjoy a fight as well as the next man, but that spectacle was sickening to watch. All that brother love turned into killing hate. And they fought the way you would naturally expect a pair of twins to fight. Not one of them gave an inch of ground. They stood just where they had been stand- ing, as if their feet were nailed to the floor, and—slugged. And when a blow landed, the whole commissary shook. They were six-footers, trained down by hard work to nothing but beef and bone, and how they could slug! And there wasn’t an ounce of science in — a ton oi it. It was simply a case of two equally matched young giants smashing each other blindly. No scheme, no plan, but just to batter the other down. Ed Randolph was the first to yield, and he yielded all the way across the long room. Up to that point they were simply demon- ~ strating what happened when an irresistible Eomichooks (E(o)