Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

koe ¥ ~~ When Christine saw me, she said in a ~ low, tense voice: “ Buck, come outside; we want to talk to you.” J followed them outside and we sat down on the top step of the kitchen porch. The Aa Ps ots ort si se ~ ae > we “ Belinda said. ya = a gS = 3 « ee. — > —— — sky was overcast. There were no stars anywhere, and there was a threat of rain in the air. The rainfrogs were tuning up, se _ and now and then a firefly flickered green. “We can’t stand it any longer, Buck,” “That woman is directly responsible for paw’s death, and now she comes here with that man and those dogs.” “ And in that dress and smokin’ cigar- ___ ettes,” Christine added angrily. ‘“‘ She knows what she’s done. She knows she ruined paw. We haven’t got enough here to live on now.” “IT don’t know what you mean,” I said, 3 : = suddenly cold. -__“s ‘“‘ Where do you suppose he’s been gettin’ the money from to go gallivantin’ around Fr) Wf? TAL Sha ‘ee mo ___with her and buy her presents and buy that _____ bad liquor her brother makes?” Belinda wanted to know. -_-Deland Syndicate. “He spent everything we had in the bank and last week he sold off all his timber across the Tomoka to the What have we left? Just a few acres of second-growth pine and 5 —_ those two swamps. And you know you can’t get a black to go in them on account = e ~<e we haven’t any relations. o of the ’gators and moccasins.” “Did you know he had bought her a ring that cost almost a thousand dollars?” Christine took her up. ‘“ She milked him dry. And what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? So far as we know Who are we going to turn to? We can’t live out jn these woods all alone now.” She grabbed my arm. “ Buck,” she cried, “ what are we going to do?” “ Gosh,” I said. Well, what was the answer? Yes, Alvina had done a mighty Sit aerae thorough job. Christine let go my arm and jumped up. = I couldn’t see her, but I knew from the t: ee ee —~ * out finally. - sounds that she was wringing her hands. _“T’ve got to do something!” she burst “Not to-night!” Belinda said. “Yes, to-night! I’m goin’ to kill her. = I’m goin’ to get paw’s gun and kill her!” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Sit down,” I said sternly. ““T won’t! She’s ruined our lives! She took our boys away from us and made fools out of them. And she’s taken money that belonged to us. I’m goin’ in there and kill her—the snake!” “ Wait a minute,” I said. * No,” she said, “I’ve got to do some- thing. I can’t stand it. I feel like smash- ing things. I’d like to take a club—” “We might smash that still,” Belinda suggested. There was a moment of very tense silence. “We will!’”’ Christine cried in a shrill voice. ‘‘ We’ll smash that still!” “ Not now,” I gasped. ‘* ‘Yes—now!”’ Christine exclaimed. “ You can swear us in as your deputies and we'll do it officially. It ought to’ve been smashed weeks ago! Why didn’t you, Buck? Why didn’t you?” I didn’t try to explain why I hadn’t gone after that still. The excuses Alvina had furnished me with didn’t seem very whole- some now—not after the product of that still had helped kill a man. But how well I remembered her argument! “The bad liquor that is being sold in these backwoods places ought to be stamped out,” she had said. ‘‘ My brother learned how to make this kind up in Tennessee. You know there’s nothing healthier than good, honest corn liquor. What gives you all your trouble in a place like this is the single-run stuff, which is nothing but so much fusel oil, or the stuff they don’t still at all but just drain off the mash. You know that. J's rank potson! While this —Why! You could feed it to babies!” ‘All right, girls,” I said grimly, “ we'll go down there and bust up that still, and you can go along as my deputies, if it will make you feel any better.” “ We'll start now,” said Belinda. “We'd better take paw’s Colt along in case that one-eyed black is guarding it. I haven’t seen him around here to-night.” She rose to go in. For a moment there was silence. The rainfrogs had stopped shrilling. And in the silence I heard a chair thump down softly on the floor. The sound came from an open window near us, and I realized then that all of our conversa- Eomichboo oO SnlG@) in