Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 11, 1925 — page 100: what you’re looking at

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

7 al td 0, Pe’ Sree Caching eh teh gee! atm a ey eh Obs grt stp “ : Pha | : or wa iv t \ , PAS lo. Mak tebe eae fh Y Oty ‘ i b : Fon 5! ace ph SR MPM, Brad oo dane le ty ~,. veal “ . : > AV t hips Cel 4 re ~ SAW IEh MP) one ey oe ae WA eee codes seed ei atlas lt all anid os Dials ae Al Mat A aa OUR Cua f\ amyl wt > . HR a ‘\ Ys NPY : ee ; : , Wy, ' 4 : : } a ’ —-..- 254 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY . WEEKLY. There, with the picture, whether a true or false portrait of girlish simplicity, re- moved from the actual field of his vision, he was inclined to laugh at his sentimental relapse. “Tf she’d had the germ of fineness in her,” he told himself. “Even if any of this outward improvement were real or permanent, God knows I could cancel out’ all the past. I’m not a mere libertine. But it can’t be genuine. What she did to me she'll do to this country boy. She’s posing as an angel-faced ingénue now, and when she tires of being the angel, it will be too late. The least I can do is to save Wade Murrell.” But after a moment he shook his head, Again his being seemed to separate into two distinct entities, and one of them stood in conflict with the other. It was as if Stacy Carroll was facing Jock Harrison, and as if Stacy Carroll had also begun to look on matters from an angle at which Jock Harri- son laughed. “You lie, Harrison,” said Carroll. “ You are not a fool. Your brain is sound enough to face logic. You pretend to have shifted from the attitude of a man with the one purpose of avenging a personal wrong to that of the altruist protecting his fellow man.” “ That is no pretext,” the Harrison men- tality argued. “It’s genuine enough.” “Tt’s a lie,” contradicted the Carroll mind. “ It’s a lie seeking virtuous disguise. It’s the hokum of casuistry. Back of it lies the flaming passion for this woman that you can’t overcome. You advised Wade Murrell to strangle the infatuation. You can’t strangle it yourself. If the girl has improved, it only makes you want her the more. If she hasn’t improved, you claim her as one who has forfeited her freedom. - Right now your blood is in a fever of de- sire. You are hungry to conquer her—to ' possess her.” The man arose. “Tm not getting anywhere,” he told him- self dully. “I can’t make up my mind— _ but that only proves that this thing needs_ _ more thinking over before I act. This isn’t _ the time to confront her.” oak was" —— who started down the mountain first, and from his concealment Harrison saw her go. For a few moments, he stood where he was and noted the light grace with which she swung herself from foothold to foothold down a steepness that might have held a genuine peril for one less . sure of foot and eye. “Tl keep you in sight, young woman,” he commented to himself. “ And if my doubts crystallize into certainty, Vl still claim my five minutes’ talk.” It rather amused Carroll to realize that he could make his way over these hills with so fair a counterfeit of the woodsman’s craft in holding to cover and avoiding noise. He seemed to drift like a shadow behind the girl, always out of sight. But when he saw her leave the rocky, thicketed mountain side and start into the clearing where Wade Murrell’s ax had been g, his face hardened. “So that’s where you’re going,” he re- flected. ‘“‘ You rise from maiden medita- tions and go to vamp the simple hero. The simple hero has resolved to hold his tongue —but you may find a way to make him speak! >? Carroll halted in the laurel, and his eyes grew merciless again. ‘Eavesdropping isn’t quite my line,” he told himself, “ but this time I resort to it —and if she tries to break down young Murrell’s resolution, then, as God looks down on me, Fl put her where she'll be harmless—and Fl waste no further time on sentiment!” Wade had thrown down his ax and come forward to meet the girl, and her eyes were smiling on him. Carroll edged forward, and from the higher rock behind him their words ae back to him as if from a sound- ing board “c I’m simply. As the two drew closer together, their voices fell and Carroll lost their words. He cursed under his breath, because their faces were earnest and he thought he might be missing something that he needed to know. But side by side, after a few minutes, they drifted nearer to his hiding place, and once more he was able to listen in. m right glad ter see ye,” the man said Wade was oe some sentence and es " = Sere 4 : eS 2 = Se Sa <. Ieee = <% <—— — Ee => + a < / V a ai ~~ ~~ wT Se aN ii J S he % is o> — = a “te s = e — ~ a