Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 4, 1926 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

Mot) EAT a as voce 452 be it because of feud, or barroom fight, or cards, or anything else. And I got order in this here range where before I came a pony express rider wasn’t safe on the range—” “We witness to that, chief,’ Simpson the elder said. ‘“‘ Now that you’re sheriff us prospectors are safe with our gold dust —even in the Big Mesas.”’ ‘“ All right, men,” the chief said. ‘“ You will understand then why it was I kept that thar revenge of mine locked up in my heart. T didn’t tell Harry about it; I knowed he’d of carried the feud out in the open and made a murderer outen hisself. I didn’t tell nobody. Then came the unlucky day when I found them two reptiles who had killed my brother.” “And you plugged ’em, chief?” Swig said eagerly. “No, not then. Some of you men will recollect hearin’ of another fight. It was ten years ago, in a desert saloon. I took off my star—and, as I said, I got ’em ina game. I told ’em a false name so’s they wouldn’t know I was a Morrel. “But some fool barkeep spilled the beans, and warned ’em to watch their step. I was the sheriff, he said, the chief, the Morrel that all men was afeared of. So we played cards, they knowin’ I was goin’ to kill ’em both—” “And you dumped ’em—ay, chief— dumped ’em good and pretty!” Swig cried with tremendous enthusiasm. “No. I was takin’ my time. Didn’t know they suspected. Then one of ’em, while shufflin’, drops a card, reaches to the floor to pick same up, and afore his hand appears he blazes away at me with his gun under the table. “A slug gets me in the hip, another under the ribs, another in my groin. I drop to the floor. The fandango hall clears out. The two gunmen and I myself don’t have no doubts whatsomever that I was done for.” Many of the deputies knitted their brows and gasped angrily; Swig yanked fiercely at his mustache. “One more shot in my chest would of finished me,” the chief said, “‘ and put me out of my misery. But those bloodthirsty ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. killers wanted to torture me in my misery. They just waited there, standin’ over me, gloatin’, spittin’, proddin’ me with their boots. They got a jug of red-eye, and started to guzzle and laugh and git drunk. “One of ’em was scairt of the crowd comin’ back and takin’ ’em prisoners. But the crowd was a bunch of yaller-livered breeds, and the two hellbenders knew it. One of ’em was too drunk to be afraid, drunk with red-eye and with triumph. So they tortured me for a long while—me lyin’ there half unconscious, half mad with pain—tco feeble to raise my haid. So help me, I couldn’t raise my haid, or my arms— even when they taunted me about my brother who they killed!” “Go on, chief,’ the crowd prompted. Tell us the rest.” “After what seemed many hours—years —a doctor comes along, the doctor from the Big Mesas, and if he hadn’t of per- formed a miracle or two I’d never be here speakin’ to you gents. He blunders into the place, not thinkin’ there’d be any dan- ger to hisself or to his little gal who had come with him, with bandages and water and such. “The hellbenders get scairt, because he was a big hombre and fightin’ mad. They hop to their cayuses. They didn’t even dast stop long enough to put that final slug in my chest which they promised.” “You mean they got away, Chief?” Swig cried in exasperation. “They got away for a while. But they know’d I was on their trail. I announced that thar prophecy to them, and later to the doctor. I didn’t send no posse. I an- nounced that it was my own personal fight —over a card game—and no posse was wanted. “T reckon the hellbenders heard that statement, and it got on their nerves. They know’d I’d get ’em sooner or later. I figure they just about went daft, expectin’ me to show up in some Mexican village, or wherever else they were at. “In fact they went so daft fearin’ I’d trail ’em to the end of the world that they came back to free ’emselves. You know what I mean: to kill me.” “They came back, did they?” Swig ex- COPNICLOOKS (E@)