Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 4, 1926 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

223 jail, too. But no bad trouble, you know, no bad trouble, not till the other night—”’ He hesitated and stopped. ‘Ves?’ primed the desert man imper- sonally. Again there was that scrutiny of black eyes by weak blue ones; again a moment’s hesitation, followed by the decision to speak, ‘“There’s a little place up on the main line. Pokato, it’s called. Jus’ a red-and- black station, an adobe store hiding a bar, with rooms over it, an’ a line of freight car section houses. “T got off’n my side door Pullman up there. God knows why; I don’t. But there was a woman there. She gave me a hand- out, an’ made a fuss over me. A fat wom- an, with black eyes, an’ brown skin under the pile of powder on her face, not much to look at, she wasn’t, but full of hell. “She took me in. She lived over the store. We had some liquor, an’ a party. Right in the middle of it a big, yellow-faced feller blew in. “He had black eyes, too, like yours, only they weren’t fastened in his head. They swam, kinda, as if they were loose. Black hair all over his face, an’ head, an’ bare chest, excep’ below one eye, where there was a red scar.” “That ’d be Blackie Vari,” Starley as- serted. ‘‘ And the woman was his woman, Kettle Kate. Go on.” ‘This black bloke was goin’ to pop me off, with his hairy hands. The woman seen what he was up to, an’ tried to hold him back, but he smashed her face an’ comes after me.” The boy’s voice was shrill with excite- ment now: He was living through the drunken fight again. ‘He had me, his hands on my throat, an’ twistin’? my head. My hands were pushin’ at him, an’ they found the gun at his belt. I pulled it out, an’—right in his midriff I pushed it. “Then I pulled the trigger. It didn’t ‘make much of a noise. Jus’ a little noise, but the man let go my throat! His black eyes were kinda surprised, an’ sick, an’ he began to gurgle, gurgle funny in his throat. “ Then he went down, easylike, in a heap on the floor. ’Fore I knew what happened ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, he was down. Then the woman comes after me, clawin’, shriekin’ how I’d killed her man. ““{ ran out on the desert. All night I ran, an’ most of the next day, till you found me. An’ all the time I ran I could see those hairy hands pawin’ the air, an’ those swimmin’ eyes lookin’ surprised. “An’ [ could hear the gurgle, an’ see other men chasin’ me, an’ a rope hangin’ from a tree, an’—” The youth’s voice quavered hysterically; plainly he was at the breaking point. “That’s enough, old-timer,” counseled Jerome Starley. “‘ Quiet down now, and go to sleep. You’ve had enough. You'll feel better by night. We won’t try to move to-day.” He reached out, and laid a great brown paw on the boy’s shaking shoulder. ‘ Ease away, Joe! You're exhausted yet. Sleep!” His black eyes seemed to infold the lad, mesmerize him gradually into calmness, and then into sleep. Momentarily the desert man sat staring down at Joe Budhouser’s pinched face, now relaxed in slumber. “ I’ve seen murderers before,” he mused. “ Slept with murderers, fought with them. But never did I see such a second-rate murderer as this one. Over a fat half-breed, too, Kettle Kate!” A flash of contempt, aversion, went across his red-brown face; he raised his shaggy head, and stared unseeing across the desert waste. His black eyes were con- templative, judicial, Then he shrugged his huge shoulders. ‘“ Well, I promised to pro- tect him, and protect him I will,” he de- cided. The first step toward protection was to rig a shelter to shade Joe Budhouser from the ever-increasing fierceness of the sun’s rays. That accomplished, the old tarpaulin supported by twisted roots of mesquite, Starley placed a small canteen of water beside the sleeping boy.. Then he strode to his burro, who stood, tail swinging, half asleep in the sun. “Come on, Tin Can! You and I’ve got to track eight miles back to Willow Seep for water. It’s a hard day’s job, and the sooner we get started the better.” A moment later man and burro were COMMICG OOO KS.€O