Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 189, No. 4 — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

THE BULLY OF “Well,” said the girl with the hard, young voice, “‘ go ahead and have it.” “It might be more comfortable,” he laughed, ‘‘ if we could sit down somewhere. Please,” he begged, still believing that she was joking with him, “chain up Cesar and let me come down.” “What do you suppose,” she snapped, “I keep him for?” That gave Teddy some food for thought. “You don’t mean,” he said, presently, in an incredulous voice, “ that you think I came over here in any but a friendly spirit?” “J don’t doubt it in the least,” affirmed Miss eWoodstock. ‘‘So many of you fel- lows have come here after dark in nothing but a friendly spirit that I’m going to shoot the next one on sight!” : “You're joking!” Teddy gasped. “Try climbing down out of that tree,” Miss Woodstock ominously suggested, ‘and see whether or not this dog thinks I’m joking.” There was another long pained silence amidst the branches. “T suppose,” said Teddy then, “ that, because you’re living here alone, a lot of them have tried to take advantage.” “Your guesswork is improving.” “ But I haven’t any designs on you, Miss Woodstock. I came over principally to thank you for saving me from getting stung in that horse deal; and I thought, as long as we’re neighbors, we might as well know each other.” ““T knew you were a sheik,” was the girl’s answer, ‘the moment I saw you. Maybe this will teach you a lesson. Watch him, Cesar.” _. Teddy Armbister’s blood was rapidly reaching the boiling point. It boiled at her next words. “ After you’ve stayed up there awhile, maybe you'll realize that it isn’t wise to come sneaking and skulking around the property of unprotected girls.” “ Johnston was right!” Teddy roared. “You're nothing in the world but a little bully! You probably think it’s very funny to keep me up in this tree but the joke isn’t in very good taste. Go ahead and pull the trigger of that damned shotgun! It would BISCAYNE BAY. 518 be just like you to shoot an innocent, un- armed man! ‘“T’ve met some mean people in my life, but you Florida crackers are the meanest I’ve ever known! You aren’t half civilized —any of you! I want to tell you that the welcome I’ve had to-day in Arcadia-on- Ooglagoochee is enough to drive me back North to-morrow! Unfair motor cops, un- fair judges, crooked old horse thieves— and now you!” “Just for that,” said Miss Woodstock, “I’m not going to let you down out of there until morning! I’m not a cracker. I’m from Michigan. And you’re exactly what I thought you were. Cursing and raving! Calling me names!” “The bully of Biscayne Bay!” Teddy shouted. “ All right. Keep that wild an- imal there as long as you please. I’m going to eat every damned grapefruit on this tree!” “T hope you enjoy them,” caroled the girl with the flash light, and this time she actually laughed. ‘“ Only they don’t happen to be grapefruit. They’re ponderosa lem- ons—nice big sour lemons! Help your- self!” There was deep silence in the lemon tree. ‘““I’m sorry I can’t be more hospitable,” Miss Woodstock said sweetly, her voice bearing every evidence that she was en- joying the situation thoroughly; “and let you climb down and pick yourself out a nice orange tree—but I don’t trust men.” Teddy said nothing. “Ask me,” she invited him, switching the light on and off and on again in his face, “‘ why I don’t trust men.” Teddy declined to enter the conversation. “ T’ll tell you, anyway,” said Miss Wood- stock. ‘“‘ When my father and mother died a couple of years ago, I had two visitors one night. Two men. They were pretty drunk. They came right into the house. I was never so scared in my life. But I slept with a pistol under my pillow, and I had presence of mind to drag it out when they came in = “T shot one of them through the hand and they ran away. But these crackers are hard to convince. They seem to think that when a girl lives off all alone as I’m (é m S, (E(6) 00 com