Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

COPPER now he felt his head splitting. In a mo- ment everything was black. A few minutes later, he half opened his eyes to see an ever increasing circle of humanity crowding round him. Through @ haze he saw just over him a young man and a young girl. The man was very dapperly dressed, and the girl was very beautiful, with gentle blue eyes and soft, waving hair. “ Let’s get out of this,” the man was say- ing. ‘‘ You don’t want to get caught in all this vulgar jam.” The girl’s voice protested. ‘ He saved my life, and I’m not going to leave till I’m sure he’s all right.” Darkness, once more. A little later Jim saw her face again, bending close to his, as she ran her fingers over his forehead. He felt himself being bounced about. And he realized that he must be in an ambulance. A thought came to him vaguely from very, very far off. What was it? Some- thing about a ranch. Oh, yes, and smoke- stacks, giant brick towers belching out sulphur fumes. He seemed to smell the fumes now. And he had the sensation that his body had begun to wither—like the peach trees. In subsequent days, he saw the girl’s face frequently—and frequently he saw his father’s. But he could not always under- stand what was being said to him. And usually he was unable to answer anyway. The rest came back more clearly—that about the smokestacks. | He remembered that he and his father were going to sue the copper company. And now his dad would have to battle it out, alone. Nights, sometimes, he had wild night- mares of a giant snatching the ranch away from them, of his wandering with his father through a forest of dead trees. His skull fractured and his leg broken, he lay for three weeks in the hospital before the veil which fogged his eyes lifted and the world about him assumed its old, natural shape again. Then, one morning, when the girl came in, he was able to talk to her. And he learned that her name was Elizabeth Worth. 3 10 A f IS KING. Her mild eyes grew softly blue. ‘Oh, I’m so thankful you’re going to be all right. There’s nothing to worry over now but your leg, and it’ll be well in two or | three weeks,” Then as she chatted to him, there came a knock at the door. “Come in,” she called. But the visitor did not come in. Instead, he called: ‘“‘ Going to stay in there all day? I’ve been waiting outside the hospital for half an hour.” The girl swiftly gathered up her vanity case and her purse. “Sorry, but I guess I'll have to go. See you to-morrow, though. That’s my—my flancé.”’ As she vanished into the corridor, Jim beheld the silhouette of the same dapper young man who had been her companion on the day of the accident. © He gazed wanly at the white walls. For the girl seemed to take away with her every bit of sunshine. He forced a smile. “Think of it—me —in bed!” | His eyes followed vainly after her. So she was engaged. Well, there’d be some- thing wrong with a girl as pretty as that if she weren’t. Only— He did not finish out the thought. He began to wonder suddenly where she’d come from—how she’d happened to be in the box. And then it came over him that naturally she’d come West to visit her flancé. For he remembered rather vaguely hav- ing seen the dapper young man here and there in Cottonwood for a little over a month preceding the accident. His thoughts abruptly abandoned the girl. For he realized with a start that there was something even more important he must find out about. His father’s suit had by this time been heard and decided. Then presently his father came, his bright eyes smiling. “Well, son, I told ’em all along they couldn’t kill a boy of Jack Bell’s.” He took a seat near the bed. ‘“ Just saw Brown coming out of here as I came in. What was he here for—to tell you the news?” — ‘ Brown?” demanded Jim blankly. — cComicbooks