Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 14, 1928 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

190 “Never mind, though.” He whirled with a grim set to his jaw. “ We'll land that bozo if we have to comb every inch of Los Chicos County to do it. He ain’t got more ’n fifteen minutes start on us.” He hurried out as he spoke, and a moment later Norman heard from the direction of the barns, the furious clanging of an alarm bell, rousing all the men on the estate to take part in the chase. Meanwhile, Jarley, the butler, his poise unruffled by the excitement, came in bearing a tray loaded down with food. Molly insisted that Norman must let her serve him. Then, as she fed him spoonfuls of hot, nourishing broth, she explained the reason for the attempt upon her life. “The man you saw,” she told him, “was Ponce Da Silva, my secretary. I have always trusted him fully. But I have known for some time there was a leak in my affairs, and I realize now that he must have sold out to the other crowd, “Still I would probably have gone on in ignorance,” she continued, “ if it had not been for the note you sent me to-night. When I received it, I could not understand how I had missed see- ing you. For no intimation had come to me that you were calling. “Then I began to. investigate, and learned that Jarley had received his orders to tell you I was engaged from Da Silva. The fellow probably thought he was perfectly safe in doing this, as you would be going away from town, and he was in a position to intercept any messages that you might send. “T called Da Silva in, and taxed him -with his treachery. He tried to make some flimsy excuses; but my eyes were open to him now, and I told him he must go. He left, but, as Big Bill says, he must have sneaked back, and tried to kill me out of revenge. ‘And he is an expert pistol shot,” she concluded. “I think I have you ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. to thank, not only for unmasking the scoundrel, but also for saving my life. Your movement toward him, and the cry you gave, probably threw him off his aim, for the bullet is embedded in the wall about two inches above where my head would have been as I reached the foot of the stairs.” But Norman, who had been exam- ining the pistol as she talked, was not entirely satisfied with her explanation of the crime. On the butt of the weapon he had found the freshly scratched initials, N. R., and the cir- cumstance suggested another solution to him. ‘* What I think, Miss Todd,” he said slowly, “is that Da Silva was acting under orders.” And he told her of Fenton’s ominous warning, that unless he kept hands off the irrigation business, he was apt to find the climate of Los Chicos County unhealthy for both himself and Molly Todd. ‘Don’t you see,” he argued. “ They know that we’re getting warm to the crooked business, and they’re worried. What they were trying to do to-night was to rid themselves of both of us at one stroke. You were to be killed, and with the initials on the gun point- ing to me as the murderer, the chances were that your people here would lynch me.” CHAPTER VIII. THE WITHDRAWN OFFER, OLLY, inclined at first to ques- tion the theory advanced by Norman, gradually came to ad- mit, as they discussed the evidence, that it might very possibly be true. To convince her, Norman, in his methodical fashion, got out his little notebook and began setting down in chronological order the facts of which they had cognizance. When he had. finished, the record stood something like this: CORNICGLOOOLK< (E@)