Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 7, 1928 — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

HEARTBREAK TRAIL, robbed, and pilloried in broad day- light, why, then, it will not be long before the rhetoric will have spent its force—sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal!” “You have a certain trick of words,” observed the Senator. “ It is likely to become dangerous when com- bined with tricks of an_ ill-ordered mind. God forbid we should have you a noisy spellbinder like this man Sum- ner, or a mouthing fanatic such as that John Brown that is confounding aboli- tionists with his insane devotion to their cause.” ‘1 have made no speeches.” ‘But your acts have made a noise, sir! Shooting a man in cold blood, in a frenzy of vulgar prejudice—fighting like a bully-boy with the rabble of the streets—adopting a squatter’s wench as an example of your love for unwashed humanity! By gad, sir, you'll distin- guish yourself yet as a subject for the caricaturists of London Punch and our ribald newspapers!” Reuel smiled slightly. ‘Well, sir, you choose to be defiant, - flippant, insolent! What do you pro- pose to do? Go back to your ken- nels?” ‘“T have little idea of returning to Kansas,” said the young man soberly. “There’s so little I can do. I ama small man to pit myself against the United States government, particularly while they are so busily engaged as patrons of anarchy.” The Senator boiled over again. He paced the floor and shook his clenched fist in his nephew’s face. ‘‘ Have a care for your precious life, sir! Treason is punishable with death. Traitors stretch hemp after they’ve stretched the truth too far! Have the goodness to leave me—for a time. I’m an old man—my nerves and my ar- teries are to be considered. I shall rest and calm myself, and I’ll see you again —perhaps only once, however.” Reuel withdrew quietly, but without apology. His agitation was of a dif- 275 ferent quality, but scarcely less violent than that of his uncle. He took a cab to the Reynolds house, and there was comforted in a measure. “You're such a __child,: dearest Reuel!’’ exclaimed Miranda, lightly, playfully caressing his hair, his flushed cheeks, with her fluttering, rose-petal fingers. “ Bad boy, you were richly deserving a drubbing, you know, and you're very angry with your good un- cle. You shall tell him you’re sorry, and the skies will clear.” ‘“ But I’m not sorry! It’s not a teapot tempest, darling: I’ve pulled tail feath- ers out of the national bird, and heaved rocks at the bird cage atop the Capitol. Washington has as good as rejected me already; I’m an outcast, a pariah— and proud of the distinction! “ lf I’m troubled, anxious, it’s about you, beloved. You’re very precious, Miranda, and I grow afraid. One tear, one reproach, and my cherished ideals go aglimmering. “* Beseech me with your eyes and the music of your lips, and Washington becomes Utopia—I fall on my knees and beg corpulent politicians to let me stand an humble lictor by the marble thrones of the august Senate.” “Ah, but you have a gift for wooing the ear, my Romeo,” she laughed gay- ly. “ Thank gracious goodness you’re home again! The clearer atmosphere will banish your hobgoblins. You’re warped by that horrid Kansas. Dear heart, how you have suffered! The frightful storms! The wretched crea- tures that have preyed upon’ your sen- sibilities! ‘Let me look at your hand!” she cried suddenly. “It’s all white and clean, dear; there’s no ‘ damned spot.’ This finger pressed the trigger. How stern and terrible you were! Ah, that I should marry a man who has killed a human creature. Kiss me, dear, be- fore I flee in a panic.” He smiled and kissed her; then he withdrew the guilty hand from her warm clasp. Gomichbooks (C@)