Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 7, 1928 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

TWO-GUN MAGIC. body—but he can’t prove I was the man at the window later. There’s none of them goin’ tuh see me again until I gets good and ready for ’em to— get me?”’ “ Sure.” Larkins frowned. “I'd feel a lot better about doin’ my share if it wasn’t for this leg.” He got slow- ly to his feet, tried to walk, then groaned, and sat down heavily. “ Can’t be done,” he said grimly. “‘ Guess I’m laid up for awhile.” “Aw, don’t let that worry yuh none. Yuh’ll be all right in a day or so, Buck. Lucky that bullet didn’t hit a bone, You didn’t even get a glimpse of the feller that done it?” “Not a peep! Just heard a roar from a clump of trees and then it got me. Course I wasted considerable lead in that direction, but there wasn’t no sign I hit anythin’.” “Never mind; we'll find out who done it in time.” Solitaire glanced about the room and his gaze centered upon a short ladder which led to a trap- door above his head. “ Where’s that lead tuh?” he asked, indicating the lad- der. “ Oh, that?” Buck followed the di- rection of Stevens’s gaze. “ No place much. The feller that built this shack sure went tuh a lot of trouble for noth- in’. ‘There’s what yuh might call a little attic up there. We use it tuh store stuff away in, that’s all.” “T see.” ‘The whistling waddy rose. “ Say, how about me amblin’ up tuh the house and rustlin’ us a little food? I ain’t had anything tuh eat since late yesterday afternoon; how about yuhr”’ “Me neither.” Larkins laughed. “The cook pulled up stakes yesterday. He was a Chink named Won Ling. When th’ boys started disappearin’ he got scared. Go ahead and get that grub, feller.” He looked down at his injured leg. “TI ain’t gonna be far away.” “Right.” Stevens strolled out of the bunk house and up to the big house and en- 207 tered the kitchen. Once there he began to rummage amid the foodstuffs on the shelves. “I don’t know what you're looking for!” said a musical voice from a door- way behind him. “ But you’re not go- ing to get it.” Solitaire turned swiftly to find him- self facing the girl he had aided the night before. Her lovely face was stern and her big blue eyes flashed as she covered him with a revolver held steadily in one slender hand. “Morning, Miss Shaw,” © said Stevens politely. ‘I’m sure right re- lieved at seein’ yuh. I was afraid something might ‘a’ happened last night.” Helen Shaw was in a highly nervous state. The events which she had been through in the past twenty-four hours had proved to be the most trying and fearful that she had ever experienced in all of her twenty years of life. Now she only realized that this man whom she had found in the kitchen of her ranch house was a stranger, and she was in a mood to distrust every one. “Really?” Her tone was cold and hard. “‘ Your interest in my welfare is surprising! Hands up, Mr. Man!” Solitaire, a can of beans in one hand and a slab of bacon in the other, reached his hands high above his head, but there was a whimsical twinkle in his eyes that were as blue as the girl’s. “ Maybe if yuh was tuh let me ex- plain—” he began softly. At any other time Helen would have heeded the friendly note his tone con- tained, would have remembered the man who had proved her rescuer the night before. But now she was wor- ried, almost to the point of distrac- tion. “T don’t want to hear a word from you!” she interrupted impatiently be- fore Stevens could finish. “I haven’t time to listen to the lies of a petty sneak thief! Aren’t you ashamed of your- self, a big, able-bodied man entering a person’s house and stealing food?” Gomichbooks (C@