Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

as being tempted. He was, as the men in his company had said, a serious-minded cuss for a rough-neek, and he was now een- cerned with the apparent failure ef fact te live up to his theory. He grasped her by ‘ the twa shoulders and held her at arm’s length. “And Il be busted if I’d take Daddy Papineau’s money to get you!” he flared: “Nor anybody else’s!”” - “Bad Bill Stark never took a michel ” she sneered. “YT ain’t saying what I’ve done,” he growled. “J’m. saying what I wouldn’t do to get a nice giri like you!” /“ T ain't a nice girl like me!” she laughed with a shrill, rising note in her voice. .“ And yeu’ll find it out befare you’re much older—I’ll get it through your thick bead so you'll believe it!” - Somehow she managed to twist away “from him before he could close his fingers more tightly: he heard the light patter of her running steps as they grew faint down the road. He remained where he was until there were no sounds other than those of the night, and then, with his bedy weighing upon him as though it were of lead, be went home. Under Grandma Persons’s home-made comfortables, Bill Stark lay and fought for the ideal which threatened to slip from him. He clung to it with frantic hands. ' She just thought she was a bad lot, he told himself over and over again, because she had flirted with Hurley and Papineau some. Why, it couldn't be that a girl. with eyes and a veice like that, and that loek in her face, would set out to double-cross any- body. Or try to get him to stick up old Papineau. And stoutly denying to himeelf that he believed any such thing, he fell into a sleep ef ugly dreams. Thereafter for mere than a fortnight life made Stark dance like a jumping-jack on a stick—made Bill, who had been accus- tomed to fiddle while life danced for him, swing up and down through the mazes of despair and hope, doubt and joy. When he went to the Turners to see her she was never there, or just leaving for a drive with Hurley, or en her way to tanta- lize Daddy Papineau. But if he settled ARGOSY¥-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. steadily te.his chepping, cursing all women and ready to believe the worst ef Janet, she would. appear suddenly almost within range of his flying chips and bat his spirits up to a froth of happiness by the flask and sparkle of her presence. At the end of an hour, perhaps, she would leave him with hig heart pounding and his ax feather light in. bis hands. He knew that something must happen and put an end te all this, but what that would be or baw or when it would come he had no idea. When he tried to end & by marrying ker offhand, she laughed at him. It was Janet whe led fate toddling at her side; and Stark learned this early one morning, in that cold, dark hour wisen the chill strikes to the marrow of a man’s benes. He was awakened by the seared, cracked voice of Grandma. Persons belaw- stairs. She spoke words neither pelite nar well ‘chosen, and many of them. Sudienly through her tirade cut the voice of Janet McCullough. “ Bill Stark!” she cried. come down here!” S “Get out, yeu hussy!’”” shrieked Grand- ma Persons. ‘‘E wan’t have you in, the house another minute, so help me Jehesh- aphat! ” But as Stark’s feet hit the floor and he struggled into hig shirt in the dark, he knew that Janet would stay’ there as long “ Get up and as she pleased; and she did, while he todk_. time to light a lamp and dress fully in order to be prepared for whatever might happen. He found the girl backed against the wall, defiant and determined, while Grand- ma Persons danced in front of her im a of helpless rage. He noted, even then, that Janet was dressed differently— wrapped in a long, smart cape, and crewned by a tiny hat such as might be worn on a journey. “What does this gal mean, a peunding on my door at four o’clock im the morn- ing?” demanded grandma, “I thought when you took that wood: to cut. yeu’d turned respectable, Bill Stark!” ‘ Bill, I’ve got to catch the sleeper ‘at the Forks, ” said Janet, ignoring the old: COMICLOO S CO XY