Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 5, 1921 — page 143: what you’re looking at

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

THE BUSTER. Swing’s saddle. Ten thousand dollars will be a real help to me an’ you. But I won't spend it on yuh the way Swing would. You'll earn yore board with me, you bet. Swing Kyler! They’s a smart damliool lor yuh. Thought he’d gimme the razzle-daz- zle just like he done the rest o’ the Slash K soutfit. But he couldn’t fool me! I knowed what he was up to the second he sent Bill yut to warn the others. An’ I trailed him. An’ where is Swing Kyler now? So take warnin’ by that, you red-headed blackbird, an’ don’t try to run any blazers on yores truly, Squinteye Maginn.” “ Squinteye Maginn!” she breathed. ‘“That’s me,” he said with a sneering lift of the lip. ‘I had a brother Bill.” At this she shrank from him. Bill Ma- ginn his brother! The man whom Coryell had killed for maltreating her that day at the Two Bar. “Yeah,” he continued softly, grinning at her terror, ‘‘ I’m Squinteye Maginn, an’ | got a lil’ bill against yore young man. Makes yuh wiggle, does it? Don't fret, he’ll never see you again. Well, maybe you ain’t his girl, but he’s yore boy all right enough. No mistake about that. We've been hearin’ at the Slash K how things was goin’ between you two—savin’ him from them Buck Snorters, tellin’ ’em you was engaged to him an’ all. So you see how my meetin’ up with you thisaway is a heap providential.” He nodded at her with great satisfaction and inhaled long and deeply. She sat per- fectly still. It was the end of the world for her, and she knew it. ‘“My notion was,” he went on, picking his words with care, “ after I got through with Swing Kyler to bushwhack this Cor- yell jigger an’ down him, but after meetin’ you I changed my mind. I'll let him live. It ‘ll pay me better, see, ‘cause don’tcha think he’d a heap rather be dead than know yo’re traipsin’ along with me?” He paused and set the cigarette to his lips. ‘‘ I’m fig- urin’ thataway anyhow, an’ I'll take care, you bet, to let him know what’s happened to yuh, an’ how thev ain’t a chance in the world of his ever findin’ yuh again. How's that for a plan, huh?” Jt was then that a stick cracked behind a 429 her, and Squinteve Maginn leaped at her like a cougar. She felt herself. jerked up- right and scruffled tightly against his body. Her neck was twisted sidewise so that her right ear was flattened against his chest. Her eyes looked down upon a rigid fore- arm. ‘The wrist terminating in the hand that held the six-shooter was not seven inches from her chin. The muzzle of the gun was pressed against her side. The gun was not cocked, but Squinteye’s thumb was on the hammer. ‘“Get back!” Squinteye was saying. ‘Get back, or I'll blow her apart!” ‘You'll never get away if you do,” said the voice of Coryell (he was standing, she judged, not thirty feet distant). ‘It ain’t only me here. They’se Telescope an’ four of the boys a mile behind. Alla way from where you downed Swing Kyler we been trailin’ you. Do you think we'll ever let you go, unless—” He paused. ‘“ Let her go, Maginn,” he went on, ‘an’ I'll let you go.” “You'll lemme go anyhow,” countered Squinteye Maginn, “ an’ by Gawd, you'll let her go with me!” Miss Rowland drew a short breath. The presence of Coryell gave her a tremendous courage. Her chance lay before her face—. at a distance of less than seven inches. She opened her mouth, dropped her head with the speed of a striking snake, and seized her chance and Squinteve’s thumb between her tecth. The next instant she was battered to her knees and trampled upon, but she did not unclamp her clenched teeth. A gun roared at her ear—once, twice, and again. Deaf- ened, stunned, she collapsed beneath the crushing weight of a heavy body. Yet she held on. Then the heavy body was removed suddenly, and Coryell was saving huskily, “It’s all right, it’s all right,” over and over again. Now she knew that everything was indeed all right, and she relaxed the grip of her jaws and let him help her to her feet. And now, almost pre- cisely as she had done upon a former occa- sion, she flung her arms round his neck and clung to him. But while her actions were’ similar her words were not. Tor now she said, “I thought you'd, never. come). L.