Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

934 “Tt occurred to me, Mr. Commissioner, that I might wait until he came out with the girl struggling in his arms. It was past midnight, and some of Conlon’s friends had been making merry with her father at Raff- erty’s bar. To put it finely they had made the get-away clear for Conlon.” The commissioner stirred uneasily. “Why didn’t you go to the police?” he hazarded. ‘“ Unfortunately, I was away!” Chard inclined his head. ‘ There were two native police officers at Putak. Al- though I knew they were in Conlon’s pay I could not prove it. If I had spoken to them, a prison door would have closed on me while Conlon finished his work. I took a lone hand chance. ‘“So I lay in the sand, under the fence, and heard Conlon stepping over the reef. He was drunk and unsteady, but not too drunk to climb the fence leading to her room. “ She had retired an hour before. I had seen her shadow on the blinds. Conlon crawled to the open window, and stood fum- bling with the chloroform rags he carried. I—dropped over the fence and called to him quietly. At first he did not hear my voice. But at sight of me he sobered and came at me with the rush of a madman. ‘“‘T fell over a tree stump and lay half stunned, while he tried to suffocate me with those beastly rags he carried. He was alive to all the tricks of the trade, Mr. Commis- sioner. No man in the islands could handle the blanket and the anesthetic like Conlon! He was as heavy as a Queensland buffalo, and could use his weight like a Jap. “That was fair enough, but I jibbed at the blanket and the stink of the chloroform. So I pulled the only trick I had and shot him while there was time! ‘Yes, Mr. Commissioner, I’d shoot such men at a shilling a dozen!” It was almost dark now. The sea had turned to an oily smear, where the saber- winged hawks planed above the surf, squall- ing over some eager morsel snatched from the sandbars and inlets. The Chinaman shuffled in and out of the smoke-filled hut, his eyes slanting toward the dim figure of the prisoner on the beach, and at the silent, tense browed commissioner ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. of police, his hands clenched over the papers on the table. He rose from the biscuit box, after what seemed like an eternity to the slow breath- ing Chinaman. In his hand he held the miniature of the smiling lipped young girl. “Tell me, Chard,” he said hoarsely, “where you found this?” He held up the miniature between his finger and thumb. A sharp expulsion of breath came from the young convict as he stared at the face of the girl in the miniature. A curious, pen- sive blindness clouded his dark eyes as he answered. “It was handed to me by a tot of a native child, one day at Poison River, while I was working with the gang. I don’t know who sent it, and—I have never seen her in my life! But—it sweetened the air of Poison River, It was like a flower sent to a man in hell, God bless her!” Slowly and with the air of one about to consummate an unthinkable act, the com- missioner of police strode to Chard’s side. For the millionth fraction of time the eyes of the two men cleaved the abyss of mis- understanding and lies that had yawned between them. “Chard!” Lester’s voice had lost its blade-edge intensity. It had grown mellow, but no less firm. “ You were right about the men of Putak and the women they are supposed to protect. I am going to ask you to degrade yourself a little, by—” “Say it!” Chard flung out, his shoul- ders braced as if for a blow. ‘“‘ Say it and be damned!” “IT want you, Chard,” the commissioner spoke as though he had heard “I want you to give me your hand!” III. DARKNESS fell over the jungle-clad coast. A white launch swept into the inlet and made fast to the bank. The commissioner of police emerged from the hut accompanied by Chard. For a heart-breathing space the two re- mained silent, while the slow beat of the tide marched with their thoughts into eter- nity. It was Lester who spoke. “The launch will take you to Port COMmMiclooe (©