Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

aa Mi t __ dead bull alligator. 3 — Was watching results. 932 tracker. For a while they ran about, dis- - turbed by the scent of the dead alligator. 7 miniature in his hand. Lester joined them, and stood with his ~ face to the beach where the westering sun. was aflame on the edge of a silvery cloud bank. A sudden cry from the tracker swung him round. The fellow was holding a tiny It hung from a bit of loose string and had evidently fallen to the beach. | ~ Lester snatched it from the tracker’s trembling fingers, and stared at it with _ eyesthat blazed darkly at the smiling face of the girl inset. _ into <s pocket, he walked from the beach, ~Thrusting the miniature calling the dogs and tracker after him. _ But the bloodhounds had become inter- = ested in a long, spiny object that sprawled in the mud-belt beneath the mangroves. - Barking furiously, they circled within a _ few feet of the immovable saurian that re- mained still as a rock under their baying : challenges. { -creek waddled a full-grown alligator. _ scarcely a ripple it drove through the stag- -Just here a curious thing happened. fom the black slime of a bank in mid With nant water, its great snout churning within a yard of the booming hounds. _._~» With fear crushing his heart, Ling peered across the intervening space, and _sup- _~ pressed a chuckle of delight. Well he knew that the live monster was the mate of the The two hounds were not to = denied. One of them had grabbed the head of the dead saurian, and with tigerish strength sought to drag it up the bank. But the -head remained glued as though a live force was holding it in place. Commissioner Lester watched with grow- ing interest. But the unexpected was at hand. The tail of the live saurian whipped round under the feet of the hide-tearing -hound. The stroke was unexpected, and the dog was hurled far out into the mud, the half-maddened alligator clashing and = = snapping on its heels. ticulating hysterically. : he called to the nay ‘Stunned hound. The native tracker ran to the bank, ges- “Ona pa nonga!” Lester had halted and ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. The hound crawled ashore and ran from the saberlike jaws that threatened to dis- member it. Lester watched in silence, a sharp frown lining his brow. He signed to the tracker impatiently. ““ Almost the dogs were trapped!” he aa monished in the vernacular. ‘ Return, thou, to headquarters with them.” He whispered some instructions in the fellow’s ear. Calling to the fretting hounds, the track- er turned to the bush trail leading to Putak and disappeared. Very slowly the commissioner walked to the creek and halted beside the motionless hide. and then with an effort, flung it back. With a catlike spring Chard leaped out, the muscles of his young body gathered for a clinch with his relentless pursuer. _Lester’s service revolver covered him in the slant of an eye. “There’s _ positively Chard!” he said quietly. for keeps!” “You are mine— if. - CHARD’s breast labored painfully. blinding sweat and mud from the mangroves obscured his vision. He rocked and swayed dizzily, and then steadied himself with an effort. “All right!” he choked. “I’ve led you a dance. Only for those dogs I’d have beaten you and your damned administra- tion!” The commissioner r pocketed his revolver like one certain of his man. He walked slowly across the beach, Chard following mechanically. At the water’s edge he wait- ed in the tense, hot silence for Lester to speak. The commissioner beckoned the China- man. “ Bring your table here, Ling. old biscuit box will do for a seat. ” Kum Ling obeyed tremblingly. Seated before the rough table, Lester placed some papers at his elbow and cleared -his throat. ‘“A year ago, Chard, you were tried in the courthouse at Samarai, for the shooting of Mike Conlon. Is there any reason why the judge’s sentence of penal servitude for life should not tbe carried out?” stooping, he shook the scaly head, nothing doing, The That — cS ={e0) omicboo i€O