Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

EDITH IN THE of old casing; but Edith wouldn’t depart from the bar. Edith felt that she was being pulled asunder, midway between the shoulder blades and her wishbone. She started to scream. Solemn let her down, looked at her un- certainly and endeavored once more to respond to Ed’s reasonable request. In spite of all, Edith adhered. ‘“ Hell!” Solemn exclaimed. ‘“ She’s stuck!” . ‘* Stuck!” An incredulous shout arose from the crowd. “And we thought she was_ balkin’,” Dirty Shirt cried, reproachfully. ‘“ Poor little Edith! Here we’ve been cussin’ her all this time, thinkin’ she’d balked!” Edith tugged at her moorings. Ed stepped to the free lunch tray, secured a cheese knife, scooped it under Edith’s stomach and broke the connection between her and the bar. With a bound, Edith leaped from the bar to Dirty Shirt’s neck, coasted down his back, hit the floor with a thud, sped toward the open door of the Seventh Oasis, turned sharply to the left and dashed down Red Bluff’s main artery of commerce. Followed by the crowd, Solemn and Dirty Shirt pursued her. Mother Skillern stood on the porch of the hotel; she had just stepped out with a bucket of water to scrub off the steps. A puzzled expression troubled her pleasant blue eyes; she gazed wonderingly out across the inflexible desert, in the direction of Hellfire Basin, near Dead Angel Mountain, five day’s journey away. ‘Did you see—” Dirty Shirt panted, SEVENTH OASIS, ‘did you see a loose horntoad goin’ this way?” ‘“ Maybe that’s what it was!” Mother Skillern answered. ‘ Yes, I reckon that was it! Something zipped past here just as I came out—some kind of streak. But I thought probably it was only a thought, it was travelin’ so quick.” ‘That was Edith!” Dirty Shirt whis- pered. “ She’s gone! She won’t stop now till she gets to Dead Angel Mountain. And Ill bet,” he mourned, “that I get that darned indigestion again!” Solemn Johnson looked up at Mother .Skillern. ‘“‘ Have you seen a tall emaciated person named Professor Arnica Hellbender, in the last hour or two?” he asked. “ He’s the individual I’m wantin’ to find!” ‘““< Professor Arnica Hellbender?’” Mother Skillern repeated. ‘‘ Do you mean that slim, lanky cuss who was peddlin’ china and glassware glue? If you do, he’s absent!” ‘“Came rushin’ in two hours ago; said they’d been a big explosion in a crockery store in Los Angeles and he’d been notified to bring his Magic Instantaneous Invisible Fixer and mend up all the dishes that were busted. Jeff Warnick took him across to Pimento Siding, in his car, so he could catch the Los Angeles Limited—”’ ‘* He-—you say—he’s gone?” “He has certainly evaporated!” Mother Skillern retorted, slushing the bucket of water over the porch. | “You’d better move back,” she told Solemn and Dirty Shirt. ‘It’s so blamed Cry this afternoon this water ‘ll be dust before I get it swept off of the steps, and it'll blow in your eyes!”’ | Next Week: THE UNDOING OF HORACE DURANTO | v FRANK L. U v PACKARD author of ‘“‘ The Miracle Man,” “‘ The Four Stragglers,”’ and other famous novels, will soon be represented in this magazine by “ THE LOCKED BOOK ” a mystery serial of infinite power. Watch for opening date. COMIGD OOo! 885° (©