Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

TARRAPIN ‘“ Everybody axed me how Marse Tuck wus, I tole ’em all he wus better till I got tired sayin’ dat. Then I up’n tole ’m he wus dead—fer a change.”’ Everybody laughed, and Buckety looked with frightened eyes at Tuck. Tuck made a slight gesture with his thumb. Buckety took the hint. He dodged like a rabbit and ran for his life—buckety, buckety, buckety! And as Buckety loped out of the lawn, Hastie Melhaven staggered in. His fea- tures seemed to have disintegrated and run together in his paroxysms of laughter. He pressed both hands against his sides, and seemed about to fall from weakness. ‘Lord, what do you know about that?” he whooped, in the midst of his demoniac laughter. “ That little coon made it all up out of his head. Gosh, that pickaninny shore got a laugh outa me!” CHAPTER VIL. THE SWAMP CAT SPOILS PLANS. Cat came slinking into town. He came to town on business, and he preferred to transact that business as in- visibly as possible. He appeared upon the edge of the swamp, crossed a long pasture, climbed a steep hill, and stood at last under a pecan tree beside a porch of the Roone home. Beneath that pecan tree was a swing. Several of the tree’s branches ex- tended over the roof of the porch. The Swamp Cat climbed to the cross-piece on top of the swing, grasped a branch of the tree, walked out on the limb, and leaped noiselessly over to the roof of the porch. A window above this porch roof was open. the window of a bedroom. He had played around this old home years before when he was a little boy. He hesitated just a min- ute to assure himself that all was quiet within, and then climbed over the sill and stood inside. In just a second his eyes be- came accustomed to the darkness, and he was struck into immobility by the dim vi- sion of a human figure sitting in a chair not ten feet away. et was nearly midnight when the Swamp The Swamp Cat knew that it was- TOES. 173 He strained his eyes to catch the first movement of the person sitting in the chair. At the slightest motion he intended to fall flat upon the floor and thus avoid a bullet wound. But the inmate of the room for some strange reason did not fire at the in- truder. This gave the Cat a little courage and he whispered hoarsely. “Don’t shoot!” The answer was a low musical chuckle from a girl’s throat. Evidently she was ex- pecting him or somebody else, for in a low tone as noiseless as a whisper she said: “You ought to be shot. Do you expect me to climb out of this house by swinging off the limbs of the trees? Why did you not bring a ladder?”’ The Swamp Cat decided it was time for him to go. If this girl was expecting some- body to arrive with a ladder, he did not want to be there when the expected visitor came. As if in response to her suggestion to get the ladder, he turned to the window and stepped out. As he stood on the porch the girl came to the window and whispered. “You can find the ladder down at the barn where I told you it was. You might as well take my suit case with you now.” She placed the-suit case on the sill of the window. The Swamp Cat reached for it, and dropped it noiselessly off the porch into a flower bed beside the house. Then he went over the edge of the roof to the ground, retrieved the suit case, and disap- peared. ; Miss Lois Roone sat for a long time at the window waiting for Manse to return with the ladder. The Swamp Cat hastened down the street toward the business portion of the town carrying the suit case. He entered the first convenient alley in the rear of a store, and there in a little shed, he examined its contents by the light of an electric flash. He was disappointed in his loot. The suit case contained a great many things that would be valuable to a girl. If the young lady was planning to travel, she did not put either her money or her jewels in her traveling bag. The Swamp Cat was inter- ested in nothing else. But the Swamp Cat delighted in shield- ing his operations by beclouding them with CORMICLOOOKS (C@