Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

THE SNOW PATROL. you can get the rest and quiet you need. If Ledoux plays square, we’ll try to get out of this place next month. I'll mix you a hot drink and see if it will not put you to sleep.” “TJ couldn’t sleep to-night,” she mur- mured unhappily. ‘“ My head is bursting.” She took to pacing back and forth across the floor. I pitied her from the depths of my heart. She stopped short at last and closed her eyes. “‘T can’t keep this back any longer,” she cried; “ I’ve got to tell you the truth.” “The truth?” I gasped, pulled out of my chair. “Forgive me, Deveraux. I hope you will try to understand what I have done.” Her voice broke so that she could not go on fora moment. “I’ve been unfair to you— there was nothing else for me to do. Those people have found Crosbie. He’s in their camp now.” “Muir! They’ve got Muir?” I almost shouted the words. “Don’t you understand? That was what Ledoux meant when he said he would send you a souvenir to-morrow. Wageesh is going to bring him to us in the morning. That is the bargain I made. She promised to give Crosbie to me if I got Ledoux for her.” I just stood and stared at her, unable to summon a word to my lips. “Don’t look at me like that,” she begged. “It was a treacherous thing for me to do—you’ve been so kind—” She threw herself down on the bed and sobbed. Bit by bit I re-arranged in my mind the happenings of the last hour. I realized how Wageesh had toyed with us. I was not angry with Sheila. Indeed, it was better that things had shaped them- selves as they had, than that I had been appealed to directly. I would have found it almost impossible to refuse to let Ledoux go. As it was, my official face was saved in a way. Not that this was the important consideration. Muir’s return dwarfed all else. I think I must have repeated his name at least a hundred times as I stood there. No wonder Ledoux had laughed. He would have this to chuckle over for the 10 A 145 rest of his days. What a grim jest fate makes of life! Out of chaos there flashed on me the true understanding of the bitter words he had hurled at me when he came out of the kitchen—liar, cheat, thief! Perspiration broke on my forehead. I glanced at Sheila. I groaned at the thought that gripped me. God! Could she believe that I had not tried to find Muir; that I had reported him dead that I might advance my own cause with her? It couldn’t be. Certainly she could not believe me so base. I wanted to hear her say that she be- lieved in me. I went to her and put my hand upon her shoulder. “ Sheila,” I murmured, “ you should not cry. Iam not angry with you. There real- ly was nothing better that you could have done. This news is a great shock, I know, even though it is good news. You must try to bear up under it.” She sat up as I stood beside her, but she turned her face away from me. “‘ Look at me, Sheila,” I begged. “ You know what Ledoux meant when he called me a cheat. Tell me, is there any thought in your mind that I didn’t try to find Muir?” A tender smile parted her lips as she shook her head. “Oh, it should not be necessary for you to ask me such a ques- tion,” she murmured softly. ‘ My faith in you is implicit. I know this news which we have received is good news. I should be glad—and I am; but a terrible feeling of loneliness is crushing me. If life had only been different—” How alike her thought was to mine! If life had only been different! I couldn’t trust myself to speak. The longer I stood there beside her the more afraid I became of myself. The words that trembled on my lips I dared not voice. Sheila could not have realized the strug- gle that was going on within me. She seemed obsessed with her own thoughts. I got up at last and went to the window. I could see a fire burning out on the barrens. The sound of voices came to me faintly. Ledoux and Wageesh had surely reached the camp before now. I could not help wondering if he already had cause to re- S CORMICLOO© (C@