Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

40 creek which ran across one corner of his farm and which he had forbidden the boys to use. And when Bert, then seventeen or theréabouts, had gone to Dimlock to have an accounting, the widower had pushed him off the porch and threatened to beat him if he did not get off his property. Bert swore to get even with him, but nothing came of his threats. As the eldest of three children left to shift for themselves, he was fighting then for their very existence. Their only heritage was a worn-out farm, a decrepit horse and several cows of doubt- ful lineage. When I learned of the life that Bert Pomeroy had led, trying to retain the farm and to bring up his brother and sister, I understood readily his hatred and suspicion of people—all people. In him pride of fam- ily amounted to a passion. ‘He defeated sundry attempts at placing his sister and brother in the county home for children, the orphan asylum; he tolerated the visits of well meaning but inquisitive women and even men who inspected and condemned his housekeeping. He was only sixteen then, but he was determined to keep his family intact, to ac- cept no charity. Single-handed he farmed the worn-out land until Phil was old enough to help. He was determined that Suzanne and Phil should have the advantages he had been denied; and he put them through the Nardon grade school and the high school. After the swimming hole incident, the Pomeroys next clash with Lee Dimlock was over Suzanne. It happened when Suzanne was fifteen. She was gathering windfalls in the apple orchard one day when Lee Dimlock stole up behind her and seized her in his arms. He held her and kissed her, and when Suzanne finally broke away from him, her clothing was half torn from her body and Dimlock was bleeding from scratches all over his face and threatening horrible things. Bert went calling on him with a shot- gun. Dimlock frantically insisted that he had intended no harm to Suzanne; that he loved her and had made up his mind to marry her. She was, he declared, old enough. Why, Bert, with that black temper of his, ‘man to help him during harvest time. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. did not shoot Dimlock was a mystery, as was the remainder of the conversation that took place between them. But from that conversation, the systematic persecution of Lee Dimlock dated, and it continued until the Pomeroys fled from their farm; dis- graced and dishonored. He circulated evil rumors through the countryside until decent people would not speak to them and others leered when they went by. And whenever the opportunity was given him, he spoke to Suzanne about marrying him. ‘The intensity of his hatred for her brothers seemed only to sharpen his hunger for her. He would gloat over her with his pale eyes when they passed in the village; he would slip up to her in crowded places and try to fondle her hand or arm. He wrote countless letters to her, quoting Scripture and making fabulous promises; and Bert Pomeroy burned with helpless rage. But his time was too valuable to be wasted in prison. Lee Dimlock was powerful in local politics; he was a dangerous man to monkey with. And Bert Pomeroy was compelled to deny himself the luxury of vengeance, of striking the man—preferably in public. The persecutions continued. Little things happened. Mean little things. Maddening things. A watchdog was found poisoned. A calf was found strangled strangely with a rope. Time after time the gate of the poul- try run was found mysteriously ajar, the chickens scratching in the truck garden. It was Bert Pomeroy’s habit to hire a One hired man after another, Lee Dimlock bribed or frightened away. One morning when the brothers were in the fields and Suzanne was in town shopping, the Pome- roy bull was mysteriously’ released from its pasture, and before it could be caught, had attacked and demolished a buggy owned by a neighbor and stamped a valuable hunting dog to death. The bull’s escapade cost Bert Pomeroy over a hundred dollars. The winter following was bitterly cold. One night when an icy gale was blowing, Lee Dimlock executed a master stroke. At dawn, a sheriff, a deputy, and Lee Dimlock were demanding entrance into the Pomeroy house. When Phil and Bert went down to CORNICGLOO© S (C@