Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

IN thing was wrong with Farley. Wert had gone to pieces. He had said he couldn’t stand it and he couldn’t. Under the stress of these awful circumstances he had gone completely to pieces. His mind now verged upon madness. His spirit was like the poisonous fluid which he drank; fiery, but altogether liquid, volatile. The spectacle of a dead brother was branded upon his consciousness, and he- could not contemplate it without the re- membrance of Klien, tall, lean and vindic- tive. Klien towered above the men he dealt with like an evil genius; he towered in Far- ley’s drink fevered mind out of all propor- tion to his natural stature. Klien, he now perceived, had been the leading spirit in the drafting of that iniquitous will. Klien no doubt had resolved to murder Mason Farley even while he used the brother to obtain the instrument which would make that mur- der profitable. In the muddled recesses of his mind Far- ley now remembered how Klien had so un- reasonably insisted on Cosgrove’s death. And the memory twisted in his breast the knife which tortured him; for with it he realized that Klien had foreseen how the prosecution of Cosgrove for the murder of Mason Farley would no doubt uncover the real slayer. And he had played into Klien’s foul hands. He it was who had led the ring of murderers, thieves and plunderers to the goal which was to be his brother’s fortune. That will had been his conception, and in drawing it up they had drawn up their own death warrant. “In the event of death!” That was the clause which had led to Klien’s quick death. “In the event of death!” That was the clause whereby he had sought to send Cos- grove the way of Klien and of his brother. “In the event of death!” The ominous words rang in his fevered mind as the clamor of bells ring for an execution. Over and: over the words recurred, some- times mechanically and without meaning to him; in which periods he paced his cell, hopelessly, dumb with the agony which was depriving him of reason; swigging at his bottle, cursing and weeping in low tones to THE EVENT OF DEATH. 287 himself. And sometimes they would ring out with hideous clearness. “In the event of death!” reminded him with the horror of a spectral executioner that they were for him, that they were his death warrant as they had been the death warrant of his brother and of Klien. Then he would sink to the miserable cot. He would scream out in protest and in pleading. Not for him! No, not for him! He had known nothing of Klien’s purpose! He was not guilty of that! But the words of the will would not be silenced. They were repeated in his twisted, tortured mind by a power that cries and curses could not reach. “In the event of death!’’ that insufferable voice insisted. And Farley knew it was for him. He pic- tured the coming of his death, the intoler- able violence of it. “ They’ll kill me! They’ll murder me! Keep them away!” he shrieked. “ For God’s sake, keep them away!” and with a hideous animal cry, he flung himself, crashing against the far wall of his cell as footsteps sounded in the corridor. It was Slade and Webb. “We're going to take you out of here, Farley,” said Slade coldly. “If the mob comes through before Gaines gets back, there ain’t nothin’ will hold this jail. We'll take you to Neal’s house in the town, and play like we’ve got you here.” Farley went with them in silence. Word- lessly, he followed Neal through thé gray patches of the hamlet and he quietly took up his new quarters in the bare frame house which was the marshal’s home. him there with a caution. ‘“* Don’t try to get away!” he warned him. “ Yore only chance is to stay in hiding till Cosgrove comes. Slade reckons Cosgrove is the only man that can hold the mob. So stay put. I’m watchin’ outside!” Farley stared at him somberly, hardly hearing him, for that fatal clause of the will still rang in his mind, persistently and without reprieve or abatement. And as Neal closed the door of his house, the death sentence arose with a clamorous din, shriek- ing the words with a thousand tormenting voices. From the streets outside, from the road EOPMICL OOO KS Neal left - . (EO)