Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 13, 1925 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

THROW UP YOUR HANDS. did so the long lanky arm of Gory Oliver shot out and jabbed the revolver it held into the ribs of the Easterner. Julius grunted with pain. “Don’t stop me,” he snarled. ‘“ [I’m trailing the man who stole my sweetheart, and when I catch him I’m going to blow his heart out!” “Ya don’t mean Larry Wilpin!” the bad man gasped. “JT mean Larry Wilpin—the red- headed yap who just held up the stage coach from Snarling Gulch.” The bad men examined Julius with con- cern. : | _“ Lad,” Gory Oliver said compassion- ately, “are ya shore ya ain’t had a leetle touch o’ th’ sun? Ya must be dreamin’, They ain’t no stage coach runnin’ out of Snarlin’ Gulch—ain’t been one for goin’ on thutty years.” “T say there is!” Yost panted. “The bridge over Snarling Creek washed out last night, and the motor bus couldn’t come through, so a party of us chartered the old stage coach to make the trip to Rattlesnake Junction, and—and—” ‘Go on, lad, go on,” Karl the Killer urged him. “ We’re bearin’ with ya!” Julius sputtered for a moment. ‘‘ And— and this red-headed roughneck held us up and stole my girl. He was to take one of us as a hostage for just an hour, so he could make his getaway. And the hour was up long ago. MHe’s taking her for—for him- self. For God’s sake will you let me go?” ‘* Now, lad,’ Gory Oliver said soothingly, “they ain’t anythin’ t’ be gained by goin’ off half-cocked. Ca’m yourself, boy, and let us have some o’ th’ pa’tic’lars. Some- way or another, yore story don’t jibe. Red Wilpin jest got through tellin’ us that the gal was his gal, and when he said it that leetle gal’s eyes lit up jest like she was a-hearin’ sweet music a-playvin’.”’ “You mean to say,” Julius roared, ** you've seen them and talked to them?” ‘“ Ayah, nothin’ else, son.” “Let me go!”’ “No, son, we jest cain’t. As I was a-sayin’, when Red Wilpin says she was his gal, her face got all rosy, and she give him a smile that was jest as sweet as a mother’s 520 kiss, and her eyes—-they jest glowed, didn’t they, Karl?” ‘“ Ayah, they jest glowed.” ‘“ And when she says thar’s a feller fol- lerin’ us down th’ trail and I says: ‘ Well, miss, whut shall me an’ Karl do if we find him?’ Whut did she say, Karl? I’m too soft-hearted t’ tell th’ pore lad. You tell him.” “Why, son,” Karl the Killer obliged, “ she says: ‘I don’t keer whut ya do t’ th’ dirty, stinkin’ dawg—th’ yaller cur,’ she says. ‘ Hangin’,’ she says, ‘is too good fer th’ likes o’ him,’ she says, ‘ and if ya meet him,’ she says, ‘ya c’n pump him full o’ lead,’ she says. Didn’t she, Gory?” ‘“ Ayah, them was her exact words. She says, ‘ ya'll be conferrin’ a favor on me,’ she says, ‘by wipin’ him offen th’ face o’ th’ earth,’ she says. ‘I love this red- headed boy,’ she says—” ‘“ That’s a He!” Julius shrieked. didn’t say that. She—”’ “ Jest fer that,” Karl the Killer grimly checked him, ‘‘ I reckon we'll have t’ give this yere boy a lesson. Seems like he ain’t heard o’ th’ code o’ th’ hills, Gory. You stick that gun into him, pardner, while I go through his pockets and—” ‘But I haven’t so much as a thin dime in my pockets!” Julius wailed. ‘“ They took everything I had—that red-headed roughneck and his man Friday! All I have in my pockets is a lone copper cent!” The bad men exchanged pained glances. “ That shore don’t sound like Red Wil- pin,” Karl the Killer’ announced finally. ‘“T c’n understand any man wantin’ t’ kid- nap that leetle gal, but—are va kiddin’ us, son? Are ya really sayin’ th’t Red Wilpin, and old man Pepper actshally held up th’ stage and robbed ya?”’ “Good God! Of course I mean it! Haven’t I been saying so for the last ten minutes?” : ‘“ Whut all did Red get away with?” “ Everything we had! He took my watch and chain, and scarf pin, and pocketbook, and there was more than five hundred bucks in it. He took my mother’s diamond rings and earrings, and they’re worth at the least, fifteen thousand dollars! What did he get away with? Why, the watch he took from ‘“« She CO 1NOO S C@