Argosy All-Story Weekly, June 27, 1925 — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

THROW UP YOUR HANDS. until, dollar by dollar, they had stripped him of his possessions. It was Belle, the dance hall girl, who took the silk bandana handkerchief from his neck and draped it shamelessly about her own. “IT want a souvenir t’ remember him by,” she explained, but she deceived no one. ‘“Where’s my Jerginson?” Judge Ogle: thorpe finally exclaimed. “It’s gone!” “Did ya look in th’ pocket o’ that leather shirt?” the prospector inquired. ‘‘I shore do want t’ hear them leetle bells tinkle, yore honor.” With trembling fingers Judge Oglethorpe unbuttoned the flap of the leather pocket. A look of pain crossed his face as his fingers delved into the pocket and explored. Pres- ently they withdrew with something that glittered. A low, gurgling cry was tom from his throat. “ My watch!” he moaned. ‘“ My Jergin- son!” By some caprice, some prank of electric- ity, the bolt of lightning that had struck down Red Wilpin had reduced that remark- able time piece to a shapeless ingot. In his hand was nothing but a lump of molten metal, a grotesque mass of gold, lead, brass, copper, iron and glass! diamond twinkled. But the judge’s lamentations went un- heard. Having picked the bandit clean, the vultures had gone on to new fields. An ex- haustive search was now being made fot Margery Corbin. The party broke up into Eroups. They went a mile up the cafon; they looked behind rocks. In their avid quest for the greatest prize of all, they left, SO to speak, no stone unturned. Once, as his eyes wandered over the rain- drenched landscape, Julius Yost’s glance hesitated at the steel ladder leading to the top of the standpipe. Could she have climbed to the top of the tank and jumped in? But he dismissed this idea at once. Somewhere jn these hills she was hiding, and he would remain until he found her. After poking about among bowlders and Cactus for an hour or more, the mob lost interest arid gave up the search. _ We ain’t gone through Friday Pepper vit!” Black Dan McGillicuddy suddenly "ecalled. “ He’s got all the money on him Here and there a. $09 he blackmailed out of us during th’ great water famine. He’s got well onto five thou- sand bucks o’ Yumpa money in his pock- ets!” ‘ And that preposterous document!” Mrs. Yost exclaimed. ‘It clears that girl of her criminal part in the stage coach robbery. And she must be brought to justice!” In haste the mob returned to Yumpa. The return became a race. Who would be the first man to plunge his hands into Friday Pepper's richly-lined pockets? Karl the Killer, mounted on a long- legged, big chested chestnut, was the first to reach the laundry of Wun Lung Low, where the corpse of the old mountaineer had been left. Karl the Killer dismounted and fairly threw bimself through the door- way. The others came galloping up as the Kill- er staggered from the laundry to the street, white and shaking with terror. “He ain’t thar!” he croaked. “ Whut!” a hundred voices roared. “ He’s gone!” a CHAPTER XXXVIII. REUNITED. OON after the departure of his enemies from Yumpa, Friday Pepper had opened his eyes and sat up. “Where am I?” he whimpered; but the only answer was the pelting of the rain on the roof of Wun Lung Low’s laundry. Pres- ently hisemind took up its functioning; he recalled the sounds of lightning snapping and crackling in the telephone receiver and realized that some electrical discharge, larg- er than its fellows, must have dealt him a shock sufficiently powerful to render him senseless, He rang the water tower, but there was no response. Accurately he surmised that Red Wilpin must have been dealt with sim- ilarly. Wondering why Yumpa was s0 quiet, he went out into the rain-swept street, to find it deserted. Even his own horse was gone. With staggering steps he crossed to the ruins of Hell’s Delight. He was cold and chilled and still somewhat dazed and he was sorely in need of a bracer. GOMIGDOOo C SS Co