The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 216: what you’re looking at

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

686 glance she darted him was of great thanks, The heavy face went a dull red with rage. “ Match-stick of a man!” he growled; and he finished it with some- thing in his own langhage, the very sound of which seemed to have a curi- ous tightening effect on the whole in- side of Charlie Jayson. He didn’t give an inch as the bullet head was thrust forward, the huge arms doubled threateningly. Charlie’s fists, puny beside those of the strong man who posed with two- hundred-pound cannon-balls as the final curtain dropped, doubled defens- ively. The girl cowered against the drop with a low cry of fright. “Tl br-reak you like the stick you are!” The big arm raised— Then a catapulted brown ball of hate and new-born viciousness leaped through the air, an eery, animal snarl and the claws and the sharp teeth of Socrates buried themselves in the wide, bared shoulder. . The very momentum of that leap seemed to stagger the big man, and a deep growl, even more animal-like than the monkey’s snarl had been, rumbled from the deep chest. “Soc!” cried Charlie Jayson in sudden fear. ‘The monkey’s danger had driven all other thoughts from his mind. ‘The animal had leaped at the enemy of his master and the girl wha had shaken his hand so gravely with- out idea of fear or bulk or danger, - But Charlie Jayson’s heart stood still, and for silent seconds he could not move a muscle. The enemy shook himself as a buck might try to throw off the clinging ~ catamount; then his growl of anger become low-toned words of fury. He-twisted around, a sweep of his huge hand and arm and the monkey was hurled from him, shivering the whole drop as he struck the giving canvas before he fell at the girl’s feet, chattering and moaning with the peculiar babylike sounds of his kind. -The man whirled, a foot upraised to THE ARGOSY. finish the work his hand seemed to have begun so well. But Charlie Jay- son came to life then. <A red curtain seemed to have dropped before his eyes so that its flaming crimson filled the whole world.’ The brute had hurt Socrates! It didn’t matter that the man before him was billed as the strongest man in the world! It made no difference that Charlie Jayson weighed a hundred and forty with his clothes on! There was no thought that the bul- ging muscles which could bend an inch bar of iron over a knee could break his back like a rotten stick. The strong man had hurt his monkey! - For an instant Charlie Jayson bal- anced on the balls of his feet! Then he shot forward; a hundred and -forty pounds of nerve and venom, a taut- corded bunch of determined vengeance. And two hundred and forty pounds of steel-thewed bulk gave way before him. . “Darn you!” gritted Charlie Jay- son, with all the pent-up viciousness the man’s attitude to the girl had start- ed and his hurting of Socrates had finished. There was death in the steel-gray eyes of Charlie—death that glinted and glowed with its fire. There was murder in his clenched fists and his set teeth that made the jaw muscles stand out in ridges over the bones. Perhaps the strong man had seen death in other eyes before in his coun- try of vendetta and slashing knives. Perhaps it had missed him by inches and the fear had never left him. Or perhaps it was because he was only an overdeveloped bunch of muscles that covered a yellow core, but he never thought of the “ match- stick’ of a man who leaped toward him, or of the steel cables of muscles that played under his own skin. He only thought of death as it darted from the gray eyes of Charlie Jayson. He fell back, his jaw dropping ta make his cry of fright but a mumble. COMicdoo S CO@